Leaving broody in place?

[Leiari]

I have 6 chickens: a Leghorn rooster and 2 bantam Faverolles, about 9 months, and 3 Leghorn x bantam something about 4 months, 2 pullets and a roo. One of my favs (Puddleduck)is broody and I'm not sure whether to move her or not.

Spike (rooster) is protective but pretty gentle, and the favs are both mild natured but definitely top of the pecking order. They're the only two laying and Jemima was banished from the preferred nesting box today and has set up in another one, so I'm not too worried about PD being disturbed - the younger 3 are giving her a very nervous wide berth.

We had an older bantam chook till recently and separated her when she went broody and hatched her chicks, but she'd never gotten on well with any of the others, so it seemed safer. She was aggressive towards Spike and the girls, broody or not. Spike was aggressive towards her chicks to start, okay later, fine now. Puddleduck follows him around, he calls when he finds food, they get on well.She and Jemima came from the same clutch, tend to stick together.

To get to the point, I'm not worried about her while they're eggs, but Spike has big feet and would do a lot of damage with little effort. How much of his bad attitude towards the last batch of chicks was likely to be the chooks attitude and that they were separate to start with?

 

[Pork Pie]

Sounds more like a roo issue from my limited experience as roos tend to accept any chickens when they either female or immature.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I've got a small flock and one gal that likes to go broody. She's successfully hatched twice for us. We've found that moving her is best for her and the the rest of the flock. We've made her a small, separate broody house - not much more than a box - and pen that is next to our coop.

When she went broody in the coop, our egg production nosedived as she was trying to keep the other girls out of the nesting area. That made the others mad and our broody soon had scabs on her comb as they were pecking her to get her out of the nest. When she'd get off the nest, the others would chase her and try to keep her from food and water as they were mad at her. I think all the "cluck-cluck-clucking" that she was doing really drove the others nuts! Moving her when she got broody solved those issues and gives her a private space with separate food and water.

 

[FarmerMac]

Some people leave the brodie in the same coop as the flock. I separate my brodie's from the flock, this way I don't have to check for new eggs from other chickens and the brodie is not bothered. I have smaller sections where the brodies can raise their chicks and the rest of the flock can see the chicks without pecking at them. After a few day, I let momma take the chicks out, I make sure to stay close to stop any fighting and try to collect the chicks after they run away when momma starts fighting.