Broody mom w/chicks won't let others in coop to lay

[Lisa202]

My broody just hatched 2 chicks 2 weeks ago. I had them in the coop with the others, but I had put a small cage around them to keep the others away. So the 3 of them were protected and un-bothered since hatching.

So today I took the cage away today to let mom and chicks mingle with the others. Mom is very protective, which is good, but she won't let any of the others chickens into the coop to lay. Even the other chicken who just started being broody (I haven't given her eggs yet) is not allowed to sit quietly in a nest box. Mom keeps chasing them all out.

What should I do?

And also, I know how to keep the little chicks from eating the big girls food, but how do I keep the big girls from eating their Medicated starter feed?

 

[danielle82]

can you give the mama andbabies a seperate area, just a temporary one till the babies are big that mama can relax a liitle and back off the other chickens? It might just be a week or two, and then you'd have the area for the your wannabe broody when her babies hatch?

 

[Lisa202]

Quote:
I could move them to the little coop, but I want to keep them with the rest of the chickens so that I don't have to integrate later. I read over and over, that people have let the babies mingle with the others as soon as 3 days and they don't have a problem. The other chickens all seemed to be fine with the chicks, they just wanted to sit a nest box, but she would physically go in there and kick them out.

I ended up putting them back into the little cage in the coop so the others could come in without being attacked. I know that they should work this out together, but I gave it the whole day and by the end of the day, the mom still hadn't calmed down at all.