Question about new hatchlings and momma hen??

[L_Thompson]

We are fairly new to having chickens and one of our hens (not sure exactly what breed she is) went broody a few weeks ago. She stopped laying her own eggs but started laying on/incubating our other 2 hens eggs. We also have a rooster, so a total of 3 hens and 1 rooster. I candled and confirmed 6 of the eggs had growing embryos so our broody “surrogate” hen has been laying on the 6 eggs and taking care of them. Today is day 21 and when we went to check on the chickens, there was 1 baby chick under our surrogate momma hen I’m anticipating the other 5 will hatch today as well. My questions are this:

Our actual coop sits high off the ground (about 5 feet) from the ground of the run that it’s in. I’m worried about the baby chicks following the momma hen down the ramp when she leaves the coop for food and water, etc. and them falling out and getting hurt and/or them not being able to climb back up the ramp to get back into the actual coop. Should I put momma hen and baby chicks in a separate run/coop? If so, do I put that run/coop near the flock so they can get used to seeing the baby chicks? Or should they stay with the rest of the flock, but then I worry about them falling down the ramp and not being able to get back into the coop? Thanks in advance for your advice/suggestions!

 

[LaurenRitz]

If they get down and can't get back up, Mama will likely nest down there with them until they can get back up by themselves.

You need to decide based on your own situation, but if there's no risk to them sleeping down below I'd let Mama make that determination.

Keep an eye on the situation. Since this is her first clutch, she might be uncertain about the best thing to do, but most likely she'll have the right instincts.