I'm curious everything I've read so far says ch icks have to be introduced slowly and carefully to a flock. My question is what happens if a broody h e n hatches e g gs. how do they manage to keep the other flock members from trying to kill the babies. Do you take mother and babies out of the coop or does she manage well on her own. How about biosecurity how do babies stay healthy if left with the h en. Trying to figure this all out
Hen should be penned alone to hatch and raise chicks. She will defend them until about 6-8 weeks, then she loses interrest and gets ready to lay again.........Pop
This web site is how one lady handles broody hens and chicks. You notice she has lots of room. http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/broody-hens-1.html Mama will do eveything in her power to protect her babies and she can do a pretty good job of it if she has the room. If the run and coop are too small for her to get a little room between her and the rest of the flock, she has a little harder time of it. And it will depend upon the personality of the hens some. Mama will severely reprimand the first hen that dares threaten her babies and that usually settles the problem. But if the chicks are so close they constantly present temptation to the other hens, bad things can happen. If Mama raises the chicks with the flock, the other chickens are familiar with them. There are still some pecking order issues when they graduate from being protected by Mama, but these issues are usually minor. The chicks raised by Mama with the rest of the flock are almost always healthier than chicks raised in a brooder. They don't actually have to mix with the flock. They need to feed on ground the flock has used recently. Each flock has coccidiosis. If the chicks ingest small amounts of the protazoa that causes cocci, they build up an immunity to it. The cocci protazoa live in the intestines and are passed inthe droppings. The first week is most important according to the university/extension web sites I've visited.
