Question about broody hen with chicks

[shelleyd2008]

I have a hen with chicks that are about 2-3 weeks old. I was wondering if I let her and the chicks out of the tractor they've been in for a week, would she go back in to roost at night? Or should I just move the tractor, so as not to lose any babies?

 

[Lee]

She will go back in where she was used to roosting. I have a Partridge Rock bantam that loves to go broody, so I keep her in a rabbit cage and she sets her eggs in an "outside the cage" nestbox. When the chicks were a couple of weeks old I would take them out to a playpen I made from rabbit wire using a kids wading pool for a top. In the evening I would let her out and she would go to the rabbit cage and look up trying to figure out how to get back up there. Of course I was there to put her and her chicks back in for the night. I love how chickens develop a habit and stick with it.

 

[Southerngirl]

I train my little banties to nest at night in dog crates so I can allow them to free range and still be locked up at night. I start by locking them up at night and the hens know which one is "theirs". They soon start to put the babies up by themselves in the crate. I have about 4 to 5 under a giant red maple tree and they have their food and water out here too. This has worked very well for us because we have raccoons and oppossums here.