Keeping hen and baby chick in the nesting box.

[Lovely_Ladies]

I have a silkie who just hatched her first egg today. One chick possibly two more. She is in the nesting box along with the chick and remaining eggs. I have 4 other hens and a rooster in the coop with her. The hens are keeping there distance and are laying eggs on the other side of the coop under the ladder that leads up to roosting bars. The rooster is very protective if anyone even goes near the outside of the nesting box where we usually collect the eggs. My question is.. can we just let nature take its course and leave this hen & her baby & the eggs as is. But put a feeder and water in the coop or even in the nesting box with our mother hen? The nesting box is not far up in the air and if a chick falls out it will not have far to fall and will land on a fluffy pile of wood chips inside the coop. Any response will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance

 

[DobieLover]

I have a silkie who just hatched her first egg today. One chick possibly two more. She is in the nesting box along with the chick and remaining eggs. I have 4 other hens and a rooster in the coop with her. The hens are keeping there distance and are laying eggs on the other side of the coop under the ladder that leads up to roosting bars. The rooster is very protective if anyone even goes near the outside of the nesting box where we usually collect the eggs. My question is.. can we just let nature take its course and leave this hen & her baby & the eggs as is. But put a feeder and water in the coop or even in the nesting box with our mother hen? The nesting box is not far up in the air and if a chick falls out it will not have far to fall and will land on a fluffy pile of wood chips inside the coop. Any response will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance

Wow. I'm so sorry no one has answered you.
How is mom doing? Did all the eggs hatch and she's off the nest now?
They will nest on the coop floor until the chicks are big enough to roost with mom. If the brood in small, she will bring them up during the second or third week.

 

[Lovely_Ladies]

Wow. I'm so sorry no one has answered you.
How is mom doing? Did all the eggs hatch and she's off the nest now?
They will nest on the coop floor until the chicks are big enough to roost with mom. If the brood in small, she will bring them up during the second or third week.

Hi! Thank you for your response. The silky “Bully Bird” hatched the first egg as I said that day. By the next day we had a total of 3 baby chicks. At first my husband built a platform sorta like a balcony off the nesting box and that went okay for the 1st to 2nd day. Then we went out to check on them and well... bully bird and all three chicks were on the bottom of the coop floor just like you said she would do. Those baby chicks are so busy. WOW! I went out today to check on the momma and her babies and she had all of them right up front near the coop door which caused me extreme alarm because 1.) the other hens were pacing around to get up into the nesting box to lay eggs but they did not want to go past momma bird and babies. So again my husband created a little partition only inside the coop not an extension of the nesting box. now everyone is in the coop minding there own business. Here’s some

 

[DobieLover]

Hi! Thank you for your response. The silky “Bully Bird” hatched the first egg as I said that day. By the next day we had a total of 3 baby chicks. At first my husband built a platform sorta like a balcony off the nesting box and that went okay for the 1st to 2nd day. Then we went out to check on them and well... bully bird and all three chicks were on the bottom of the coop floor just like you said she would do. Those baby chicks are so busy. WOW! I went out today to check on the momma and her babies and she had all of them right up front near the coop door which caused me extreme alarm because 1.) the other hens were pacing around to get up into the nesting box to lay eggs but they did not want to go past momma bird and babies. So again my husband created a little partition only inside the coop not an extension of the nesting box. now everyone is in the coop minding there own business. Here’s some

Adorable! Thanks for the update.