My First Broody!

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Unfortunately my broody story only has a semi happy ending.
So, day 21 was tomorrow-ish. Husband went out to the coop today to check on them, I was at the hospital on call. He found my hen with a bloodied comb, 2 living chicks and three dead ones. Poor spot was extremely upset. So I was able to get my physician on call with me to cover, for two hours so I could run home and take care business. I left her and her two living babies In the coop, blocked off the door and also put the 11 young ones 11 day olds in there with her. So she has a family of 13, but mixed ages. I took the mean ones, to a different coop where they are figuring out if they can get along with others. I put antibiotic ointment on spots head and on the chick that had been pecked a little.
 
nursebecky99 said:
Unfortunately my broody story only has a semi happy ending.
So, day 21 was tomorrow-ish. Husband went out to the coop today to check on them, I was at the hospital on call. He found my hen with a bloodied comb, 2 living chicks and three dead ones. Poor spot was extremely upset. So I was able to get my physician on call with me to cover, for two hours so I could run home and take care business. I left her and her two living babies In the coop, blocked off the door and also put the 11 young ones 11 day olds in there with her. So she has a family of 13, but mixed ages. I took the mean ones, to a different coop where they are figuring out if they can get along with others. I put antibiotic ointment on spots head and on the chick that had been pecked a little.
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That’s terrible! I’m so sorry that Spot lost 3 of her chicks. :(
 
So sorry. I always recommend separating out a broody, even if it's to put a fence around them to protect them. Others always tell me their birds are fine. I have seen chicks killed by other birds. Chicks will wander that first day or two and mom won't leave the nest to retrieve them. Hopefully the remaining chicks do okay. I recommend 1-2 weeks of separation, but within sight, to give chicks time to get strong enough to avoid other birds and to be able to keep up with mom.
 
Well, contrary to the above advice, I just got back from out of town and allowed Helen to leave the brooder with her chicks. The immediate chaos of mom trying to locate them all and gather them together notwithstanding, they seem relaxed and many of the younger birds are close by in the shade. They’re usually the culprits when it comes to bullying chicks, whoever is at the bottom, but with a mother present for once, hopefully it will be different.

So I moved Prudence to the brooder to hatch her probably larger brood due to hatch Sunday. She’s been more finicky about location than Helen, I may have to move her back, but the guinea keets she will hopefully hatch are a lot more valuable to us than the chicks, so I want them to have the added protection.
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I had seen both options for leaving within normal coop and moving. But, I was gone on call and didn’t have a spare crate/brooder/etc bc I had 14 chicks occupying those places. So I tried. And she is a bantam cochin and she wasn’t strong enough to tolerate the bullying from full size coop mates. So it’s all well and she is happy with her 13 babies! My son checked on her at 2am, and they were almost all tucked under her. Even the 10day olds who had not been using heat lamp much.
 
I thought this was interesting behavior. Helen is the lightest colored chicken at the bowl. She’s gotten her tiny chicks to hang back while she fights for food. She knows they’re too small to compete. As soon as one got nervous and started peeping, she returned to reassure it.

And all three have feathered legs! Our rooster is the only one we have left with feathered legs; he’s a Brahma cross. I guess more feathered legs are in our future!

Prudence is once again not on her nest. We’ll see what happens after they all eat. I returned the nest to its regular location, but not without dropping a board on it and cracking one of the chicken eggs. It seems I do that once every hatch, grrr!
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Every flock is different. Some groups are more tolerable of chicks than others. I rarely move bantam Cochins. I believe I have 4 maybe 5 groups of young ones in my main pen now. I did move one hen for a hatch though, because I had 6 girls crammed into one nest box. So I finally picked one to hatch the chicks. I put them back about 3 days after hatch. I usually advise introducing them as early as possible, while they are close enough to momma for her protection, but big enough to take a couple taps on the head from another hen. Earlier introductions usually go better than later. But again, all flocks are different, and sometimes even that will change with the seasons! Lol
 

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