Let me first introduce myself. My name is Robin, I live in South Carolina and I have 8 chickens. One Black Australorp rooster, four Black Australorp hens(same parents as rooster). Two are what I think are Americaunas, they are a brownish color with short fuzzy feathers around the sides of their faces and lay blueish colored eggs. My last hen I'm pretty sure is a small greyish colored american game. The only named ones are the rooster, Black Betty, and the game hen, Chicken Little.
My pen is 18' by 12' chicken wire on the inside and top with chainlink fence around the outside, we have dogs that run around my "neighborhood" and nothing has gotten in yet. The coop inside is about 1'6" off the ground and is 4'x8' inside with two 3' next boxes hanging off the back. The boxes are divided up into 1' cubed nests with a hinged roof to get the eggs.
Little has spurs about 2" long and when we introduced them into the flock of australorps, she showed Betty who had bigger spurs at the time. No harm was done but he left her alone for a while.
This past Saturday I noticed one of the australorps went broody on top of three white(game) and two blue(americauna) eggs. Since I was planning on having a friend incubate some eggs from those hens, I decided to let her be a mom.
I have a few questions that I think I've answered for myself but wanted to double check with you guys. ~Should I leave her in the pen with the rest of the flock? She's really protective of her nest and squawks whenever anyone comes near.
~Will the chicks be ok with the elevated coop? It's plenty big inside and there is a ramp going up to the door, but i don't want any chicks getting left outside overnight without mom.
My pen is 18' by 12' chicken wire on the inside and top with chainlink fence around the outside, we have dogs that run around my "neighborhood" and nothing has gotten in yet. The coop inside is about 1'6" off the ground and is 4'x8' inside with two 3' next boxes hanging off the back. The boxes are divided up into 1' cubed nests with a hinged roof to get the eggs.
Little has spurs about 2" long and when we introduced them into the flock of australorps, she showed Betty who had bigger spurs at the time. No harm was done but he left her alone for a while.
This past Saturday I noticed one of the australorps went broody on top of three white(game) and two blue(americauna) eggs. Since I was planning on having a friend incubate some eggs from those hens, I decided to let her be a mom.
I have a few questions that I think I've answered for myself but wanted to double check with you guys. ~Should I leave her in the pen with the rest of the flock? She's really protective of her nest and squawks whenever anyone comes near.
~Will the chicks be ok with the elevated coop? It's plenty big inside and there is a ramp going up to the door, but i don't want any chicks getting left outside overnight without mom.
