If a mother is raising chicks, when will she sart to lay again ?

[ELOISEtheCHICKEN]

Will she lay sooner is the chicks are taken away?

 

[MissPrissy]

You don't want to take her chicks away. Let her brood them and teach them what chickens need to know. She will teach the to eat (what and where), how to roost and all sorts of chicken knowledge they need. She will be done with them about 6 weeks and will get her act together and start laying soon after. It is to your benefit to let her naturally brood her chicks. Trying to force her along with egg laying won't work well.

 

[Hotwings]

I would leave the chicks with her. I love watching chicks interact with their mothers. When she weans them she will probably go back to laying. Don't be alarmed if she starts to act alittle aggressive with them when she starts to wean them, this is natures way of her telling them it is time to be on your own. Lets hope your hen isn't a buff and decides to go broody again after she weans her chicks lol!

 

[ELOISEtheCHICKEN]

Thank you for the advice.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

My blue sumatra hen has 14, 10 week olds. She's still keeping them close and hasn't laid an egg yet. The chicks are starting to stray from her a bit more each day. but as soon as she calls them, they come running. It is amazing to watch them interact.

 

[Teresaann24]

My hen started laying again after 6 weeks. I too suggest leaving the babies with momma hen. Its good for the chicks and for her just think she has been waiting 21 or so days for these babies!

 

[ginasmarans]

Different hens act differently. My bantams are usually ready to wean their chicks around 4 weeks. I had some white leghorns last year that still wanted to brood their chicks at 8 weeks. i thought they would never leave them. I have a hen now with 3 week old chicks. She started laying 2 days ago(one egg each day),but is still caring for her chicks with no change. Normally i would go on and return her to the flock,but the nights have gotten cooler and the chicks aren't quite fully feathered out yet.

 

[jessupfamily]

Almost all of our mamas have started laying again around 6 weeks and pushing the babies away at about the same time. And I've also noticed the smaller the breed the sooner they "wean" the babies and the sooner they start laying again. However, we have had a few die-hards! One raised 5 babies, never pushed them away, and when they started leaving her some she would call them constantly! And even when she would go to the nesting boxes to lay an egg, she would call them to her in there also! But, that is rare! Leave the babies with her, they'll have great chicken instinct!