Help with new mother hen please!

[Plumfig]

We had a hen go broody and her first three chicks hatched yesterday and today, we just let her stay in the nesting box and that’s where the chicks are hatching.

We remove the divider and added extra wood chips and chick food and water, this morning. Just now we checked on her, and her head was bloody and a whole bunch of her head feathers were in the water and the food, apparently some other hands have decided to come and pick on her. We don’t know what to do, should we move her and the chicks? It’s supposed to be freezing weather the next few days, and we don’t have anything set up. We would probably have to put her in a big Rubbermaid bin in the garage or something. I don’t know what to do, but we want to protect her and the chIckes from the other hens and a rooster. Although there are two or three hens that I suspect in particular.

Please help!

 

[pennyJo1960]

is there a place she can go the others can see her but not touch

 

[pennyJo1960]

She was protecting her chicks sorry it happened

 

[Plumfig]

Possibly, but it would not have weather protection. Last summer when we introduced a couple new chickens to the group, we separated them with a piece of fencing in the same coop for a few weeks. The problem is, as I mentioned no weatherproofing, and also the fencing we currently have the chicks could get through.

 

[Plumfig]

I could try to come up with some kind of weather protection, but I would need ideas.

Also, because of the bad weather for us the past couple weeks the coop is well overdue for a clean out. So we don’t actually have a clean spot available till sometime tomorrow. Unless of course we stick her in a separate been. Maybe we could put fencing across the nesting boxes? To keep the other big hands out, and not have to move the hen and chicks at all?

 

[Plumfig]

Sorry for the hand/hen typos, I’m using voice recognition, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get this done at the moment.

 

[bobbi-j]

Can you separate the suspects instead? When you say no weather protection, do you mean they would be out in the elements? Can you post pictures of your setup? Maybe we could help you figure something out.

 

[Plumfig]

Alright, I took a picture of the coop, trying to figure out how to post the pictures...

 

[Plumfig]

 

[Plumfig]

So the hen with chicks, Fluffnut is her name (she’s my 5-year old’s hen) is in the nesting box on the right side of the picture.

I was about to take a picture of her and how I had things set up in the nesting box for her, when my phone battery died. So I have to let it charge a few minutes before I can add any more pictures.

We do have a nearby second smaller coop, that has four Orpingtons and a Bantam. We thought about moving the offending aggressive hens to the Orpington coop, but they would probably get a bit beat up in there.