I hope the broody hatch goes Well!
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
She should be ok as long as you keep mother and baby completely separated for at least the first week (they will probably be ok staying in the nest box if you move the food and water dishes in there), and after that it's best to segregate them from the flock in a look but no touch set up until the mother weans the babies. I let my chicks and mother hens out to free range with the other chickens but do not let them mix when confined because the other hens will attack the babies.She is in between - the small amount of time she's off the nest lately she has been fluffed up and sort of maintaining a low growl while she pecks around... hoping she's not too low in the pecking order? Thank you SO much for all the wonderful advice - if you think of anything else to add, I'm all ears!
I have actually had better luck with mama and babies reintegrating when the babies are a week old or so. (I even had a hen last year that took her babies out in the flock at 24 hours old.) Mama's hormones will still be going strong at that point and she will fiercely defend them from the other chickens. I have not had any fights break out doing it this way. If you wait until the babies are weaned, they will have a harder time integrating into the flock because mama won't be there to protect them. When they're weaned, she's done with them. I used to wait until they were older, too, until I read about others just letting the mama integrate them when they're young. It hasn't mattered where the hen is in the pecking order. When she's in Mama Hen Mode, she can be fierce. The first year I tried this, the broody was killed, leaving four 5-week old orphans. They had already become part of the flock, knew their place and had no problems continuing to live with the flock without their mama. If I had tried to integrate them at that time, it would have been far more traumatic.She should be ok as long as you keep mother and baby completely separated for at least the first week (they will probably be ok staying in the nest box if you move the food and water dishes in there), and after that it's best to segregate them from the flock in a look but no touch set up until the mother weans the babies. I let my chicks and mother hens out to free range with the other chickens but do not let them mix when confined because the other hens will attack the babies.
Mama hen will be extra aggressive when with chicks and this can lead to unexpected fights with those lower than her in the pecking order.
I hope the broody hatch goes Well!
When are the eggs coming? If she's already been on the nest for over a week, she might give up on them when she reaches somewhere around the 3 week mark. Chickens can't count, but sometimes those hormones ebb and flow. I have had broodies that insist on being in the nest no matter how often I take them off, and then quit on their own at about 3 weeks. You might want to have an incubator available just in case.
Chickens have been hatching and raising chicks for centuries without human "help". Sometimes our helping is more of a hindrance. I am more of a hands-off chicken keeper, but I figure my hens' instinct is much stronger than my knowledge of how to be a chicken, so I let my broodies be.