One chicken finished brooding, one chicken with day olds and one chicken on eggs!

[ChickenGirl 19]

Within the past month I've had THREE hens go broody (All half-siblings too!) and some general advice would be nice. Our first broody (A nasty, bad mother) abandoned her chicks(Joshua, a likely rooster, and Sho) a bit early, but they integrated to the flock pretty well after we got rid of the nasty BR hen and rooster. I've been giving the whole flock the chick food with some oyster shells on the side, and am now putting them on grower.

In one rabbit cage I have Johnny the broody hen. She hatched 5 chicks(Vincent, Edgar, Andrew, Sirius and Lupin) with a 6th dying right before hatch. I've given them water with vitamins and chick crumbles. Should I let them grow a few weeks before introducing the mum and the babies to the flock, or introduce them earlier? And what would be the minimum size for a broody and her babies?

In the coop is George the broody. She's on day 5-7 or there abouts with 4 eggs and the plan is to move Johnny to the larger rabbit cage along the length of the coop and put George in the smaller one. Is it worth bothering to move her or should I let her hatch with the flock?

Some general tips would be nice too, I've had a hatch before with my buff Orpington Trudy, but I had more time to plan (and had less chickens!) at that point. Might as well had the broodies though, I lost a few of my older hens to reproductive problems on top of sending the nasty chickens I mentioned above to freezer camp.

I'll post pictures of the chicks tomorrow.

 

[Talithahorse]

I don't know what others do, but I typically allow my broody hens to hatch with the flock (assuming the nest box isn't high off the ground and dangerous) then I move mother and babies side by side so that she stays part of the flock but her and the babies are protected. I do this because the ramp is very steep in the main coop and I have lost babies to falling down the ramp and getting too cold. Then when the babies are old enough I put them back. (Actually since I have my silkies raise my LF, they go to the laying pen). One day I will build the silkies a bigger coop that is set up for babies, then I will leave them in the coop.

 

[ChickenGirl 19]

I don't know what others do, but I typically allow my broody hens to hatch with the flock (assuming the nest box isn't high off the ground and dangerous) then I move mother and babies side by side so that she stays part of the flock but her and the babies are protected. I do this because the ramp is very steep in the main coop and I have lost babies to falling down the ramp and getting too cold. Then when the babies are old enough I put them back. (Actually since I have my silkies raise my LF, they go to the laying pen). One day I will build the silkies a bigger coop that is set up for babies, then I will leave them in the coop.

Had to put something over George today. Another hen was on her nest laying an egg and she was kicked onto another nest. I gave her her eggs and put a wire cage over her. I just hope she wasn't off her eggs too long. @-@