- Dec 18, 2017
- 39
- 16
- 101
Good Morning.
Our set up is thus: we have a hen house with nesting boxes, and ten hens of ages 6 months through 4 years of a variety of breeds. The hen house has a hatch which we close at night but otherwise the hens can use to get to an outdoor area protected from Not-So-Fantastic Mr Fox by an electric fence.
About 4 weeks ago the 2 Copper Black Marans became broody. We have no cockerel and swapped some eggs with a neighbour who does and put them under the hens. On Monday, 21 days later, one egg hatched It seems to be going well, although neither hen nor chick has yet fully left the box. This is our first-ever surviving chick so we're very proud!
A couple of pics here.
Meanwhile the other Maran is still sitting there, chickless. I was tempted to get some more eggs for her but she's already been broody for 4 weeks and I think it would be wrong to subject her to 3 more.
So questions are:
1. Should we, per this site's orthodoxy, physically move the new mother and chick to an enclosed area to protect them from the rest of the flock? Everything has been fine so far, and we're not sure how to move them anyway as mother is so protective.
2. What's the kindest way to stop the other hen brooding?
Of course, any other observations are welcome too!
Thanks!
V
Our set up is thus: we have a hen house with nesting boxes, and ten hens of ages 6 months through 4 years of a variety of breeds. The hen house has a hatch which we close at night but otherwise the hens can use to get to an outdoor area protected from Not-So-Fantastic Mr Fox by an electric fence.
About 4 weeks ago the 2 Copper Black Marans became broody. We have no cockerel and swapped some eggs with a neighbour who does and put them under the hens. On Monday, 21 days later, one egg hatched It seems to be going well, although neither hen nor chick has yet fully left the box. This is our first-ever surviving chick so we're very proud!
A couple of pics here.
Meanwhile the other Maran is still sitting there, chickless. I was tempted to get some more eggs for her but she's already been broody for 4 weeks and I think it would be wrong to subject her to 3 more.
So questions are:
1. Should we, per this site's orthodoxy, physically move the new mother and chick to an enclosed area to protect them from the rest of the flock? Everything has been fine so far, and we're not sure how to move them anyway as mother is so protective.
2. What's the kindest way to stop the other hen brooding?
Of course, any other observations are welcome too!
Thanks!
V
