Letting a broody hatch some eggs

[ForFlocksSake]

I have a broody hen sitting on eggs (day 8).
I also have 5 chicks that are 6 weeks old, they are ready to move from the brooder in my sunroom to the outdoor brooder that is under our raised chicken coop. It would be a see no touch situation. My concern is would moving them out now possibly upset my broody hen and make her abandon her eggs?

That’s an interesting question! I have no idea

 

[NatJ]

I have a broody hen sitting on eggs (day 8).
I also have 5 chicks that are 6 weeks old, they are ready to move from the brooder in my sunroom to the outdoor brooder that is under our raised chicken coop. It would be a see no touch situation. My concern is would moving them out now possibly upset my broody hen and make her abandon her eggs?

Of course there are no guarantees, but I would not expect problems. If they were newly-hatched I might wonder if she would try to adopt them and abandon her eggs, but at 6 weeks old they are well past that stage. I would expect the hen to mostly ignore them, especially since they would be in a brooder and not able to come close to her nest. If they could get to her nest, I would expect her to chase them away and then go back to her eggs.

Of course my expectations could be wrong, so you won't know for sure unless you try it.

 

[ForFlocksSake]

I’m still counting 3 chicks. Today is day 21. How many days do I wait to see if egg 4 hatches? And at what point should I remove it from the nest. Right now she’s extremely protective and I definitely don’t want to disturb her too much.

 

[NatJ]

I’m still counting 3 chicks. Today is day 21. How many days do I wait to see if egg 4 hatches? And at what point should I remove it from the nest. Right now she’s extremely protective and I definitely don’t want to disturb her too much.

If she gets off the nest with the chicks, that would be a great time to take the other egg out.

If that does not happen within another two days or so, I would probably disturb her to take the egg anyway.

 

[ForFlocksSake]

If she gets off the nest with the chicks, that would be a great time to take the other egg out.

If that does not happen within another two days or so, I would probably disturb her to take the egg anyway.

Thanks. She’s been off all day now! I grabbed the egg after 3 hours figuring she abandoned it. It was cold and not pipped so I investigated. Nothing inside but runny yolk.

 

[ForFlocksSake]

Here she is showing her babies how to scratch and peck. She’s a great mom!

 

[ChickenTenderz]

Of course there are no guarantees, but I would not expect problems. If they were newly-hatched I might wonder if she would try to adopt them and abandon her eggs, but at 6 weeks old they are well past that stage. I would expect the hen to mostly ignore them, especially since they would be in a brooder and not able to come close to her nest. If they could get to her nest, I would expect her to chase them away and then go back to her eggs.

Of course my expectations could be wrong, so you won't know for sure unless you try it.

Just to be safe I am going to wait to move them out to the brooder until next Saturday. They will be 8 weeks old then and the eggs should have hatched (Day 22 for the eggs). The big chicks will not be able to go into the coop where broody mama and babies are so hopefully it won't upset her in any way and the new babies will be fine.