chicksandchores
Songster
LONG POST ALERT!! Alright, here goes!
The backstory:
I purchased my first chicks a year ago on the 18th of March. Six months later, at the end of September, one of the buff orpington pullets I had went broody. She sat dutifully through more than a month (naturally I had to confirm she was broody and then the process of setting the eggs I wanted under her took me three days), and because it was the first clutch I had ever hatched, 16 of the 18 eggs were lost due to breakage (I didn't move her from the regular laying nest boxes in the coop), rats, infertility, quitters, and one failure to absorb the yolk sac and finish hatching despite having pipped externally. She was a relatively good, albeit not very feisty or protective, mother; she made sure that her two chicks (bought black copper marans eggs) were warm and got all the yummy things she found, and would even stand up to the roosters for them from time to time. They hatched in October; they were unfortunately snatched by a hawk in I believe January. She was in the process of "kicking them out," and was very obviously traumatized for a while by the loss of her babies. She went back into lay sometime late January or early February, and towards the middle of February I found her sitting diligently on a nest for three consecutive days. I purchased more hatching eggs of a breed I would love to have on Valentine's day and sat her that night on a separate box with 15 eggs; a dozen Lavender Ameraucana and three of our barnyard mixes. The problem was, she was too close to her old nest and because she was constantly stressed about abandoning that nest it pushed her to abandon the new nest, which was of course a total loss. She went back into lay the day before I gave up on her hatching those eggs and that's when I knew she was truly done.
All this being said, it's time for the real question!
I have 2 black and one blue copper marans chicks that are fully fledged and living with the flock but are nearing the age her two were when she lost them. I am also brooding 25 chicks of assorted breeds outdoors in an xl wire dog crate that I keep a heat lamp in and keep covered at night or during inclement weather. Sometime in the middle of last week I began leaving the door to the crate open, but blocked enough that my larger guys and gals couldn't get in, so the month old babies could roam and get used to the bigger chickens being around them. Over the past couple of days, I have noticed my BO mama growling at other hens and both of my roos if any of them come close to her or try to tread her, and she's puffing out all her feathers and getting into her defensive stance she did when off the nest or when with her chicks. She's not setting, she's not even offered to stay on the nest overnight. She wants absolutely nothing to do with the babies from what I can tell. I'm at a loss as to what could be going on!
The backstory:
I purchased my first chicks a year ago on the 18th of March. Six months later, at the end of September, one of the buff orpington pullets I had went broody. She sat dutifully through more than a month (naturally I had to confirm she was broody and then the process of setting the eggs I wanted under her took me three days), and because it was the first clutch I had ever hatched, 16 of the 18 eggs were lost due to breakage (I didn't move her from the regular laying nest boxes in the coop), rats, infertility, quitters, and one failure to absorb the yolk sac and finish hatching despite having pipped externally. She was a relatively good, albeit not very feisty or protective, mother; she made sure that her two chicks (bought black copper marans eggs) were warm and got all the yummy things she found, and would even stand up to the roosters for them from time to time. They hatched in October; they were unfortunately snatched by a hawk in I believe January. She was in the process of "kicking them out," and was very obviously traumatized for a while by the loss of her babies. She went back into lay sometime late January or early February, and towards the middle of February I found her sitting diligently on a nest for three consecutive days. I purchased more hatching eggs of a breed I would love to have on Valentine's day and sat her that night on a separate box with 15 eggs; a dozen Lavender Ameraucana and three of our barnyard mixes. The problem was, she was too close to her old nest and because she was constantly stressed about abandoning that nest it pushed her to abandon the new nest, which was of course a total loss. She went back into lay the day before I gave up on her hatching those eggs and that's when I knew she was truly done.
All this being said, it's time for the real question!
I have 2 black and one blue copper marans chicks that are fully fledged and living with the flock but are nearing the age her two were when she lost them. I am also brooding 25 chicks of assorted breeds outdoors in an xl wire dog crate that I keep a heat lamp in and keep covered at night or during inclement weather. Sometime in the middle of last week I began leaving the door to the crate open, but blocked enough that my larger guys and gals couldn't get in, so the month old babies could roam and get used to the bigger chickens being around them. Over the past couple of days, I have noticed my BO mama growling at other hens and both of my roos if any of them come close to her or try to tread her, and she's puffing out all her feathers and getting into her defensive stance she did when off the nest or when with her chicks. She's not setting, she's not even offered to stay on the nest overnight. She wants absolutely nothing to do with the babies from what I can tell. I'm at a loss as to what could be going on!
