Several Broody hens - now what??

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Make that 7 sitting on eggs. I've got another one with all the signs.
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Dale-Ann

At one of the university experiment stations, they build brooding houses that accommodate two hens and 40 chicks. To save room, they take eggs from some hens and put them under other sitting hens until they have 20 per sitting hen. Hens left without eggs are put back in with the flock. I don't know if you would want to do it that way, but at least you know it is an option if you don't have the room to accommodate all of your broody hens.
 
Well, I gotta tell yas, this has been very interesting stuff! Starting at the beginning, we had the two Egyptians laying on eggs. Well three of the eggs hatched and we moved the two hens and the three chicks to our brooder tractor. Shortly after one of the chicks passed, so we removed it. The next day we heard a scuffle in the brooder tractor and I went over to see what the heck was going on. To my horror, I watched one of the Egyptians stomping on one of the baby chicks. The other hen was attacking the one doing the stomping. The next thing I know, the one doing the stomping picks up the baby chick in her beek and throws it against the wall!!! Wow, I was shocked! Is that normal behavior???? Well, let me tell ya, that ended their lil mothering deal as we quickly took the two hens out of the brooder and closed the two chicks in. The one that was stomped and tossed died shortly after. My ole lady was so distressed over it, she cried. I felt really bad then so I told her to go to agway and pick up some chicks there. She went and picked up 12 baby chicks and came home and put them in the brooder tractor. We also had the Austrolorp that was setting and she hatched one chick, so we took that one and put it in the brooder making 14 in total. They are all 5 weeks old now and doing swell.
But...... thats not the end of our lil story..... The two Egyptians decided they were not finished with their broodyness. They carried on for the rest of the day that we took them out of the brooder tractor, man what a ruckus they put up!! That night they went back into their regular hen house when the others went in and they went right back into the same hen box, and started setting all over again! So to make this story a lil shorter, they sat the full term, and now they have 6 more chicks. This time we decided to leave them in the hen house as to not upset them again, let mother nature run her course so to speak as the new borns were to small to add to the others in the brooder tractor. Believe it or not, they are doing wonderfull. The chicks are a couple weeks old now and they come out every day with the two hens and scratch for their meals. We set a small box in the hen house so the didn't have to try and climb up to the hen box, and they immediatly used it. We put a small waterer and a small feeder with the chick food in the box and they loved it. Now, two weeks later, they are already up on the perches with the rest of the flock! If any of the other 13 hens bother them, those Egyptian moms set them straight quick as can be! I guess we should have left them in the regular hen house to begin with, but I don't know?? What an experiance!
Here is a few pics of the Egyptians. The first one is them going off over us kicking them out of the brooder tractor, the other two are of their lil brood! I think they hatched 2 barred rocks, two Americana, and two light brama, but not really sure yet. The chicks are only one week old in these pics!
PS - The two surviving chicks in the brooder tractor with the 12 from agway are Americanas.
Hope this download works!

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