Sorry for the long story. But here goes. I have a broody hen that will be hatching eggs this Wed. Over the past few days Ive noticed that more and more of her neck feathers are being plucked out by the other hens. No bleeding, just bare. Kinda looks like a naked neck chicken right now. Nemo is my little BO hen that has a deformed wing from hatch and has stood her ground and tried not be the lowest on the pecking chain. I have three nest boxes in the coop, but they all want to use the one shes in! I think this is why they are picking her feathers, but Im not sure. I finally moved her over into another nest box this morning and she loves it, well for the most part. The other hens started getting rowdy, about 30 mins ago, and trying to come into the coop, Nemo started to panic and moved back into her old nest. Then frantically trying to move the eggs with her as well. So I moved the eggs back under her and stood back and watched. One of the other hens(whos already laid HER egg for the day) came up and started pulling a few of Nemos feathers out. 1.) What should I do? Leave her there and let her take care of her own? 2.) What about when the chicks hatch? My other BO who just raised a chick herself did great! She didnt let anyone come near her little lone chick. She would get after them!! But then again she is higher up on the pecking order. 3.) With little Nemo being..well prob. the lowest on the po will she still take up for her chicks? Or will she be bullied? Please help. I dont know what to do!
Others will chime in, but I would suggest putting her by herself so she can hatch her chicks. She needs to be away from the others anyway when the chicks hatch. They may hurt the little ones even unintentionally. My hens have been broody and this has worked very well, so I hope it helps you.
I am no expert- but I think you need to get her out of there. Is there any way you could put her in a dog crate, in the garage or something? I do not think the other chickens are going to leave her alone with her chick. There have been quite a few other threads on this subject and some say other chickens will kill the baby...
Thanks. I learned my lesson the hard way the first time around. I didnt think about chicks wondering off and momma not leaving the nest to protect them since all the chicks hadnt hatched yet. So I took off this Wed and Thur just so I could stay out there with her and keep an eye on her. Normally the hens stay out in the run all day except to lay their egg so I thought I would just close the door to the coop so they couldnt get in to bother her. And of course to let them in to lay. I have a rabbit hutch(need to figure out how to clean it) that I thought about putting her in, but I have no way of adding a run to it so she could get to fresh dirt. I was hoping someone on here could give me an 'aahhh ha' moment.
