Help with baby chicks

[patnewtochickens]

Wondering if someone could give me advice. I have 2 mama hens that shared the same clutch of eggs, they hatched 5 chicks, unfortunately on day 5 we found one of the chicks dead, someone told us to seperate the hens and so we did with a center hardware cloth. We gave each hen 2 chicks. Our coop is now devided in 3 sections so that all flock mates, mama's and chicks can see each other and communicate with one another trough the mesh. The chicks are 4 weeks old yesterday and one of the mama's laid an egg and was stressed and wanted out so I let her out. I removed the center wall and the other mama is now taking care of all chicks. The problem is that the mama hen that is laying eggs is constantly at the mesh watching her babies and still being protective. When I open the door to feed or water or clean, she jumps in and stays in there for a while and then wants back out. Should I keep letting her back in or should I let the chicks out and introduce them to the flock mates, I'm worried that if I do that and she is more concerned with laying eggs than protecting her chicks from the 3 flock mates we could have a disaster. I'm thinking, maybe I could release the other mama and her chicks out as well but she should be close to laying eggs again as well. I don't know what to do. It's sad to watch mama and her chicks separated.

 

[NatJ]

I would probably pick a time when you can watch them, and try releasing both mamas and all the chicks.

The hen might protect her chicks from the other hens even though she has started laying eggs again, and the other hens might not bother the chicks anyway.

Chickens do weird things sometimes. I have seen a hen lay an egg, with one or more of her chicks sitting in the nestbox beside her. I've even seen one time that a half-grown pullet was sitting in the nestbox beside "mama" who had gone broody again!

 

[patnewtochickens]

I would probably pick a time when you can watch them, and try releasing both mamas and all the chicks.

The hen might protect her chicks from the other hens even though she has started laying eggs again, and the other hens might not bother the chicks anyway.

Chickens do weird things sometimes. I have seen a hen lay an egg, with one or more of her chicks sitting in the nestbox beside her. I've even seen one time that a half-grown pullet was sitting in the nestbox beside "mama" who had gone broody again!

Than you so much for the advice. Oh really! I released them all this afternoon in the coop as I was cleaning it and could keep my eyes on things. I was surprised to see the babies climbing the roost all the way to the top and settled in with the flock mates, one of the mama's was there but 2 hens over. No flock mates paid any attention to the baby at all. I think tomorrow I will let them go out and Spend some time with the whole family in the yard see how they make out. My only concern is that my yard is fenced in but with 1 inch holes not 1/4 inch like the run the chicks have , but I will be there to watch and keep my eyes out. I really think it's the best solution if I want the man's to give them any sort of protection against the flock mates. They are both still very protective of them even with us the humans. I tried to pick one up and got pecked at. Lol. I will keep them in their seperate section of the coop at night though just to be safe. fingers crossed!