My next question.......

[Ridgerunner]

[quote name="SJ" url="/t/748222/my-next-question#post_10569667"... Max is a rooster and that fact alone is weighty.There is no way of knowing how any rooster will behave around chicks. Some roosters will kill and eat chicks some are superb protectors of their young. So Max could potenially become very protective or a baby killer.

[/quote]

I agree you are dealing with living animals so you can't be sure how any will react in any specific situation, but have you ever seen a dominant rooster harm a chick? Not just eat one, harm one?

I'm not talking about non-dominant or immature roosters. To me those can be as brutal as hens. I'm specifically talking about a mature flock master.

Most of my mature dominant roosters help a broody with her chicks. Not all do this, but most do. I've never seen a mature dominant rooster do anything to harm a chick in any way.

Occasionally you will get a broody that is not a good broody. But most have such a bad attitude if any other chicken in the flock threatens her chick, they don't have a chance. She thoroughly teaches them to leave her chicks alone. Again, you are dealing with living animals so I can't give any guarantees. And I do think how much space the broody has to work with makes a difference.

From what I’ve seen, I don’t think the OP has any worries about her rooster eating the chicks. And I seriously doubt another hen is a threat. It looks like Mama will have plenty of room to work with.

 

[pamelakay]

Congradulations Pamela. Im so happy for you!!! :cd You have a very exciting event occuring under your coop. Spring is coming and hens will be hens.
By the looks of it Audrey may have a few eggs in there too. So if all works out you should have a good mix of chick markings.
My thoughts on Max... Max is a rooster and that fact alone is weighty.There is no way of knowing how any rooster will behave around chicks. Some roosters will kill and eat chicks some are superb protectors of their young. So Max could potenially become very protective or a baby killer.

L.M.S.P. is the best shot those eggs got at making it to adulthood. BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF THE HEN. Nature has made her perfect to the task of raising chicks. The forums have alot of information on "broody hens" thats should help ease your mind. 

 

[pamelakay]

As far as Max goes, he will eat out of our hands, will come right on into the house if we leave the door open, and will drop food in front of the hens even when he wants it too. He has been left to his own devices when our one remaining hen sat for a bit on a nest. That was an interesting afternoon . Each time one of our 12 year old "Christmas kittens" walked near enough, Max would perk up and chase them around the yard like some uninterested hen. Meiko, the male cat seemed especially unhappy about such arduous attention! I hope to introduce max to the chicks through a chicken wire fence for starters, then watch careful when the fence comes down. He is faster than I am though and I know it.

 

[CayuseRanch]

Thank you every one for your input! I have just sat down to lunch and have been given sound advice from four different people, across the North American continent ; Arkansas, Oklahoma , Wisconsin , and Ontario. To have such a communication venue with people connected by a common interest is like ....WOW!!! it is totally humbling.

This is the beauty of the BYC! Great people in Chicken Love. I think you will do fine with Max and the other hens. I just watch them. If you see something worrying then seperate them. It sounds like LMSP has done a good job so far of protecting her babies...I mean you can't get to them right? lol

 

[ChucktheChick]

I love all your chickens! So perty! Love them! You willl have a pretty little flock of babies! YAY!! Good Luck to you!

 

[pamelakay]

To preface the story of my little bard rock going broody under the coop, is the saga of Audrey and the Azalea bush. I was out in the yard trying to work up an interest in picking up some deadfall, when across the yard, a white patch, under a low weeping azalea bush caught my eye. I thought some trash had been blown in during the previous nights wind. As I drew closer, however, the patch of white became a dozen small white eggs, looking the worse for wear, laying neatly arranged in a depression of leafmold beneath the shrub.
I laughed to myself. Audrey had made herself a nest! Later that evening, as soon as my husband came home from work I took him out to see Audrey's nest of eggs. But they were gone! Then, we saw her. Audrey was On the nest, and blended so perfectly with the leaves and shrubbery, we could barely see her right at our feet. Best camouflage ever! But there was a problem. We live near a river, and there are all manner of night preditors around. And it was 20 degrees at night. My ill thought out answer? Move the ol' girls nest, no problem, right? First I made her a lovely nest in a discarded dest drawer, complete with cushy lining, tucked her eggs into it, as Audrey looked on in sheer disbelief. Took them all inside to the cockatiel cage,Audrey' s old nursery , and waited for my bird to settle on her clutch. She perched on the edge of the drawer.....back turned to the eggs....All night! So much for that bright idea. I let Audrey march herself out the back door the next morming, ran and got the eggs, flew out the front door, off the porch and gentle tucked them all back into the azalea bush nest, just as Audrey came marching around the side of the house to reclaim her nest. She schooched in, and sat. For a while, then she wandered back over to the other birds. Now was my second chance. I took a little basket, filled it with shavings , took it to the, at present abandoned nest, tucked all the eggs in and sat the whole thing under the azalea. Later that evening, Audrey was found sitting on her eggs which were laying in my basket. My husband picked up the little basket nest, hen and all and brought her in to safety.......Yes I know, you are sure that I am a silly old goose, right? I never thought the eggs would hatch, it had been in the twenties several nights ....

 

[CayuseRanch]

Awe good mommy. I love how you actually cut the side out of that basket. How long did she have to sit after you got her moved?

 

[pamelakay]

The entire 21 days. She had been in the coop prior to and was working up to really settling in. This is her first hatch. The chicks are max the light sussex offspring. Btw, any idea what Audrea is? She came from cackle hatchery said the feed store where I found her.

 

[CayuseRanch]

Is she a little bit smaller? I am guessing the red jungle fowl.

 

[CayuseRanch]

Here is one I found a pic of online. Look the same?