I have a coop full of broody chickens. I'm letting them sit on eggs and would like to let them hatch and raise some chicks. I had a chick hatch this weekend. It was dry and fluffy by the time I saw it. Hen stayed on nest with other eggs but seemed to be tending the baby. One of my roosters started harrassing the hen late in the afternoon and later I discovered the baby had been badly pecked in the abdomen and then died. Is this typical? Is it stupid not to separate the hens with chicks? Does this type of thing always happen or was I unlucky. It is not fun to lose a chick and so I'm probably going to separate next but wondered if anyone just leaves them for the hen to protect.
I seperate the broody hen from the rest of my fowl. For one, they have much more silent and don't got pushed around and then you prevent, what happened to you. I'm sorry for your lost
If you have more than one broody hen do you keep each separate from the others or together separate from the rest of the flock?
I am having my first experience with broodys but heres what I have seen. Had 5 Japanese Bantam hens....2 went broody.....sitting on nests litterally next to each other and even taking turns on the nest. I decided they had too many eggs piling up so I snagged them and the eggs and stuck them in the big dog crate with a big nest and 12 of the eggs. They were in there all of 15 minutes and started fighting over the eggs! I mean it was a jump around plucking out feathers sparring fight! Had to speerate them and now they are both on crates....with eggs and in theor little broody hen trance.
This is my first season letting some of our hens raise chicks. To be safe, I have them in separate enclosures, away from the flock. So far, so good. I didn't want to find out what my roo might do.
