Separating mama and new chicks.

[angie3881]

Uggghhh.... I think I will let them in the coop and see what happens. I will just be sick if one of them gets killed after all the patience and hard work getting them hatched. (Come to think of it... mama probably feels the same.)

 

[ibpboo]

In the past, I have let a mama stay in the coop with her chicks and other chickens. Never had a problem.
But, this last hatch, the eggs kept getting pecked and eaten. So, I pulled the mama's and eggs, yes, two broody hens sitting on same eggs.
Then, when they got a little bigger, i would let them free range. the mamas took the babies back to the coop, so I let them stay.
One morning I went out and there was only one chick, not two. I couldn't find the other one anywhere, figured it escaped or something, I didn't know.

Oh wait, this is a horror story
the rest isn't good

I'll just add, next time I will NOT let the chickies in with the older hens.
One of the very older hens, became aggressive in her old age, she is nine years old now.

 

[ibpboo]

Oh, but if you do not have other chickens in the coop, yes mama hen will keep babies warm.

 

[angie3881]

We turned them yesterday. Mama was showing them how to dust bathe and as of this AM there were still 5 fuzzy chicks with mama. She was very aggressive towards any of the other hens who nose around. I secured the coop so that darn cat cat get in and decided to just let it be! (I did check on them every ten minutes, though! LOL)

That made me laugh when you said two hens on clutch! When I decided to let them hatch some eggs out, I would go into the coop and there would be two fat hens crammed in the nesting box. It was funny. Then when they would get off, one of my little banty hens would jump up there and stretch everything she had as far as she could to attempt to cover 14 eggs. It was comical!

 

[ibpboo]

That is the cutest, chickies learning to dust bathe

How are they all doing?