surprise broody in the coop!!**UPDATE**2 BABIES W/PICS!!

[henney penny]

I`m so excited for you!!I had my first silkie hatch last fall,she was such a good mother to her babies.Keep us informed can`t wait to see the babies.

 

[Orphy]

Woohoo! This is making me excited for you!

 

[SunnyChic]

This is so exciting; sending good hatching vibes your way!

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is exciting. Sure wish you good luck.

I'll send a link that talks about letting mama raise the chicks with the flock. There are risks any way you go, whether you let her raise them with the flock, isolate her with her brood and let her raise them by herself, or take them away and raise them in a brooder yourself. I think how much room you have should have a lot to do with whichever way you decide to go. If mama does not have enough room to work with in the run and coop, bad things are more likely to happen. If she has room, she will probably do a great job.

Being broody can be hard on a hen, although yours seems to be doing quite well. You could take her chicks away from her and put some more hatching eggs under her, but I would not. I'd let her recover and hope she will go broody again. If you do build that incubator, I'd make sure some of this hen's eggs make it in there. If she has broodiness in her genes, try to hatch her eggs so you can maybe get more broodies in your flock.

Raise with flock? thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=215937&p=1

 

[AmyJ]

Hope you have a great hatch!

 

[LaSombra]

 

[bethandjoeync]

Quote:
thanks you for the link, it was very helpful. I pretty sure what we will do is, once we get our oooohs and awwwwes out at the chicks, we are going to have an enclosed space in the coop for momma and the chickies. I don't know if it is warm enough right now for them to go out into the run though. it's just now getting into the mid 40s here for the year. I am totally excited but realize we have a little bit of time left and a lot to prepare for.

when will "little momma" start laying eggs again?? once the little ones are a few weeks old? I'm not in a rush to get eggs from her, but just curious

 

[chicks4kids]

Can't wait to see little

!!! Pretty soon you'll have the pitter patter of little feet!!

 

[chickenlady08]

OMG! your little Momma looks like my "Momma" she is a RSL also and my feedstore guy was totally shocked that she laid on eggs. She started out with many eggs and lost quite a few along the way. It was during the summer when she laid. We wound up with 3 little babies. They were so cute and they hatched out in August 2009. Unfortunatley they all turned out to be Roos. Now don't get me wrong I love them none the less but they are geting to rough with my girls. I have a beautiful Delaware Rooster "Jack" and he is the alpha and he doesn't seem to be much of a fighter, he runs over to the boys if they are mating and stands there and they get off of the girl.

I definitely think you should let momma raise them, I was afraid to let them go out in coop to early considering how much trouble it was to separate her and the eggs to begin with, it prob will be good for the other chickens to see the babies before the come to live out there for good.

I kept my Momma and the babies in my garage inside of a big dog kennel and Momma started laying about 1 month maybe a little less. She is a very very sweet girl. most of the other RSL are not to friendly.

I wish you much luck and hope that you have some little babies soon. I just loved having some babies that we help hatch out and didn't have to buy.

Good LucK and God Bless

 

[bethandjoeync]

yes she is a RSL that we got from TSC last April. I think she is considered an "Isa Brown". anyways, here she is irritated that I needed to snag a pic of her

I haven't heard any peeping from the eggs, but then again, I'm not sticking my head in the tub to find out