How to manage two broody hens

[rmanney]

Hi friends!

I have a setup of two separate pens and runs—one for my cream legbars, and one for my whiting true blues and other breeds I cross with them. I also have a separate 3x6 brooder box.

I currently have one broody on eggs that should start hatching tomorrow in the brooder box, and I have another hen who has gone broody today in my WTB pen.

Here’s my question: how do you manage multiple broody hens? I have only hatched eggs under a broody once so I’m brand new. The few broody hens I’ve had never stay on the same nest when the hens start laying in other nesting boxes. They just move to a different nest, so that’s why I isolated them. But since the brooder is occupied…Anyone with experience, chime in on your methods!

 

[janiedoe]

Hi friends!

I have a setup of two separate pens and runs—one for my cream legbars, and one for my whiting true blues and other breeds I cross with them. I also have a separate 3x6 brooder box.

I currently have one broody on eggs that should start hatching tomorrow in the brooder box, and I have another hen who has gone broody today in my WTB pen.

Here’s my question: how do you manage multiple broody hens? I have only hatched eggs under a broody once so I’m brand new. The few broody hens I’ve had never stay on the same nest when the hens start laying in other nesting boxes. They just move to a different nest, so that’s why I isolated them. But since the brooder is occupied…Anyone with experience, chime in on your methods!

How long do you intend to keep mom and her chicks separated? I generally let mine start interacting with the flock as soon as the hatch is complete. By the 2nd or 3rd week, the hen has taken the chicks into the coop, in a nest, or even onto the roost.
If your hen does this, you'll be able to move the other mother and her eggs into the brooder. If not, you can use a dog kennel, screened around the bottom to keep the chicks in.
I've rarely had any conflict between broodies, or between a broody and the flock.
Good luck, and please ask if you have further questions.

 

[rmanney]

How long do you intend to keep mom and her chicks separated? I generally let mine start interacting with the flock as soon as the hatch is complete. By the 2nd or 3rd week, the hen has taken the chicks into the coop, in a nest, or even onto the roost.
If your hen does this, you'll be able to move the other mother and her eggs into the brooder. If not, you can use a dog kennel, screened around the bottom to keep the chicks in.
I've rarely had any conflict between broodies, or between a broody and the flock.
Good luck, and please ask if you have further questions.

Thank you for your response! Last hatch, I opened the door between the brooder and large pen after a week and it was another week before momma brought her chicks out. I’m thinking about moving broody #2 into an opposite corner with her eggs today and monitoring. They’re so intent on setting that maybe they won’t bother each other.

 

[janiedoe]

Thank you for your response! Last hatch, I opened the door between the brooder and large pen after a week and it was another week before momma brought her chicks out. I’m thinking about moving broody #2 into an opposite corner with her eggs today and monitoring. They’re so intent on setting that maybe they won’t bother each other.

I've had several hatch together. The only caution I can offer, is to be sure the chicks don't get hurt by the remaining brooding hen. Hopefully she won't even notice them, being so intent on her "job".

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know how you plan to manage that first broody or what your "brooder box" looks like. Are you going to let her raise her chicks with the flock or keep them isolated from the flock? How much room you have in your coops and especially runs can be important too. The more the better.

I have had a broody hen fight another for control of the eggs as they started to hatch. The second one went broody a couple of days before the first one's eggs started to internal pip. The chicks start chirping after internal pip and the second broody heard them and fought to take over the nest. About half the eggs were destroyed. That doesn't happen to a lot of people but it did to me. I'd personally keep them separated.

It appears you want the second one to hatch. It sounds like she has eggs under her. I'd mark a few of those and leave them under her as sacrificial eggs while collecting all that you want her to hatch. You don't have to start eggs under her for about another week, she should remain broody throughout the hatch. You should be able to wait until that other broody finishes to start her on her own eggs in that broody box.

This is not my preferred way, by the way. You've only had one experience trying to let a broody hatch with the flock, which did not work out. Mine always hatch with the flock and I almost never have those issues. You might try again and see how that goes. Mark the eggs so you know which belong.

If you want to isolate her I suggest you build a second broody box. Move that hen there and make sure she has accepted the move (use her sacrificial eggs for the move) before you give her fresh eggs to start incubating. That way you know all of them were started at the same time so you don't have any of those nasty staggered hatch issues. To me this is the cleanest way.

 

[mcdze]

if theres a problem or its too much for your setup, ive put a broody in an isolation pen, outside the coop for a week, and it breaks them out of the broody cycle ..

