Help! Broody may have abandoned 8 one-day-old chicks!!

[Chickens4Life101]

So if you saw my last thread you would've known leah was hatching eggs. They hatched yesterday. Today at 12:45 we noticed she was standing outside her box, still puffy and looking and them. She is still there now. Did she abandon them? We have been handling them, could that result in her leaving her chicks? What do I do??

 

[Morrigan]

Is she hissing at them and trying to drive them away?

If not, she may just be trying to encourage them to leave the nest so she can show them around the coop and to food and water.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Is she allowing them near her? Is she pecking them?

You may want to just have a place with a neat lamp available just in case something would happen now, or in the future.

 

[Chickens4Life101]

Is she allowing them near her? Is she pecking them?

You may want to just have a place with a neat lamp available just in case something would happen now, or in the future.

They cannot jump over the nesting box ledge to reach her, but earlier we put a couple with her and she was fine and didn't peck them.

 

[Chickens4Life101]

Is she hissing at them and trying to drive them away?

If not, she may just be trying to encourage them to leave the nest so she can show them around the coop and to food and water.

She is not hissing at them. We led them around the coop already and they know where food and water is. It is also very hot out so it there a possibility that she is only trying to prevent them and herself from overheating? There nesting box is quite warm and cramped

 

[Miss Lydia]

Do you have any other place you can put mama and her chicks so they won’t be so crowded and over heat?

 

[arrowti]

Once they hatched our hen wanted nothing more than to get the chicks out of the nest and outside the coop. Most likely she's trying to call them out of the nesting box and is waiting for them to jump out. If you have a place to put them where the chicks don't have trouble following mama it might be best. Usually by a week old they can jump up good.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

They cannot jump over the nesting box ledge to reach her, but earlier we put a couple with her and she was fine and didn't peck them.

She probably wants to get out, and take them with her. So I suggest moving her and her chicks to a secure place from the other chickens, were the chicks can follow her around.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I actually use our small very first chicken coop for hatching and this gives mama and babies plenty of room and everyone comes by during the day for very visiting hrs. I do realize not everyone has been hit with chicken math fever and doesn’t have multiple coops yet but just give yourself time you will

 

[Chickens4Life101]

Not

Do you have any other place you can put mama and her chicks so they won’t be so crowded and over heat?

Not a place that is safe from predators