GRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Broody sat in wrong nest...how long...?

[dancingbear]

Ah well, sometimes you just have to shuffle the best you can, and cross your fingers. It's good to know you didn't do it on purpose, people do, all the time, and I always wonder what the heck they're thinking. Sounds like you took the only available road.

The mixing of the younger birds with the older should be that much of a problem. I let my 7 week old Delawares out with the rest not long ago, they're fine. Once in awhile they annoy an older bird, who will run at them, or peck one, and they all take off and go do something else. I have a new mom with 3 chicks, I never separated them from the flock at all. I usually let incubator chicks loose as soon as they're about pigeon size, and well feathered.

As long as they have plenty of space, they should be ok. Do you free range them? If you do, the older ones probably won't pay much attention to the new kids.

 

[ChooksChick]

Woooo Hooooo!!!

Last night DH and decided to take the kids to 'Up!' and we decided we'd get home in heavy dusk and that we'd be able to get the 3 'babies' into the area we fenced off in the big girls' coop before they freaked out too much. We've been free ranging them during the day and then putting them in an area we fenced off at night for about a week. Prior to that, we had been bringing them back in the house every night- oy!!

So, now we head off to the movie. It's dark enough to see poorly when we get back. I'm expecting the teenagers will have put themselves to bed in the banty shanty, and that the hens will be in the big coop, and that the 3 babies will be somewhere freaking out about not being guided somewhere.

They are on one of the highest roosts in the big coop, looking down at me.

Hooorayyyyyyy!!!

Now I just have to lock the teens out of the banty shanty and I'll have them all integrated!!

This is after a good 6 weeks of free-ranging together, but keeping clear of each other. It's funny to see the cliques getting closer to one another, but not really integrated.

Thanks for all the info on my broody- she's still camping out on the original nest site, so I guess moving her was a bad idea unless I'd have gone all the way and barricaded her in. Now I want to put her in the area I'd fenced in for the babies (that they don't need anymore...) but I'm afraid to bother her any more- I'm nervous about whether the other hens will mess with the chicks, though...

Opinions? Pull her out of her nest area and put her in the fenced in area? Leave her in there and let her work it out?

 

[dancingbear]

At this point I'd leave her alone, just check under her for new eggs to remove each day. When a hen is determined to sit in one spot, and freaks when you move her, it's better to leave her be. Just keep an eye on her when it's time for eggs to hatch, so if she leaves the nest before they all finish, you may be able to rescue the remaining eggs. If you don't have an incubator, you might try a heating pad on low, in a covered box. Cover the heat pad with an old towel or something you can either wash or throw out, when they're done. It's a long-shot, but if the eggs are a lost cause otherwise, you've got nothing to lose by trying it.

Even if they've gotten cold. My Dh threw out eggs left after the hen left the nest with babies. He put them in a box or bag or something, and set them in the big green garbage can, on top of the trash. It was a warm day, and the sun was shining on the garbage can. A while later, he was outside, and heard peeping in the garbage can. Those eggs had hatched. He rescued them, and later they got put under mom at night, and were fine.

 

[Smithx9]

I have a number of chickens...1 Buff, 8 RI's, some Black Star, 1 Aracauna, and some Heinze 57....of all those I have 6 that have gone Broody...

I have 5 hens that have gone broody at the same time.....occasionally one or two will get out for a bit...would you believe that my other hens will go sit for a bit on the eggs? Then when the broody hens come back...the other girls go on about their business...

Those same 5 broody hens traded around nests and eggs untill they were satisfied with where they were....The first eggs have hatched....about a dozen....But my other girls gave their eggs to the Broodys, so I don't know when the others are due...the hens are still setting...

In another coop, one Black Star has decided she wanted to be a Mama..., I'm just waiting to see what happens...

Call me crazy...I also have about 50 eggs incubating....(this is my first time....found a Hovabator incubator from another chicken person, and my neighbor is hatching 2 dozen for me in her incubator...