 

[Punkyrooster16]

How long do you intend to keep mom and her chicks separated? I generally let mine start interacting with the flock as soon as the hatch is complete. By the 2nd or 3rd week, the hen has taken the chicks into the coop, in a nest, or even onto the roost.
If your hen does this, you'll be able to move the other mother and her eggs into the brooder. If not, you can use a dog kennel, screened around the bottom to keep the chicks in.
I've rarely had any conflict between broodies, or between a broody and the flock.
Good luck, and please ask if you have further questions.

I’ve had pretty big conflict with broodies. My one main broody is docile as can be (her chicks get so used to us that when she stops mothering they, they’ll fly on our shoulders if they want protection).

But one time another hen went broody and if either of their respective chicks went near the other clutch, all bets were off. The funny thing was, if they didn’t “belong” to broody #2 she absolutely would have adopted them.

Instead we had to completely separate them because it was just too dangerous - I ended up putting hardware cloth down the middle of the brooder and some garden fabric / a box in front of it so they couldn’t see each other. After that we try to limit one broody at a time to raise chicks. The adults learn the rules quickly but a newly hatched chick from a different mama doesn’t know any better.

All said though, I’ve read TONS of happy co-parenting stories, so far be it to say OP’s will be like mine. I truly believe every hen is different and every henhouse has its own mini-culture. Main broody once adopted 5 week old chicks after we lost their mama hen (), raised them til they were bigger than she was, and then somehow recruited one of our low-ranking roosters to take over the duty of “keeping them warm” at night. They were at least 3 months old, larger than our bantams, snuggling into a rooster every night oh, and it was summer

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi friends!

I have a setup of two separate pens and runs—one for my cream legbars, and one for my whiting true blues and other breeds I cross with them. I also have a separate 3x6 brooder box.

I currently have one broody on eggs that should start hatching tomorrow in the brooder box, and I have another hen who has gone broody today in my WTB pen.

Here’s my question: how do you manage multiple broody hens? I have only hatched eggs under a broody once so I’m brand new. The few broody hens I’ve had never stay on the same nest when the hens start laying in other nesting boxes. They just move to a different nest, so that’s why I isolated them. But since the brooder is occupied…Anyone with experience, chime in on your methods!

I've always just let the mom and her chicks stay with the rest of the flock. Once another broody mom thought those chicks should be hers too so that clutch of chicks had two moms. But I leave them all together as the mom or moms make sure no other chicken comes near them and the rest all seem to know to stay away.

 

[sqatkins]

How long do you intend to keep mom and her chicks separated? I generally let mine start interacting with the flock as soon as the hatch is complete. By the 2nd or 3rd week, the hen has taken the chicks into the coop, in a nest, or even onto the roost.
If your hen does this, you'll be able to move the other mother and her eggs into the brooder. If not, you can use a dog kennel, screened around the bottom to keep the chicks in.
I've rarely had any conflict between broodies, or between a broody and the flock.
Good luck, and please ask if you have further questions.

I'm in a similar position. I had a broody hen who hatched just one chick, and I only know it hatched because I found its dead body in the chicken run. One of the other hens apparently killed it. So, it seems I should isolate my broody hen in the future, yes? If so, how do I know when it is safe for her to introduce her chicks to the flock?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm in a similar position. I had a broody hen who hatched just one chick, and I only know it hatched because I found its dead body in the chicken run. One of the other hens apparently killed it. So, it seems I should isolate my broody hen in the future, yes? If so, how do I know when it is safe for her to introduce her chicks to the flock?

How do you know one of the other hens killed it? It's certainly possible. I had a broody hen kill her own chicks but that was in the nest. For some reason she killed two and raised the other 6 chicks fine. I have had other chickens threaten chicks but my broody hens have never failed to protect their chicks from other chickens if they could. Others have had wimp broody hens that did not protect their chicks. How much room do you have. A broody typically keeps her chicks away from the other chickens, if they are shoehorned in a small run it makes it harder for a broody to do her job.

One time a chick got in a pen with a bunch of 8 week olds but the broody could not get into that pen to protect it. Those 8 week olds killed it. Is it possible the chick got separated from the broody and the other chickens could get to it? Is it possible something else killed the chick and was frightened away before it could eat it? It's rare but it is possible the chick had some type of freak accident. Or it may have been hatched with a birth defect like a bad heart and just died.

I don't know what your facilities look like, your flock make-up, how you manage them, or any other details about your set-up. I obviously don't know what happened to that chick. Even if I were there to see for myself I probably would not know.

Then the impossible question to answer. When is it safe for one of your broody hens to introduce her chicks to the flock? I don't know. I do it all of the time and other than a freak accident it has never been a problem. No matter what you do there will always be some risk.