the problem is this. I have 3 nest boxes with 5 broody hens sharing nest. I have 2 hens sharing the same box in two of the boxes. Are these girls going to fight over the chicks when they hatch? Can I had more boxes, and then seperate the hens, and the eggs so they each have their own box. It is cute though. They are very fierce hens. I almost walked away with bloody stubs the other day, and when I even open the door they go nuts. There is a total of about 45 eggs they are sitting between the 5 hens.
I don't have an answer for you, but that is going to be a lot of chicks. Take pictures. Are they all due at the same time? I think maybe I would be inclined to separate them at some point. I'm pretty confident that hens can't count.
Quote:They are all due at the same time. I just wonder how they are going to work that one out with them sharing a nest box.
I had two hens setting at the same time and I had to end up putting them in seperate pens. I don;t know if the other hens were bothering them but they started changing nest boxes. They still were trying to set but in the nests where there wern/t any eggs.
I just got some new baby's from momma hen,she sits with my tiny jananese bantam in the same box. Long story short I had to seperate them and let momma keep 1 of her baby's in a seperate cage. Hope you have lots of room.lol Look up broody hens ,someone gave me a link to a wonderful article about the subject,or google it. Title was from self suffencient.com or something. too much momma hen drama for me to keep all my ladies seperate
I have two broody silkies and they both share the chicks they hatched. Nobody fights over them unless they get confused or something. Both take the responsibilities, though one tends to keep them warm when outside more than the other. Generally, they may co-parent, but I would monitor them incase anything happens.
Becareful if they are LF's I had an orpington sitting on eggs and another orp hen got into the same nest next thing I knew they had crushed the eggs. I also had a giant cochin sharing a nest and when the chick hatched it was squished under the weight of the two hens. Now if I see two hens I remove one. I have to do that everyday in my one house as someone is always trying to get in the speckled sussex nest box.
