Chicke hatching as I type

[denimangle]

I have 2 hens that are hatching Right Now ... they are in the coop with the other hens & the roo should I wait till all eggs are hatched & them move them to theit own area or is it ok to let them all stay in their coop & hen house. we closed off the coop for the night.
thanks for any & all ideas

 

[QueenMisha]

It's always best to move broody hens to an area separate from the flock; I've seen hens scalped and chicks killed when they are not segregated. I would get an area or two set up (the hens may or may not be able to brood with each other depending on their individual personalities) and then move the hens, chicks, and any unhatched eggs as soon as you can.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I have 2 hens that are hatching Right Now ... they are in the coop with the other hens & the roo should I wait till all eggs are hatched & them move them to theit own area or is it ok to let them all stay in their coop & hen house. we closed off the coop for the night.
thanks for any & all ideas

People do it both ways. It all depends on your birds. I've only let 2 of my hens brood and they brooded right there in the open coop, and hatched in the coop. If I moved them and caged them, they refused to sit and would let the eggs go cold, moving them w/o caging them just resulted in them going back to the nest regardless of where their eggs were. If you can move them, and they will stay on their eggs, great. I tried moving mine at night, they settled right back down on the eggs, but by early morning they were up and pacing and let the eggs go cold. One of them I was able to put a cage in once they were pipped and she stayed on them, but the other let her pipped eggs go cold.
After hatch I opened her cage so she and the babies could come and go and they were just fine with all the other chickens.

 

[marlene]

It really depends on your flock.
I tried to let a broody hatch in the main coop where all the hens reside and it didn't go too well. She was ok with all the hens and the hens with her and the chicks, but the head hen would try and scare her away and peck the chicks, and the broody would run off forgetting about the chicks for a few seconds, giving the others the opportunity to peck them.
I now move any broodies within the 1st week of brooding to a separate pen right next to the big girls, they can all see each other from day 1, which makes integration simple as the big girls have been seeing the broody and chicks from hatching.
At about 3 weeks I let them all free range together and don't have a problem.

 

[denimangle]

we closed off the coop & put food & water for the Chicks & Hens.

Our Chicken house guard dog ....lol


.

last count we still had 6 eggs not hatching (3 each) out of 22 between the 2 hens

 

[AmyLynn2374]

we closed off the coop & put food & water for the Chicks & Hens.

Our Chicken house guard dog ....lol


.

last count we still had 6 eggs not hatching (3 each) out of 22 between the 2 hens

 

[n8ivetxn]

I used broodies many times, to hatch eggs for me, I just let them do their thing in the coop with all the others....never had any problems. They were generally mean enough to fend for themselves!

But, I didn't like the other hens piling in on top and laying good eggs in there....so, on several occasions, at night I'd pick up the nest box and put it my chicken tractor. That always worked for me, I had French Marans and Salmon Favs.

Congratulations on your chicks!