Separation of hens from the toms

[Angela CHICKEN]

If you only have one tom with one hen could be bad for hen if tom is over amorous.

I keep my toms with my hens til they start to go broody then remove the tom.

I have not had a heritage breed hen not go broody. When she decides to brood is her choice. She will have a magic number of eggs in the nest and she will start to set. Could be from 1 to 20 eggs. Average about 8 to 10.

I keep my eggs in egg cartons on the counter. Pointy end down. Turn them couple times a day by moving a board from one end of carton to other. I have let mine set for 10 days. But usuall try to set eggs each week.

I'm in Mo. My birds haven't started laying yet. Northern Fla. I would say she should be alright to try and brood.

I raise my 2tom heritage bronze had 2 hens,but had to Dispatch IDDY BIDDY due to severe injuries during matting?? (She wasn't able walk to feed or water except what I hand fed her. This morning my last hen Sweetie M. was limping so I shut her off in my smallest prefab coop, to have time to heal if possible. I have never seen them aggressive towards the guinea, or chickens or each other? Don't know what to do now, if she gets well will the Tom's keep braking them down? All advice welcome and needed.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

One

I raise my 2tom heritage bronze had 2 hens,but had to Dispatch IDDY BIDDY due to severe injuries during matting?? (She wasn't able walk to feed or water except what I hand fed her. This morning my last hen Sweetie M. was limping so I shut her off in my smallest prefab coop, to have time to heal if possible. I have never seen them aggressive towards the guinea, or chickens or each other? Don't know what to do now, if she gets well will the Tom's keep braking them down? All advice welcome and needed.

One tom might not be hard on her. Two toms will be because when one starts to mate the other will often start to fight with him and the hens gets the worse of the deal. It can help sometimes to keep nails and spurs trimmed on the toms, but sometimes they still can tear up the hens.

I'd probably keep the hen separately going forward if you don't plan to add more hens and remove one of the toms.

 

[R2elk]

I raise my 2tom heritage bronze had 2 hens,but had to Dispatch IDDY BIDDY due to severe injuries during matting?? (She wasn't able walk to feed or water except what I hand fed her. This morning my last hen Sweetie M. was limping so I shut her off in my smallest prefab coop, to have time to heal if possible. I have never seen them aggressive towards the guinea, or chickens or each other? Don't know what to do now, if she gets well will the Tom's keep braking them down? All advice welcome and needed.

You only had enough hens for one tom. Keeping multiple toms together with just a couple of hens is a recipe for disaster.

Toms also must not be allowed access to a hen's nest. They will take the sitting hen as an invitation to breed. The hen will resist the breeding attempt. The least that will happen is broken eggs. The worst that will happen is a dead hen.

Get down to one tom and add more hens. I try to keep at least 4 to 5 hens for one tom. It makes life much easier on the hens.