*****urgent, please help ****** i have 3 bantams sitting in one car tyre and i have just noticed one

[pmon651]

urgent i have 3 bantams sitting in one car tyre and i have just noticed one baby chick but i am unsure of which one owns it what should i do? i have 6 hens in total all bantams in a quite small shed they all seem to be going broody should i move some , all have been together this whole time , and seen reluctant to lay in other nest boxes provided. i'm afraid they might kill /smother the chick . i have a brood box and when i tried to move her when she first became broody but she didn't want to lay in there and was quick to fly out ( roof was not closed at the time as i had only put her in ), this is the first time any of my bantams have clocked out any eggs and so i am new to the whole process all/ any advice would be great

 

[my sunwolf]

Why not this time just let her have the chick and try to raise it if they can. Sounds like it's too late to do much now, unless you want to just try to grab the lone chick and raise it in a brooder on your own. You'd have to find it a friend if you do this, though.

Next time, you can attempt to get one of your hens to go broody in a moveable nest box so you can pick her up and move her to a broody coop in the middle of the night. If you have a broody in a stationary nest box, try moving her (and the nesting material if you can manage it) to another nest box inside a broody pen so that you can watch her closely to see how she treats her chicks--again, do this all in the middle of the night when she can't see what's happening. You can then try to slip a clutch of 6-8 fertile eggs underneath her if she doesn't have enough eggs under her when she first goes broody.