Moving chicks hatched by 2 broodies into a flock of chicks in a brooder

[northerndaisy]

I have a flock of 1 year old hens (around 30). Two of them went broody and as an experiment, I placed some fertilized Silkie eggs from my neighbour under both of them. We separated both hens, and they sat on their clutch and successfully hatched all their babies. Everyone is healthy. However, now, the one hen is trying to nest in the same nest as the other. All the chicks hatched at the same time, and have integrated together. They are 2 days old. I worry that this fighting over the nest and the chicks could result in chicks getting harmed. So far there has been no serious "violence" however, the situation is not ideal and I can't get the hen to go back to her original nest with the babies she hatched.

At the same time, I have 35 baby chicks in a brooder-which were born 5 days earlier, and will be housed in another coop. The hope is that I can eventually have the broody-hatched silkie chicks integrate with this flock, however, I was hoping the broodies could have a chance to raise their babies and I could integrate later. But this fighting over the nest situation is not great. The babies are getting stepped on and squished-and while they seem ok for now-Im worried. In hindsight, I would have only done one broody hen hatching at a time....alas....here we are.

I am considering either moving a broody hen out, and letting the other raise all the babies-or taking all the chicks from both hens and integrating with the other chicks in the brooder now. I feel terrible taking the babies from their moms...but I also don't want a tragedy either.

Has anyone ever done this before or been in this situation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

 

[chickens87216]

How many chicks are there under the hens in total?

 

[northerndaisy]

12

 

[chickens87216]

I have heard of this happening but haven’t had it happen with my hens. Maybe @BastyPutt knows? I know they helped me with my chicks genders

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

I would integrate with the others now. I have had two broodys together with clutches in the same area, and it was too chaotic. Although I felt bad taking the babies so soon, the chicks acclimated well with the others, and the older chicks ended up actually being protective of them. And the hens didn’t go lay in a corner bawling their eyes out, like I imagined.

 

[BastyPutt]

I have a flock of 1 year old hens (around 30). Two of them went broody and as an experiment, I placed some fertilized Silkie eggs from my neighbour under both of them. We separated both hens, and they sat on their clutch and successfully hatched all their babies. Everyone is healthy. However, now, the one hen is trying to nest in the same nest as the other. All the chicks hatched at the same time, and have integrated together. They are 2 days old. I worry that this fighting over the nest and the chicks could result in chicks getting harmed. So far there has been no serious "violence" however, the situation is not ideal and I can't get the hen to go back to her original nest with the babies she hatched.

At the same time, I have 35 baby chicks in a brooder-which were born 5 days earlier, and will be housed in another coop. The hope is that I can eventually have the broody-hatched silkie chicks integrate with this flock, however, I was hoping the broodies could have a chance to raise their babies and I could integrate later. But this fighting over the nest situation is not great. The babies are getting stepped on and squished-and while they seem ok for now-Im worried. In hindsight, I would have only done one broody hen hatching at a time....alas....here we are.

I am considering either moving a broody hen out, and letting the other raise all the babies-or taking all the chicks from both hens and integrating with the other chicks in the brooder now. I feel terrible taking the babies from their moms...but I also don't want a tragedy either.

Has anyone ever done this before or been in this situation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

Congrats on such a great hatch and all the new life around the coop! How exciting!

I would move the chicks to the brooder if they were mine. And it isn't because of the other hatching mama, but out of concern of the other chickens.

We constantly have little chicks running around with the flock this time of year. We allow the hens to do whatever they'd like and it has resulted in a very strong flock for us. However, we only allow a mama to oversee 4 chicks at the most, and we house rhe "families" in a seperate coop at night.

We settled on these numbers because we believe it is the most a mama can keep track of - and because we have in fact had tragedies. They free range during the day, and everyone is generally pretty distracted, but once they start making their way to bed is when folks start to scare me around the chicks - hence the separate housing.

Hope this helps.

 

[northerndaisy]

Thank you everyone! I did move them and the chicks integrated so well with the others. Both mama hens are back with their flock.