Mother hens fighting

[JanaG]

I have a mother hen with 13 chicks that are 4 weeks old and another with 10 chicks about 10 days older. I had to exterminate my flock due to mouse poison that can be transferred to eggs once a hen eats a mouse. I will gladly share more on this later so no one has this same thing happen to them. Thankfully I had one of these hens in small tractor coop in a different location and the other in my garage in a dog crate, so they were spared along with their chicks. They are needing more room so I tried to put them both with their chicks in my main coop tonight. One hen immediately took out after the other hen. I caught her and now have her in a dog crate inside the coop and the other hen gladly spread her wings wider and took in all the chicks (all 23). Now what?! Will the other mom cool her jets after a day or so? Will the chicks go back to their original mom? I need a chicken psychologist!

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - glad that you have joined us. Personally, i would leave things as they are - if one hen has adopted the chicks, then keep the other (former momma) separate for at least a week. However, it would be better to post on the "Raising Baby Chicks" forum, or maybe find the "broody hen" thread and post there for further advice.

Best wishes

CT

 

[drumstick diva]

I would let the welcoming broody keep them all., and attempt to break the broodiness of the other hen. Check out suggestions on "breaking a broody." Just put that in the search box and it should come up.

 

[sumi]

Welcome to BYC

Glad you joined us! It sounds like you have a very protective mom hen there, perfectly normal. What I would do, is let both moms have their chicks and try and keep them separated as much as possible. Broody hens sometimes get along and sometimes don't. When they are in the mothering mindset, they often get a bit more aggressive.

 

[JanaG]

Thank you for the input! This morning the mama that let all the chicks sleep close was only walking around with her original 10. The 13 younger were hanging around the dog crate that contained their mom. Is it possible that if I let the feisty mom out of the dog crate, they could cohabitant after they duked it out? If not, I do have a small tractor coop that I can put her in with her 13 chicks (once I catch them all :-/ ).

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!