Remove hen from chicks? Or is this behaviour normal??

[squidomelet]

I had a staggered hatch over the past week. First baby hatched last Friday and the last one hatched through the night last night (it’s now Friday). Mother (silkie showgirl) seems to be a bit agitated. The behaviour comes and goes. She’ll be furiously digging around in the pen and the new peep seems very confused and I’m concerned she may trample one of the chicks if this behaviour continues.

She just had the biggest wet broody poop so I’m hoping she will settle after getting that out… I have a feeling she was trying to get everyone out of the way so she didn’t poop on anyone but I know hens can be unpredictable! I mean, I did not expect her to sit for 7 days past the initial hatch but here we are, she made it this far!!

At what point should I remove her? I don’t have a brooding lamp but I do have a “mother hen” brooding plate (by Titan) on loan from a neighbour in the case that I need it. I’ve heard mixed things about the brooding plates so I’m a little nervous to use it.

Is there anything else I can or should do to help her relax? They have chick feed and I put stress aid in their water. I just put a blanket on part of the pen to give a softer mood for lighting (have a red bulb in the lamp over the pen) and I’ve turned up the heat in the room for any peeps that are out and about.

 

[sourland]

The behavior you describe is 100% normal. How much space does she have?

 

[squidomelet]

The behavior you describe is 100% normal. How much space does she have?

They are in an XL dog crate. I opened it up more for them because she had started this behaviour but then I cut it down to half because the new chick was trying to chase her around and I thought maybe it was too much room for them. Didn’t want the tiny new peep to get too cold either.

This is my first time hatching chicks so I’m on the more cautious side but I feel like my instincts have been pretty good so far. I grew up around dairy cattle and chickens are just so small and fragile in comparison, haha. I would really prefer to keep her in with them and have her raise them. I live in Atlantic Canada and we’ve had some chilly nights out here recently (around freezing) so I have them in the house. My temperature sensor in the pen is reading 22.4C/72.3F at the moment.

Mom seems to have settled since getting the poop out, putting the blind down and partially covering pen with a blanket. There’s no harm in having her in low lighting so often is there? She won’t be laying eggs for a while so I’m not concerned about light cycle in that respect…

 

[Ridgerunner]

They are in an XL dog crate.

I'm guessing about 30 inches (75 cm) x 48 inches (120 cm). I think you locked her in there in there while she incubated and hatched and you are asking when can you open the door and let her out to roam with the other chickens. If I am wrong please let me know.

Chickens were hatching chicks and raising them long before they were domesticated, thousands of years ago. One thing that has changed is that we now restrict them in coops and runs which can make it harder on Mama to protect her chicks from other flock members if space is very tight. So how much room will she have, how many other flock members are there, and how many total chicks does Mama have? Basically I'm asking what are the circumstances.

There’s no harm in having her in low lighting so often is there?

I'm not aware of any harm.

 

[squidomelet]

I'm guessing about 30 inches (75 cm) x 48 inches (120 cm). I think you locked her in there in there while she incubated and hatched and you are asking when can you open the door and let her out to roam with the other chickens. If I am wrong please let me know.

Chickens were hatching chicks and raising them long before they were domesticated, thousands of years ago. One thing that has changed is that we now restrict them in coops and runs which can make it harder on Mama to protect her chicks from other flock members if space is very tight. So how much room will she have, how many other flock members are there, and how many total chicks does Mama have? Basically I'm asking what are the circumstances.


I'm not aware of any harm.

Yes! That’s the size of the crate. Should I give them the full space at this point or leave it at half or so?

She was incubating in a nesting box in the coop but I moved her to the crate in the house after the first two hatched where the nesting box is too high off the floor for chicks. We have a mixed flock of birds and some have been a little aggressive with the some of the smaller ones (establishing a new pecking order… rescued a flock of 15 this winter and only merged the two flocks a few weeks before mom went broody.) I don’t want to take any chances with putting them all together just yet, especially where she is a smaller breed herself and dad (also a silkie showgirl) has beef with our frizzle recently (they came to us in the same flock… we only had 6 hens when we took on the other 15 birds) since she’s been gone and they are looking to fertilize more eggs.

The plan is to move them to a section of the coop in a few weeks when it warms up a bit. I think dad will be a good helper in protecting them and happy to have his lady back. A couple of them have had some poopy butts so I’d like to at least keep them in for a couple of weeks to monitor them.

The question was more should I return mom to the flock or keep her inside with them because of the behaviour I was seeing. She seems to be fine now I was just worried she might trample someone. I was banking on her as a brooder to keep them warm for the next few weeks is all.

 

[squidomelet]

Oh and our coop is 12x16 with a storage area so the coop area itself is around 12x12 I believe. I have a partition in there from introducing the new flock that is around 4x12 that I would be putting them in with mom and dad when we do take them out there.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you remove the hen she will break from being broody and forget all about the chicks. I'd leave her with the chicks.

I'd also put them with the flock as soon as you can. She should handle integration for you as long as they can mingle with the flock. 12x12 is not a huge area, hope it will be big enough.

 

[squidomelet]

Yeah that’s what I was thinking too. Our run on the other hand is 2400 sqft so the flock has plenty of room during the day. If I put mom and babies (and potentially dad) into the partitioned area they wouldn’t have access to outside right away unless I leave the gate open.

I really appreciate the advice by the way!!