Okay, I want to start by saying that I don't have a lot of experience with brooding hens problem. I have a hen that is THE mother hen; she was not even 3 weeks old and she was already spreading her wings with the younger ones (I didn't had a mother hen at this time so they were all under the light) and get to brood multiple times in the year, is very gentle with everybody. No matter when and how we are giving her chicks and no matter their age and where they are coming from, she accept all of them so calmly and lovingly. She is also VERY nice with us; she let us take the babies under her without blinking and never pecked on us. The perfect mother; the dream!
Now this year, a couple days after this one start brooding, another one started to do it also in another spot of the coop. Since everybody was getting along and the weather was warm, I decided to let them there and gave her both some eggs. They looked very happy and both took their job seriously. But around day 10, another one, my orpington, decided to brood but on the same nest as my "perfect mommy". I was not too sure about it, tried to find information and since they were all looking to get along and that it gave a bit more liberty to my "perfect mommy" to go eat and drink, I thought that it would be okay. At least for the brooding time.
When the hatching time came, I tried to move them but this where bad stuff happened. Without going in too much description, let me just say that my orpington is a very bad mother and she killed 2 chicks but is still brooding (she doesn't seems to understand that the eggs actually hatched and that she killed them) and my other one is not mean but when I moved her, so the orpington won't kill her baby too, she is starting to panic, leave her babies and try to go back on her nest.
So for now, I have my "perfect mommy" isolated and I'm giving her all the chicks and the two other one are back on their nest brooding not realizing they killed/abandonned their chicks. Now my question is, if a brooding hen will stop brooding only when she will get her chicks, what am I gonna do with them since they are bad mother? It seems that they are stucked in the brooding phase and cannot go out of it.
Now this year, a couple days after this one start brooding, another one started to do it also in another spot of the coop. Since everybody was getting along and the weather was warm, I decided to let them there and gave her both some eggs. They looked very happy and both took their job seriously. But around day 10, another one, my orpington, decided to brood but on the same nest as my "perfect mommy". I was not too sure about it, tried to find information and since they were all looking to get along and that it gave a bit more liberty to my "perfect mommy" to go eat and drink, I thought that it would be okay. At least for the brooding time.
When the hatching time came, I tried to move them but this where bad stuff happened. Without going in too much description, let me just say that my orpington is a very bad mother and she killed 2 chicks but is still brooding (she doesn't seems to understand that the eggs actually hatched and that she killed them) and my other one is not mean but when I moved her, so the orpington won't kill her baby too, she is starting to panic, leave her babies and try to go back on her nest.
So for now, I have my "perfect mommy" isolated and I'm giving her all the chicks and the two other one are back on their nest brooding not realizing they killed/abandonned their chicks. Now my question is, if a brooding hen will stop brooding only when she will get her chicks, what am I gonna do with them since they are bad mother? It seems that they are stucked in the brooding phase and cannot go out of it.
