Please help. Hen went broody. Chaos ensued.

[Tired old Rooster]

Well, if my timing is right, today (or somewhere from today to Wednesday) is the big day. I hope for at least some success.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

Well, it seems my timing was right. Spindly is now a Mom. I managed to see three fluff balls, who look very spry.
Will update later on how things go.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

A pic of Dad to go with. No clue what breed he is.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

So, today I woke from my siesta, to find Spindly out and about with six chicks.

Will see how things go from there. A question I have. There are still six eggs in the nest. Will it be okay for her to be off them for a short while. It is humid here, since we just had rains and the temperature is currently 33 degrees Celsius.
I have to hope for the best right now, as accessing them would mean crawling right past her and the chicks.

 

[Mrs. K]

Personally, I go with this is the broody hens responsibility, however, I see that she is sitting on the ground, with chicks playing around her. I might put the unhatched eggs in front of her, and if she tucks them in, so be it, if she does not, I let that go.

You have 6 chicks, that is pretty darn good for a first time hatch. I never expect all of them to hatch, that is a bit unrealistic.

Mrs K

 

[Anon112]

So, today I woke from my siesta, to find Spindly out and about with six chicks.

Will see how things go from there. A question I have. There are still six eggs in the nest. Will it be okay for her to be off them for a short while. It is humid here, since we just had rains and the temperature is currently 33 degrees Celsius.
I have to hope for the best right now, as accessing them would mean crawling right past her and the chicks.

At some point (like about 24-48 hours after the first chick), she will decide it's time to get off the nest even if not everyone is hatched. At that point, you can either "let nature take its course" (ie many-or-all of the chicks still in the unhatched eggs will die), or you can have an incubator ready to assist the unhatched eggs.

I personally was glad that I fired up the incubator. Three "abandoned" eggs hatched and two of those chicks survived and were easily integrated with mama hen.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

The final count is in. Mama spent the afternoon out with her brood and then settled in to the space in the corner next to the nest. That allowed me to do some yoga and get the remaining eggs and debris out of the nest. (debris in pics). Remaining eggs were all duds. Candled them and nothing there.

So we are now at a new little Mom just about a year old and six little ones.

It has been quite a day. Other hens seem super curious and my Roo keeps flouncing up and down at every peep he hears. Good news, is that one shell from the debris definitely comes from an egg laid by Goofy. No idea what Goofy and Galoot are, but they are really nice chickens.

Can anyone give an idea of how long I should keep them separate from the flock to avoid harm? Very important, because my lead hen is quite a snappish one. She gave Goofy, Spindly and Twiggy quite a rough treatment as youngsters when they arrived.

 

[BDutch]

I opened up the ‘gate’ a couple of times after a week to see how things went along. Never had a problem with that. If you have a good mother and the flock doesn’t see the chicks as intruders it can work. Watch and see. If the chicks get attacked (other than a peck to tell the chicks to back off) you should separate longer.
Once I waited much longer to open the gate, when I kept 2 mothers with 5 chicks in a larger separated run. The chicks got pecked more.

Make several food stations, with chick feed and hide outs /clutter. No layer for your flock until the chicks are much older and can choose what feed they want to eat. Oyster shell and small/normal grit on the side in 2 separate bowls.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

I opened up the ‘gate’ a couple of times after a week to see how things went along. Never had a problem with that. If you have a good mother and the flock doesn’t see the chicks as intruders it can work. Watch and see. If the chicks get attacked (other than a peck to tell the chicks to back off) you should separate longer.
Once I waited much longer to open the gate, when I kept 2 mothers with 5 chicks in a larger separated run. The chicks got pecked more.

Make several food stations, with chick feed and hide outs /clutter. No layer for your flock until the chicks are much older and can choose what feed they want to eat. Oyster shell and small/normal grit on the side in 2 separate bowls.

Well, at lunch time today they made my decision for me. Between Ma going T-Rex on the barricades and trying to dig her way to China, the little ones are free to roam with no stopping them. So I figured I might as well surender and open the gate.
So far, so good.
Everyone else is behaving fairly OK with the fluff balls running all over.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

Can someone give me an idea, when it will be reasonably safe to let Ma take the kids out of the run to forage? Pretty sure if I open the gate right now, they would be out like a shot with the rest of the flock.