If they want to be Mothers... UPDATE! I HAVE CHICKS! NOW WITH PICS!

[bigdaddyabc]

YEP! My biggest concern this morning is that this hen, and funny enough the other broodies too, have set up shop on the second floor. My nest boxes are the metal ones with the removable floors and have two levels. I sure don't want to have a baby fall and get hurt or die. I don't know how she will get them down. I figure on letting her do her thing and then moving the whole family to the enclosed nest this afternoon when it is warmer and putting the chick food and waterer in with them then. We shall see.

 

[silkieroo]

Wooo hooo!!

Don't you just love silkie moms?? There so dependeble!! can't wait for pics!!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Usually the hen will stick tight on the nest while the eggs are hatching. Then about 24 hours after the first one hatched she'll take her family for their first outing to eat & drink. Sometimes she'll just leave any unhatched eggs in the nest, and seldom will return to incubate them further.

You could try to move her, her nest, & the chicks to their ground-floor home now, she shouldn't want to leave her family. Or wait until you see that she's ready to leave the nest and move them then. It's possible that the chicks can hop out of the nest and land safely on the ground, but there's always the chance that one or more won't "stick the landing."

I'd leave the others in their upper-story nests, there's always the chance that a broody will get too upset by a move and decide to quit the project.

Got photos?

 

[bigdaddyabc]

Here is the few I got as they stuck their little heads out to check out the big wide world. You are gonna hafta look REALLY hard to find the little black one......