Moving mom and babies

[mustangannie]

I have a year old sebright that hatched fertile eggs 8 days ago. She and the 5 babies are doing great. I built a new coop and need to move her, the babies and my other two hens to the new coop. They are all in together at night and the other two hens free range during day, coming back to get food / water/ lay eggs in old coop as needed. So far they haven’t bothered the chicks. What advice do you have to move all in new coop ? Old one will be taken away immediately. Worried new mama hen will be confused and abandon babies. Is this a possible outcome? Any advice/ tips will be greatly appreciated.

 

[igorsMistress]

Hi there. You can let mama and the chicks free range too and leave the new place open for them to explore before you move them and remove the old coop. Or you can just lock them all in there for a few days so they know it's home and take the old coop away. Mom should still care for her chicks.

 

[mustangannie]

Hi there. You can let mama and the chicks free range too and leave the new place open for them to explore before you move them and remove the old coop. Or you can just lock them all in there for a few days so they know it's home and take the old coop away. Mom should still care for her chicks.

I wasn’t sure if mom would be confused about the move and abandon them. They are too little to free range yet but they do come down to the small run off and on during the day. Our 6’ fence around the yard has area between slats or underneath that a baby chick could get out of