I think that's a good idea (and funny
) about re-introducing them at night. Yes, the broodies are usually very good at protecting their babies, but we always segregate ours from the flock to give her a little extra help and also, peeping chickies tend to attract predators. Our flock free-ranges, so we want to give her the extra help with that too. After studying it over a period of years, we have figured out that turning them out at 5 weeks usually gives the chickies another week or two with momma, who will then teach them the rules of free ranging and getting along with the flock, watching for predators and where the food, water, and roosting places are in the bigger world. We have a couple of roos who are good at helping with the young ones. We have never had a hen lose her status in the pecking order because she was off with her chicks (or being broody) for weeks. Maybe that's because they're not completely segregated, the flock can see the hen and her chicks in their pen. The only problem we have is that sometimes the older flock members will bully the little ones, but we've never had anything drastic happen. That's where the hen comes in.
