How long to keep mom with her chicks?

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Wondering how long most people keep the chicks with the mom. i have a showgirl mom with her 13-week-old chicks that i moved into another pen with some young hens several weeks back. After some pecking, they all seem to be getting along okay. But i also have two other moms with 7-week-old babies and one with 9-week-old babies. They both seem pretty done with motherhood. i'm pondering putting the moms back into their old pens and merging the two chick groups.

i was just wondering what other people do, especially those who breed on a regular basis.

 

[sparkles2307]

I dont have any answers for you but hope someone does!

 

[sunket77]

I hope so too! Ours are in a brooder in the house and mom plus babies are a little much. Ours are only going on a week old but I am ready to momma and her smelly poop outside! She keeps stepping on her babies and trying to show them how to scratch and dust bathe and kicks them around. I may just have to put her out to give them more room.

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

with me I judge by how the hen acts, if she does the who cares thing I take the babies away, but Ive got a mama the still has her chicks they hatched in aug. and they still try to get under her. but generally if the hen starts to lay I take the babies away

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I usually leave mama in her own pen when she is broody. When she hatches out, the babies just stay with her in her regular pen. All of my mamas have been ferocious enough to keep the others away. At some point along the way mama will tire of motherhood and pretty much wean the babies on her own. (And by wean I mean will leave them to their own devices instead of mothering them.) I leave the babies in that pen until they are big enough to transition to whichever pen they are ultimately ending up in. I have "playpens" in the other coops for them to transition to for a few weeks until the others in that pen are used to them. So far this system has worked out great.

Mama and babies will all be fine outside. I had one hatch in the house when the temps were dropping down into the single digits. After two days of stinky broody poop I had had enough and moved the whole kit and kaboodle back outside. They were fine and thrived even though the temps were really low. When the babies got cold they dashed up under mama until they were warm again. It was pretty amazing.

Good luck with your babies!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

One of my moms is ferocious, but the other one, Juliet, is very docile. She's the one that seems to be itching to get away from her 7 kids. i tried putting her back into her old pen yesterday by herself. There are only bantam hens in that pen - her sister, two other silkies (one of whom is broody), a young bantam americauna, a teeny d'anver, and a lame MF D'Uccle. They all beat up on her (except for her sister). i just couldn't handle it. Now Juliet pretty much ignored them all, so happy to be outside. But when several ganged up on her, i pulled her out. i may need to try again, though. i can hear her over the baby monitor now, complaining from the shed that she wants out.