two hens...one nest

[magpiesing]

I have two hens fighting over the same clutch (2) eggs. My little catalana has been sitting these eggs since Saturday. When I checked on her today my seabrite had run her out of the nest. There also appears to be a bantam egg in the nest, but don't know who it belongs to. When Belle tries to go back the seabrite pecks her and is very nasty. She is so upset, pacing and clucking. I took the seabrite out and put Belle back but don't know how long that will last. Any suggestions?

 

[chickengenius]

If you want Belle to have chicks, I suggest separating the hen from Belle until they hatch. If you don't want Belle to have chicks, I would just remove the eggs.



Hope this helps!

 

[magpiesing]

We want Belle to raise the chicks. She raised four this past fall, so she's a good mama. the seabrite also raised one chick last fall and she is a good sitter too. The irony is that none of the eggs belong to either of them. They are from my big red hens. So were the ones they raised last year. The pullets are way bigger than the hens that raised them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Many people have multiple hens work together to raise chicks very successfully, but last summer I had a hen setting on 15 eggs. A few days before she was due to hatch, a different hen went broody on a different nest. About the time the eggs started internal pipping the two hens fought over the eggs. Seven of the eggs were destroyed in that fight, all with viable chicks in them. I’m not a fan of multiple broodies.

I suggest you do one of two things. Your choice. You can break one of them from being broody. The raised cage method has always worked for me.

Break a Broody Thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2176186#p2176186

Or you can try to isolate one of the broodies. I’d go with the one you don’t want to raise these and give her eggs of her own. You might want to keep them separated until one of them weans her own chicks.

Isolate a Broody? Thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=213218

That hen did hatch out seven of the remaining eight eggs.