Do you leave broody hens in the coop or separate?

[jlholm]

I have 2 hens that have suddenly gone broody at the same time. Since I don’t have a rooster, I’m debating buying fertilized eggs to put under them. My question is, can I leave them with the eggs in the main coop with the other hens, or do I need to separate them? I was hoping that since there are two, they could stay in and raise the chicks together without much interference from the others. Since I do have to travel a couple of times this summer, it would definitely be easier for me than trying to take care of them separately, but I’ve only had one hen hatch eggs before and I did separate her. But she really wanted back in with the other hens after about 3 weeks and just kind of ignored the chicks after that.

 

[chickens really]

I separate till Chicks are hatched and about 3 to 5 days old. I wouldn't have two Hens setting together..
Then introduce to the flock. Some hens wean Chicks early and some always mother a bit longer.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

I had two go broody this spring. One was the top hen and the other was close to the bottom of the pecking order. Goldie, the alpha hen, successfully hatched out and is raising six chicks. Blue, the lower ranked hen, was chased off her eggs and finally gave up after a couple of weeks.

If I do it again, I’ll build the broody her own nest box in the quietest corner of the coop and see what happens. I only have twelve hens (plus the six chicklets) and a roo. They all get along fairly well, but were competing for nest box space.

Is a LOT easier to have Momma raising the chicklets. And, since she’s comfortable having me around and touching her, she’s not at all hinky about me touching the chicks. My only concern was what to do about feed, but the advice from here was just to feed everyone the chick starter. Worked out well as all the older hens wanted to eat the chick starter anyway!

Whatever you decide, good luck and please post lots of pics!

 

[Perris]

I keep mine with the flock, but I've only had sequential, not simultaneous, at least during the sitting stage (my current two hatched 4 weeks apart).
Some posters on BYC have been successful with multiple broodies, with birds even co-parenting, but others have had trouble. You'll have to decide on the basis of your birds' positions and personalities. It's definitely easier if they are higher in the pecking order.

 

[Th55]

I had to separate mine for the simple reason to keep others from adding eggs to her stash at different dates.

I let her go a couple days at the beginning until I saw it got to where she couldn’t cover them all. She is a small hen so I moved her into a separate pen and let her hatch most of them.

 

[jlholm]

I had two go broody this spring. One was the top hen and the other was close to the bottom of the pecking order. Goldie, the alpha hen, successfully hatched out and is raising six chicks. Blue, the lower ranked hen, was chased off her eggs and finally gave up after a couple of weeks.

If I do it again, I’ll build the broody her own nest box in the quietest corner of the coop and see what happens. I only have twelve hens (plus the six chicklets) and a roo. They all get along fairly well, but were competing for nest box space.

Is a LOT easier to have Momma raising the chicklets. And, since she’s comfortable having me around and touching her, she’s not at all hinky about me touching the chicks. My only concern was what to do about feed, but the advice from here was just to feed everyone the chick starter. Worked out well as all the older hens wanted to eat the chick starter anyway!

Whatever you decide, good luck and please post lots of pics!

View attachment 1823605 View attachment 1823606 View attachment 1823610

Beautiful! I still haven’t decided. I was kind of hoping they would give up, but they have not and now I have 3 trying to be broody! Since I only have 20 hens to start with, the nest boxes are filling up with broody hens instead of eggs.

 

[jlholm]

Well, I still haven’t given them fertil eggs and have been chasing them off the nest every afternoon, but they still haven’t given up and now there are 3 broody hens filling the nest boxes! They sit there on the nest even with no eggs under them. I’m about to give up and give them, or at least one of them, eggs, but I definitely don’t have the space to separate three broody hens.

 

[2 many chickens]

I keep mine with the flock but separated. They have their own little area.
I will also never allow broodies to brood together again. Last time I allowed this one mother would kill the other mothers babies and so forth. It was a mess.

 

[jlholm]

I keep mine with the flock but separated. They have their own little area.
I will also never allow broodies to brood together again. Last time I allowed this one mother would kill the other mothers babies and so forth. It was a mess.

Thanks! That would be awful!

 

[Shadrach]

There are unsurprisingly lots of variables.
The various tribes free range here and have multiple coops and other nest sites to choose from.
I prefer hens to sit and hatch in their tribe coop. It makes integration so much easier and the chicks hatched with the rest of their tribe around them tend to learn faster and have a better survival rate.
Problems can and do arrive when a junior hens tries to sit and hatch in the tribes coop.
Some senior hens will drive the junior hens off her eggs. This isn't because the senior hen is just plain horrid, it's because as senior hen she has demonstrated her ability to get to be the senior hen and in chicken thinking it's her genes that should go forward; not some unproven juniors.
Mostly here the junior hens will try to sit and hatch away from the others because she knows she is junior.
I try to ensure that the senior hens are the hens that sit and hatch if possible. I want if possible her genes to go forward as well.
I rarely let pullets sit at all.
So, if she is as you write a junior hen then it may be best to separate her. Unless you are desperate for chicks I wouldn't let her sit at all and would wait for a senior broody.