When to intervene??

[Kfults]

i have 7 week old chicks with a super attentive momma..... they are fully feathered and about half momma size. (Different breed)
They are still sleeping all together in a nesting box. The temps are pretty mild and they don’t sleep under her anymore ( they are too big). I am wondering when she will teach them to roost?? I thought maybe I would give her a hand and last night I moved mom and babies to lower roost together. I watched on my camera and they were all jockeying for a place right next to her and then some fell off roost. She took them all back to the nest. I don’t want them to get “used” to sleeping in a nest. I could block the nest boxes but I have another momma with a 3 week baby who isn’t completely feathered.
Advice appreciated! Thank you

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

No one should be sleeping in nestboxes. Generally my broodies sleep on the floor up until 4-12 weeks depending on the hen. Most hen start taking chicks to roost by around 6-8 weeks. Yours should within the next few weeks.

 

[Mrs. K]

The urge to roost is pretty strong, I have had good luck putting a board 12 inches wide across my roosts. The broody will get those chicks up there, and then in a couple of weeks, I just take it down. I would block off the nest before dark, and set up the board and see how it goes.

When they sleep in the nests, it gets so messy.

Mrs K

 

[aart]

When to intervene?.... now, I don't ever let chicks sleep in the laying nests.

I have extra roosts a bit lower than the main roosts.
My nest bank is also very easy to block off,
rigged a hinged cover when I had the same problem you are having.
Also have a separate floor nest for broodies and their chicks.

When you moved the chicks to the roost, was it pitch dark out?
That's the best time to move them.
I use a dim head light and keep it pointed up so as not to light their way off the roost.
Mrs.K's idea of a wider section of roost might help.

Have had only 2 broody hatches but neither taught their chicks to roost.
Had a bator batch that roosted on the main roost on their own at 6wo.

I would rig a cover for your nests.
Maybe make floor nest for the other broody, tho they'd be fine on the floor.

Seeing pics of the rest of your coop and roosts might garner some more ideas.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Seven week old chicks in southwest Louisiana, they could handle it on their own without Mama if it got into single digits, which it will not. Don't worry about it being too cold for them at all.

My nests are not on the coop floor so I don't have broody hens sleeping in them with their chicks. Some people purposely put nests on the coop floor as they think Mama needs a place to take the chicks. We all do these things differently.

I've had a broody hen take her chicks to the roosts at 2 weeks. I've had broody hens not take their chicks to the roosts before she weans them. I've had a couple of different broody hens wean their chicks at 3 weeks, I've had some not wean the chicks until well after two months, closer to three. If I had to come up with a time, most of my broody hens take their chicks to the roost around 4 or 5 weeks, but each broody marches to her own drummer. They wouldn't know what a calendar is if you gave them lessons, let alone how to follow one.

I personally try to intervene with my broody hens as little as possible. I figure I do less harm that way, but that's usually with younger chicks. At seven weeks I don't think you will harm them if you intervene. I don't know what your coop or roosts look like. In my opinion and experience that can have a big influence on when they roost, especially after Mama weans them even if they were roosting before she weaned them.

I won't talk about my brooder-raised chicks, they tend to be a little different. I've had broody-raised chicks continue to sleep on the main roosts after Mama weaned them, usually in a far corner as far from the adults as they can get. I have a juvenile roost in the coop, a foot lower and horizontally separated from the main roost by a few feet. That juvenile roost gives them a safe place to go that is not the nests. Sometimes the broody-raised chicks sleep here instead of on the main roosts. I've had a few (not many) broody-raised chicks leave the coop entirely and try to sleep out of the coop after they are weaned. Older hens can be pretty brutal to younger birds on the roosts. Some are worse than others, they are all different, but some pecking is pretty normal if they try to sleep to close to the older hens.

If you are getting poopy eggs trying to get them to roost is probably a good idea. What your roosts look like and how many other chickens you have sleeping up there can influence how easy that will be. If I were not getting poopy eggs I'd just let them work it out. Eventually they will.

 

[Kfults]

When to intervene?.... now, I don't ever let chicks sleep in the laying nests.

