Where should broody hen and new foster chicks live?

[ontheridge]

I have a flock of 7 hens, 5 are about a year old and 2 are 6 months or so. One of my marans is extremely broody. She's been camped out in the nesting boxes and only leaves when I push her out at feeding time and am gathering eggs. She gobbles some food and heads back up to the nesting box. She must think someone is trying to trick her because we have 3 nesting boxes and she will hang out in whichever one has her flock mates' eggs at the time.

I'm thinking of giving her some chicks, but I can't decide if I should leave her and the chicks in the existing coop. The nesting boxes are raised, which I understand could be a problem if the chicks fall out. Also, my broody mama is not the queen bee of the flock, so I do worry about aggression from the other hens. However, I'm unsure about relocating broody mama as I know it is stressful, not to mention I've always thought baby chicks needed to be, well, err, 'babied' when it came to staying out of the dirt and exposed to elements. (We raised the existing flock inside in a dog crate.) If we put broody mama and the foster chicks in a 'temporary' enclosure (plywood and chicken wire sides, plywood roof, exposed grass on bottom), will the chicks be healthy? Also, would we need to wait a long time before sending them all into the coop?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[LRH97]

It's a good idea to separate a broody. The move can be a little stressful, but it's more healthy for her to hatch and raise her babies in peace. Other birds can be downright nasty to baby chicks as well. I actually use an old dog crate for my broodies. It's worked for me. Only thing is, you may need to wrap chicken wire around the bottom, depending on how big the bar spaces are. Also, momma hen will start to push the babies away from her as soon as she thinks they are old enough to be on their own. However, two months is a good age to introduce new birds to your flock.

 

[Lucy chick]

Hi, I'm a new member to BYC, I recently had the same thing happen. One of my chickens went broody in one of the nest boxes that are up high in the coop. She has been laying on about 6 eggs for about 3 days now. We marked them so we would know if any other eggs somehow were laid by the other chickens. Today we took an old popcorn popper (commercial size) has a heat lamp and converted it into a brooder. We transferred the eggs and broody chicken to it tonight. We fenced off a section of our coop to keep the other chickens and rooster away from her. She seemed a little confused, but we will know tomorrow morning if she is laying in the nest where we put her eggs.