Need Your Help With Broody Hens!

[FarmerBoy24]

Hello,

I have 2 broody hens that are sharing the same coop but in different nest boxes. And I have a board in between the middle of the coop so they wont see each other. One of the hens sat her eggs 1 week before the other hen. Will I have to seperate them? Will the other hen take over? What'll happen? lol

Thanks

 

[emys]

Hard to say what will happen as so much depends on the individual birds. It could be fine.

It is not uncommon that when the earlier eggs begin hatching the hen on the other nest will want THOSE eggs instead of hers. They get jealous or just tired of sitting sometimes. If she can reach the first hen's nest she may try to take over the first nest and could crush eggs/babies in the process and/or just chill her own eggs to the point of killing them while she tries to get to the peeping chicks in the other nest.

If they were all due the same time this probably wouldn't be an issue.

 

[FarmerBoy24]

Should I separate them>?

 

[Anianna]

I don't really know for sure, but I can tell you that the breeder we got our chicks from has separate little nesting houses for sitting hens. He moves the hen and her eggs to the little nesting house, which has it's own small run attached for her and her chicks. He also has artificial brooders for some chicks, I suppose the ones whose mommas aren't as broody.

 

[FarmerBoy24]

I guess i'll just have to see. Will they fight over the chicks?

 

[emys]

Usually not at the point where they each have their own chicks they won't.

Your biggest concern is that one week the first ones hatch starting as early as day 19 when they begin peeping in the eggs (the hens will hear them before you will). If the second hen seems very restless at that point you may have a problem.

If you want to be 100% safe ahead of time, move the hen with the later eggs someplace else where she can't hear the first set of chicks peeping. Use a dog crate for her or create a brooder/nest box from a set of cardboard boxes (I use one big cardboard box with a sheet of plastic under it and a smaller nest size box inside of it. No need for extra heat because momma hen is in there - just be sure the water container is sitting on nice flat bricks not uneven bedding she can dig out.) Then after the youngest ones hatch use some cheap chicken wire divider to introduce the two batches without letting them have access to each other for a week or so and see how it goes. If the hens seem good with each other after a week of that let them all together.

Hope all goes well for you!

 

[DAFox]

The safest thing to do is to separate them so that they definitely can't get to one another. If you want to risk losing 1 or more eggs/chicks then do your wait and see approach. It comes down to that. No one knows what a broody hen will do!
Dale-Ann

 

[FarmerBoy24]

Thanks you guys!

 

[Morag]

I have 6 broodies sharing one large run but 3 sleeping areas, all the eggs were started in the bator so all hatched together. They have paired up, so 2 hens sharing 3 broods, 26 chicks altogether So far I've had no problems. I did try and introduce a 7th hen with 2 late chicks and the others pecked her so I took her out again straignt away.