I have extra roosts a bit lower than the main roosts.
My nest bank is also very easy to block off,
rigged a hinged cover when I had the same problem you are having.
Also have a separate floor nest for broodies and their chicks.

When you moved the chicks to the roost, was it pitch dark out?
That's the best time to move them.
I use a dim head light and keep it pointed up so as not to light their way off the roost.
Mrs.K's idea of a wider section of roost might help.

Have had only 2 broody hatches but neither taught their chicks to roost.
Had a bator batch that roosted on the main roost on their own at 6wo.

I would rig a cover for your nests.
Maybe make floor nest for the other broody, tho they'd be fine on the floor.

Seeing pics of the rest of your coop and roosts might garner some more ideas.

Thanks for the tips! Live and learn. I am going to rig a block before dark and hope my other hens don’t lay everywhere first thing in am. Looks like a couple early morning unblocking nests for me! I have a Brock that I see on camera laying at crack of dawn. I had nests for broody and babies but after I let them interstate they moved to nesting boxes. It was in 30s and they were small so I thought it was for warmth. Now it is just habit I think. I am going to try widening the lower roosts too. Thanks

 

[aart]

I cover up nests about an hour before roosting time, then uncover them after dark when I lock up....no early morning coop runs for me.

 

[Kfults]

When to intervene?.... now, I don't ever let chicks sleep in the laying nests.

I have extra roosts a bit lower than the main roosts.
My nest bank is also very easy to block off,
rigged a hinged cover when I had the same problem you are having.
Also have a separate floor nest for broodies and their chicks.

When you moved the chicks to the roost, was it pitch dark out?
That's the best time to move them.
I use a dim head light and keep it pointed up so as not to light their way off the roost.
Mrs.K's idea of a wider section of roost might help.

Have had only 2 broody hatches but neither taught their chicks to roost.
Had a bator batch that roosted on the main roost on their own at 6wo.

I would rig a cover for your nests.
Maybe make floor nest for the other broody, tho they'd be fine on the floor.

Seeing pics of the rest of your coop and roosts might garner some more ideas.

First night success, I used cardboard boxes to block nests, 7 week old babies tried to roost at lowest roost latter, but ended up in a pile on floor with momma. I couldn’t see on camera what momma with 3 week old did. So later last night I went out with dim light and removed 2 of 4 boxes ( not the ones they liked sleeping in ). I looked for my 3 week old and she was snuggled up under the “ other momma” and her momma was on top roost! Daisy has not been an attentive momma like Sugar! Sugar seems to have taken my 3 week old under her care with her babies which she is still smothering with motherly attention. Daisy seems to be pretty much done with her mothering. Daisy will not be allowed to hatch again. Sugar Yes! She is a good momma. It was very sweet to see the little baby accepted and in the pile of babies.

 

[Mimi13]

First night success, I used cardboard boxes to block nests, 7 week old babies tried to roost at lowest roost latter, but ended up in a pile on floor with momma. I couldn’t see on camera what momma with 3 week old did. So later last night I went out with dim light and removed 2 of 4 boxes ( not the ones they liked sleeping in ). I looked for my 3 week old and she was snuggled up under the “ other momma” and her momma was on top roost! Daisy has not been an attentive momma like Sugar! Sugar seems to have taken my 3 week old under her care with her babies which she is still smothering with motherly attention. Daisy seems to be pretty much done with her mothering. Daisy will not be allowed to hatch again. Sugar Yes! She is a good momma. It was very sweet to see the little baby accepted and in the pile of babies.

That is so sweet of Sugar to take in the baby. Makes you kinda tear up a bit. I have a broody with three 5 wk olds and then I have eight 4 wk olds that I hatched in an incubator. The broody I think would have taken in my “Bator 8” but they pecked the hound out of her when they first got together. I honestly think she was confused to begin with because she was trying to watch after them and feed them. Until they acted like they’d never seen a grown chicken before. They hadn’t, and it showed. They think I’m their momma. Crazy birds.

Anyway, this thread has been very informational for both of us. Thank you for starting it. Now I know what I’ve got to do too.

 

[aart]

So later last night I went out with dim light and removed 2 of 4 boxes ( not the ones they liked sleeping in )

Nest boxes?
Why did you remove them....do you have older birds that are laying?