Mama Hen Chick “weaning”

[Fcampo2]

Hello everyone! I posted a question for my mama hen on FB, but have follow up questions and have noticed this site appears to be more active than the FB group.

Pictured below is my incredible first time mama hen, Penny. She has been a great broody and now mama showing her 8 babies the chicken life. They are 2 weeks old now. They are in a small coop and run, and free range w mama hen and other chickens under my supervision 4-5 times per day.

The plan is to eventually give 6 back to my friend that gave me the fertilized eggs, and keep 2. We’re playing things by ear… I’m hoping mama hen will start “weaning” them when we start to run out of space and everything works itself out. I think their coop will start getting tight in a couple of weeks.

So I am hoping it all works out organically… but wondering when the time comes, should I take all 6 at once so all 6 babies stay together? Or 3 one weekend and then 3 the next in the hopes that it is less drastic on mama hen? Or does it matter? I do notice she doesn’t seem to notice one of her babies is “gone” if I hold one as long as it’s comfortable and doesn’t cry for her - so that’s where my idea of 3 at a time came from. I would like to make the transition for her and her babies as easy as possible when the time comes and just trying to prepare for it.

She goes broody often so I’m sure we will be doing this again. And we, unfortunately, cannot have infinite chickens. So just trying to come up with a general plan for future babies as well.

Thank you all! Really appreciate everyone sharing their valuable knowledge on this site!!

 

[MountainWoman73]

Cute! I love her!

My broody's only raised 1-2 chicks at once, so I haven't gone through this exactly. But I would say take all 6 together around 4-5 weeks old or when they look feathered. That's the age she would usually lose all interest in sitting on them, even though they might still hang out with each other. Chicken memory is short, so she'll probably not be bothered about it once they're gone.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

You can take all 6 at one time. She’ll be fine. Sometimes you have to “wean” the hens off the chicks. In my experience chicks do fine with out a mom once most of their adult feathers come in around 3 weeks old, then I take the mother hen away, and she may still act broody for a couple days but that is because of hormones. In a couple days she’ll be back to normal laying eggs.

 

[Fcampo2]

Update in case it helps anyone in the future:

I was able to take 6/8 “at once” at around 3.5 weeks. I took two at a time and put them in the shed until I had all 6 so it wasn’t super obvious to mama hen.

The two that we kept she is still staying very close to! They are about 8 weeks old now I think. She has helped integrate them into the flock w no issues, free ranges w them and stays close to them still but is starting to give them a little space as well.

Everything worked out well for us!