I'm pretty sure I've messed up here and would appreciate some guidance, pls?
I have a mixed flock of about 9 standards and 7 or 8 bantams. I guess that five or six girls have started laying, though I'm not sure which ones, and we get about five eggs a day on average.
Only the banties seem interested in brooding, and one has now got two chicks running about with her and they have received no adverse attention from the flock. Another hen is on two eggs and another on 13 eggs.
The 13 egg parent has just given birth to six chicks, two of which we attacked by one of the standard hens and killed after three days!
Could there be insufficient space to lay eggs causing the standard to react violently?
Could 13 eggs be too many for the hen to control, and if so, what do I do??
There are three laying/brooding boxes in the coop and the brooding females occupy two of these with one left open for laying. The door to the run is open all day, giving the brood hen access to food and water, but unfortunately also allowing access to the hens who come in to lay, or kill the chicks....
Any help would be great!
(PS, for the moment we have closed the door to the coop and placed food and water inside for brood hen and chicks, and placed a nesting box outside in the run, but this seems very much a 'short-term' solution)
I have a mixed flock of about 9 standards and 7 or 8 bantams. I guess that five or six girls have started laying, though I'm not sure which ones, and we get about five eggs a day on average.
Only the banties seem interested in brooding, and one has now got two chicks running about with her and they have received no adverse attention from the flock. Another hen is on two eggs and another on 13 eggs.
The 13 egg parent has just given birth to six chicks, two of which we attacked by one of the standard hens and killed after three days!
Could there be insufficient space to lay eggs causing the standard to react violently?
Could 13 eggs be too many for the hen to control, and if so, what do I do??

There are three laying/brooding boxes in the coop and the brooding females occupy two of these with one left open for laying. The door to the run is open all day, giving the brood hen access to food and water, but unfortunately also allowing access to the hens who come in to lay, or kill the chicks....
Any help would be great!
(PS, for the moment we have closed the door to the coop and placed food and water inside for brood hen and chicks, and placed a nesting box outside in the run, but this seems very much a 'short-term' solution)