First time with Brooding Hen

cmullet

Chirping
16 Years
Nov 11, 2008
23
10
87
My smallest hen Brownie is laying on 4 eggs! Were so excited but this is a first for us. I have 2 attentive friendly roosters (well, they never challenge me in the pen and I do not fear them at all) I have 4 other hens as well. I marked the 4 eggs with a crayon so I would know any other eggs that appeared under her were new and I am removing them to eat. question, do I need to separate her and the 4 eggs?? or can I just let them hatch with everyone in the same pen?? I am seeing conflicting info. Preferably would like to keep everyone together but I can section off a part of the pen. they don't free range and we have too many hawks (learned the hard way) when Brownie was younger she couldn't walk for about 2 months and I gave her a dropper of steroid 2x a day and exercised her feet and one day I checked on her and she had broke thru the barrier I had in the pen separating her and was standing in the middle of everyone! she is smaller and a little squatty compared to the rest but no one picks on her.
advice???? today is day 6 of her nesting on them. want to do right by her as she is my special one!
 
Mine is broody right now too. She is on day 4 of laying on 6 eggs. I am curious also as my hen is in the highest nest she could get too. And we have 24 other hens and a rooster. They are all free range. But these babies I am hatching for a friend as where we live it is hard to get babies this year. I stood in line for 1 hr and 15 mins just to have them sold out before I got to the front of the line. I got the last 2 ducklings they had just got in an hour before they started selling. So I am trying ti incubate 4 and let the hen hatch 6.
 

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