two broody hens, two hatches in the same coop - will that work?

[centrarchid]

I am I. the same situation right now, but I have 2 broody Hmong hens who are sisters, and they started brooding about 5 days apart. Each is sitting on eggs in different nests (same coop), but every few days they swap. I have no idea how this will turn out...hoping for the best!

Not ideal mix. Broody hens incubating a clutch have what amounts to an internal timer which opens window where hen can initiate imprinting between her and developing embryos and later hatched chicks. If hatching starts before hen receptive to imprinting, then she can be a threat to chicks under her. I would try to keep hen broody the longest on clutch due to hatch first

 

[MissLavender]

Okay so I think both hens have settled on their respective nests, as neither have tried to swap for nearly a week now. I am going to try putting a divider in the small nursery coop they're in and see how that goes.

 

[IanHardy57]

I can only share my experience with having two broodies in the same coop at the same time.

I had a SF and a silkie go broody at the same time. Actually I had 3 broodies but the third one quit halfway through. We had gone on vacation when they first started setting, leaving my SD as their caretaker. SD got confused on what to do, the result was all the eggs under the hens being bad (non-hatchable) except one. The silkie had managed to hatch one chick and was ignoring it while she continued to sit on the bad eggs. I went to Atwoods (like a TSC store) and bought 8 chicks. That night, after all the other birds had gone to roost, I swapped out the bad eggs for day old chicks; giving the SF five chicks and the silkie three.

Both hens accepted the chicks right away. Three days later both mama hens brought their chicks out to meet the flock and free range. The mamas were very protective of their own chicks, but would lightly peck at the others chicks if they got too close. One of the silkies chicks was killed in a freak accident, but all the others have done just fine and are now close to laying age.

So far I have had 5 clutches of chicks raised in the coop with all the other birds and it's worked quite well. The silkie is currently setting again. She has two modes - raising chicks or being broody; there is no in between with her.

Hope this helps.

I have two silkies. One was sat on six eggs for about three and a half weeks, in the meantime, the other laid five eggs, and was sat on those. The first hen gave up, so I moved the eggs I thought contained a chick under the second hen.Ten days later, five hatched and the remaining, abandoned. These are now in an incubator, but I doubt anything will come of them. Mother and five chicks are in a small hut with a small run attached, placed on paving slabs to ensure, rat proof. The original hen, now seems totally withdrawn, but dont thinkit would be a good idea to put her in with the others.