How long will chicks stay with Hen?

[Mrs.Puff]

I have a banty cochin/d'uccle broody due to have 7 chicks in a few days. She's in a small dog kennel, which is inside a wire pen about 2.5x5ft, with bedding. How long after the chicks hatch will she want to stay with them? How long til I can let them out to wander with mom? Also, her kennel door is open, but the hen doesn't want to come out to get a drink. I've had no problem getting her to pop out to drink, eat, and poo when I had the kennel in the coop, but now that she's in the new cage, she just has a fit when I take her out of the kennel and runs right back in. She hasn't pood or had a drink in 2 days. The eggs are due May 3rd.

 

[Pupsnpullets]

I'm not sure I'll be much help but with my little girl and her new babies I just let her be. If she's gone out to drink and stretch her legs occasionally I think you can trust her judgement with these last couple of days.

When mine hatched I found after about 36 hours after the first one arrived the little guys were getting antsy and came out looking for food and water which activated momma hen to leave the nest and take over babysitting. Any eggs left in the nest I disposed of (I was VERY tempted to dispose of then in the yard of someone I was having issues with, but I eventually chose the high road).

Barb

 

[MissPrissy]

Mrs.Puff :

How long after the chicks hatch will she want to stay with them?

About 5 - 6 weeks after hatch her mothering instinct turns off and they suddenly are just other chickens and not her babies.

Mrs.Puff :

How long til I can let them out to wander with mom?

Leave the chicks with her when they hatch. She will tend them, keep them warm, teach them to drink and eat. They will come when she calls and you won't need to do anything for them. She will incorpate them into the flock and things will follow a natural course. It really is best not to interfere with the natural process.

Mrs.Puff :

Also, her kennel door is open, but the hen doesn't want to come out to get a drink. I've had no problem getting her to pop out to drink, eat, and poo when I had the kennel in the coop, but now that she's in the new cage, she just has a fit when I take her out of the kennel and runs right back in. She hasn't pood or had a drink in 2 days. The eggs are due May 3rd.

You can put food and water very close to her but she probably won't take it now. She is at the very end of this hatch and her job is to sit tight and not leave those eggs. These last days are super important for the high humidity needed for her to hatch them. Leave her be and don't take her off her eggs. She will get up when she finishes the hatch.

A broody hen can be a very good thing.

Good luck with your broody and potential chicks.​

 

[GwenFarms]

I wait until mine are a couple of weeks old before they can free range. I have one mean mama on the yard right now and she and her chicks have been free ranging for about four weeks. Her babies are going on six weeks and we haven't lost a single one to a predator. One did fall in the duck pond, bringing the number down to 14. She is teaching them to roost in the tree now and a rooster has been trying to entice her away, so i think they will seperate soon.

 

[Mrs.Puff]

Well, Mrs. Puff, my cochin/d'uccle, got off the nest after 5 eggs hatched, and left 2 sitting. I candled the remaining two, and one was dead, and the other very much still wiggling in there. So I put the last wiggler in my truck where it was warm, and that evening when the hen settled down I popped that egg back under her. Well, I now have 6 healthy peepers! My other hens come around the broody pen to investigate, and Mrs. Puff doesn't seem to mind much. My beagle is very interested, so I'm going to keep them in the pen for a while longer. The babies already eat baby chow and leaves, and they got a worm yesterday. Mommy kinda chews up the stuff for them and spits it back out in smaller bits. About half the chicks are booted! They're cute as could be.

 

[Rte.66_chicks]

Pics! We need pics! I think there's a rule somewhere that you can't talk about new chicks, especially with their mom, without including pics!

 

[Mrs.Puff]

I don't have any way to post pics! I'm a substitute teacher, and I can only use the computer when I'm at school since I don't have one at home. Plus we can't upload anything at school.

they are super cute chicks though. Three are booted and three not.