HELP! my broody desperately wants to join the rest of the flock.

[glucke]

her name is gundel and she is a production black from TSC and i raised her by hand. she is very tamed. the problem is that she has succesfully hatched 3 out of 4 ameraucana babies(and i´m very proud of her!) but she is not agressiv enough to protect them. the babies are now 10 days old and were born in the coop with the rest of the flock. my other hens(2 production reds, 1 white bantam silkie, and another production black) are pecking at the baby chicks and gundel agressively. I kept her in a dog crate for one week, then gave her a chance to introduce the babies but that went terribly wrong. the others were very nasty. so i put her and the baby chicks back in the crate. she didn´t like that at all and constantly pecked at it. so i fenced of a 4 by 4 area in the coop were the other chickens can´t get to her and the babies but still see them. i believe thats more humane since she can walk around and scratch etc.. I put them in there last night. this morning when i checked on my girls and the babies she was desperately running up and down the fence pecking at the wire and trying to get back with the rest of the flock. what can i do?
my town won´t allow me to freerange so my flock has a closed in outside area which is about 6 by 6 and directly attached to the coop. unfortunately gundel has no acces to the outside area. and its very cold already about 24 degrees.. any ideas what to do? thanks

 

[glucke]

nobody??? please i really need help with this. she seems so unsettled

 

[Tracy the chick]

Hi hun, have you tried putting one of the quieter chickens in with the mother & babies? It would be easier for her to go back to her flock with a companion... You could alternate chickens everyday with her.. Thats all i can think off hun.. Hope someone else has better idea.. Good luck, Tracy x

 

[jessicayarno]

I would seperate her and the babies from the flock for at least a month.. I fenced off an area and used an old dog house for shelter.... It's just too much for a new mama to constantly have to defend her babies, it sounds like she is just really stressed out.. I think you will be happier if you give them their own area for a while, she will probably settle right down..

 

[suzeqf]

She sounds like my Smores(banty) she was ready to join the flock when Grayson(banty/blue andy cross) was that age. I have a large metal dog kennel for my brooder and what i did was let Smores out for a while and made sure Grayson couldn't get out and no one could get in and this worked very well. I could leave her out for a while and with the crate being metal Grayson could see everyone and everyone could see him and now he's 9 weeks old and hasn't been picked on once and goes in and out of the crate and loves to roost next to my Amerucana Roo Apollo. I plan to do the same thing this spring with new arrivals the older ones being able to see and hear the little ones really helps a lot. I also agree with everyone that seperating them or putting them with the more docile hens until the chicks get older will help alot with the pecking.

 

[Ole rooster]

It's good you posted this. I just might help me a tad. I have one that gets off the nest long enough that the eggs cool down. She wants to get back out with the girls. But now they don't want her. I starting to wonder if this inconsistancy on her part will allow the eggs to hatch now? Maybe not, the pullet hadn't been laying 2 months when she went broody. Might be to young to know better.

But yours are already hatched.

 

[glucke]

Quote:
how long has she been sitting on the eggs? Gundel is young, too. only 7 month old and already started laying at 15 weeks old. she also went of the eggs at least twice a day and the eggs felt cold. i never believed they would hatch. i´d candle the eggs to see what´s going on. good luck!

 

[glucke]

Thanks everyone for your advice! i´ll try to keep her in that fenced of area for another month or so. she seems much more calm today. also my banty daisy is sitting in front of the fence most of the day now watching gundel and the babies. i wonder what she is telling her...

 

[glucke]

Quote:
how old was he when you let him out with the others? i tried the same thing yesterday but mama gundel wont leave her chicks alone...

 

[Silkie-lover33]

Quote:
What sort of chicken is your avatar??


Glucke: Hope hen and chicks do well