What do I do with them?

[PoultryGirly]

Hi. I have 2 broody hens. Their eggs have hatched today and the hens and chicks are still with the flock. I have 3 other chickens in the chicken coop with them, one being a rooster. Will the rooster or other hens kill the chicks? I'm very worried! Also, I'm pretty sure the chicks hatched a few hours ago and they haven't gotten out from under the momma hen. I don't have anywhere to separate the broody hens and their babies. Can I put some sort of blocker over the nesting box where the broodies or at? I just need help! Ugh!

 

[abmaddox1981]

Depending on how agressive your chickens normally are, you should be fine. I would just keep an eye on Mr. Roo just in case.

 

[nbenevento]

In most cases he mother hen will protect the young ones and usually the other chickens won't bother them anyway. That's not 100% guaranteed of course. Also, from what I have seen, roosters are not the ones to worry about anyway. They are already at the top of the pecking order and know their job is to protect the flock including his babies. You're probably fine just leaving things as they are...but nothing is guaranteed.

 

[PoultryGirly]

Thanks for the quick reply! My hens are usually not aggressive. 'Mr. Roo' is starting to get a bit mean, but he doesn't try to really attack. I mean, I can pet him and stuff. He just looks at me odd sometimes and he 'bites'. I really hope that they'll be alright!

 

[nbenevento]

A little off topic but as far as petting your rooster, that made me think for a second. I don't pet my roosters. I have heard so much about how people shouldn't generally buddy up with the roosters because he will try to dominate you. All of my chickens, including my roosters know I am the top of the pecking order. I am the boss. I do not get pecked or receive any aggressive behavior. My 5 year old son always wants to pet them and so forth but now he is starting to be terrified of them because they don't respect him and will chase him away. That goes for all of them, not even just the roo's. Any thoughts on the behavior of your rooster correlating to your interaction to him? I only ask because I am concerned for my son as my roosters get older and more mature.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ve never had a dominant rooster threaten a chick in any way. I have had dominant roosters help a broody with her chicks. You are dealing with living animals so anything is possible, but I’d worry about the other hens a lot more than the rooster.

If any chicken threatens her babies most broodies have such a nasty bad attitude the other chicken doesn’t stand a chance. Mama just whips her butt for her. I really don’t worry about the other hens either.

Hens have been raising chicks with the flock for thousands of years. As I said, you are dealing with living animals so no one can predict what will happen in your situation, but hens have been raising chicks with the flock for thousands of years, usually successfully.

I don’t know what your coop and everything looks like and having two broodies together is kind of unusual too. I’ve never had two broodies hatch together. What I would normally expect in your situation is that the broody will bring the chicks off the nest when she figures the hatch is over. That might be tomorrow or the day after. I let the broody make that decision. After all, broodies have been doing that for thousands of years.

What you need to do is make sure food and water is available at a level the chicks can get to it. What I do for water is fill a dog bowl with rocks so the chicks can’t fall in and drown, and set that on a piece of plywood to try to reduce the amount of bedding the others scratch into it. For food you just need some container at ground level.

I know you are excited, flustered, and just don’t know what to do. But relax. A broody hen knows what to do.

Oh, yeah, make sure your camera has batteries. You’ll need it.

 

[PoultryGirly]

Thanks so much everyone. You all have really helped me out!

 

[PoultryGirly]

I saw chicks today! They're so darn cute! Under one hen I saw 3 chicks and under the other hen and I saw 2 chicks, but I'm thinking there's more! The broodies are in the chicken coop by themselves and the other 3 chickens are outside in the run (I closed the coop door to keep them separated) because I saw the rooster peck at a chick this morning. Once the hens get off if their eggs I think I'll put the broody hens in a cage where the other can't hurt the chicks. I guess the 3 chickens out in the run will sleep there tonight.

 

[ECiesielczyk]

I wouldn't worry about separating them. We had one last year that hatched an egg and she stayed in the coop the entire time. My broody hen just hatched 9 on Sunday and we moved her yesterday, mainly because I was worried about the drop from the nest and because we found lice so we wanted to clean everything. If there hadn't been lice, we wouldn't have done anything. Usually the mama hens protect their babies really well.

 

[Stewarts]

I have successfully hatched 23 chicks and 12 are roos. I can pet and pick up all my birds and I spend a hour with them in the coup every other day. When I'm in there, I'm prime real estate and usually have from 7 to 8, 2 month old birds vying for a place on me. Its true that the roos vie to be the dominate bird and they do show aggressive behavior, especially toward the other roos and sometimes the hens. When I see this, I put an immediate stop to it. The first two times, I was pecked once or twice but I grabbed up the offending roo and gave him a hug and told him to behave himself. Once the roo calmed down and behaved, I just held him; I have noticed that they do get jealous if I am paying attention to one or two birds and not equally to all. Its usually the same birds that want to cuddle. I have one beautiful roo who always has to have his place on my lap, I pet him or have my hand on him and he just falls right to sleep. A lot of them do that. All my birds know I am top chicken in the coup and with 23 chickens in a 5x8 coup, they get along very well together. They will be going out into their run soon. You just have to know how to handle the birds and make each understand who is in charge in a gentle but firm manner.

Stephanie