Is it normal for two hens to go broody together???

[Mary Coleman]

So yesterday, I came home to find my bantam golden laced Cochin and my black australorpe X in the nesting box together. At first I was a bit confused. I've never heard of two hens go broody together..... I moved the bantam Cochin to another box with some eggs last night. She seemed to have settled down, but when I got home today, I found the Cochin back with the Australorpe X again. Is it possible for them both to brood and raise chicks togeather? Is their size difference a problem? It's a bit strange. Theirs a huge australorpe cross with a little bitty Cochin haha. It's kind of sweet though . So is it okay to leave them together????

 

[Njinja]

So yesterday, I came home to find my bantam golden laced Cochin and my black australorpe X in the nesting box together. At first I was a bit confused. I've never heard of two hens go broody together..... I moved the bantam Cochin to another box with some eggs last night. She seemed to have settled down, but when I got home today, I found the Cochin back with the Australorpe X again. Is it possible for them both to brood and raise chicks togeather? Is their size difference a problem? It's a bit strange. Theirs a huge australorpe cross with a little bitty Cochin haha. It's kind of sweet though . So is it okay to leave them together????

 

[Njinja]

It's not ideal, but two hens (even of different sizes) can hatch and care for chicks together. It happens a lot with my birds. The major problem is if they fight over the eggs and break some. I currently have a hen and a Muscovy duck brooding together...sigh

 

[Mary Coleman]

Haha a duck and a chicken??? Wow that's interesting. Well good luck and thank you!

 

[Peep-Chicken]

I have a Welsummer and a Cochin bantam on a nest right now .

 

[Mary Coleman]

So it sounds like it's pretty common..... Why do you think they do this???

 

[Peep-Chicken]

My two, are inseparable. They do everything together. Even brooding too I guess.

Pepper and Luna

 

[Mary Coleman]

Haha cool. I'm kind of excited now! This will be interesting. Thank you guys for responding so quickly!

 

[TwoCrows]

Broodiness can be contagious! When one hen sees another broody in the nest box, this can stimulate her to become broody as well.

Good luck with all your broodies!!

 

[LTygress]

It's VERY common for that to happen. I had FOUR all go broody last year, almost two days apart each time. Once the babies hatched, they all helped to care for them, too. Thankfully they stayed on the chosen nest boxes that time, so it was seamless.

But that's the problem. Hens will often try to sit in the same nest box, and abandon any eggs that may be in another nest. Also, if the hens DO happen to stay in different nests, and one group hatches a week before the other, the second hen may abandon her eggs to help care for the chicks. But if you're going to set them all at once, and the hens are staying faithful to WHERE EVER you let them set, then it's no problem at all.