Two hens one nest

Legendchicken

Songster
Jan 21, 2017
156
214
126
Earth, Northern Hemmisphere
Hi guys. It's been a long time scince I've posted anything but I have had a great time with chickens. 2 weeks ago my leghorn went broody. We gave her 9 eggs to hatch. About a week ago one of our silkie went broody. She kept trying to sit but we were removing the eggs scince we already had a broody hen. Just yesterday out silkie went and started brooding in the SAME nest as the leghorn. The leghorn doesn't seem to mind either. I was wondering if you guys think it would be ok for the two of then to raise the chicks together with the wrest of the flock(or better yet if they should raise them together period) we have a 6x8 coop with a 10x10 run( to many predators for them to go out without constant supervision, as I am writing this on my porch there is a hawk overhead) the other chickens we have a 1 wilkie rooster 3 silkie hens a bantam bared rock hen and a california grey pullet. I was wondering on your guys opinion on the topic. Thank you.

Plus I cant wait to see what a leghorn silkie cross looks like.
20180710_125215.jpg
 
Ideally, each broody would be in a nest in a different building so she can sit in peace with no other hens adding eggs to what is likely to be everyone's favorite nest.
That said, I've had hens/pullets sit together before.
It doesn't always go well because they all want all the eggs and sometimes eggs end up not being sat on which leads to dead embryos when the egg chills.
I once had 8 pullets sitting on a community nest of about 24 eggs. Only one chick hatched and all the pullets wanted to be its mother.
I've had two hens sitting on adjacent nests a couple times. They usually end up stealing eggs from each other.
 
When it comes to nest sharing you typically will end up with added eggs, accidentally crushed eggs, and detached air cells from them stealing eggs from each other. I made the mistake of letting of letting 2 of my bantams share a nest when they went broody at the same time. I didn't get a single successful chick. One of them I was able to break of her brokenness by removing her from the coop and the other I had to give new eggs that were already on day 10 as i didn't want her sitting for another 3 weeks. I make sure now that all of my broodies are given their own space that no other hen has access to.
 
Ideally, each broody would be in a nest in a different building so she can sit in peace with no other hens adding eggs to what is likely to be everyone's favorite nest.
That said, I've had hens/pullets sit together before.
It doesn't always go well because they all want all the eggs and sometimes eggs end up not being sat on which leads to dead embryos when the egg chills.
I once had 8 pullets sitting on a community nest of about 24 eggs. Only one chick hatched and all the pullets wanted to be its mother.
I've had two hens sitting on adjacent nests a couple times. They usually end up stealing eggs from each other.
 

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