Will broody hen be affected by other chick sound?

[HenKeepers]

I’m assuming their area is well heated right? We made the mistake of introducing a batch of one week old chicks we incubated to the hen on the day that the eggs she was brooding were hatching. We lost 5/8 of the newly born because the hen was distracted by the one week old. Somehow the newly born chicks got chilled even though we had the heat lamp.

The hen will overheat if we add a heat lamp. When she had 65 chicks we added a heat lamp to the other side of the 8'x8' brooder, but with 21 she can fit them all under her. We never add chicks that are more than 5 days apart in age. If they hatch late, we will move them to another hen. At 3 weeks, or fully feathered wings, everybody goes to a mobile brooder. At 4 weeks, or mostly feathered bodies, they free range all day and sleep in their mobile brooder at night. We give them hay or wood chips to nest in and conserve body heat. We are in north Florida, 70 degrees at night. We have a windbreaker for the brooder boxes, as we have found that wind will kill chicks more than just temperature.

 

[HenKeepers]

Game hens (street chickens, gas station chickens) are legendary for the size of their hatches.

65?

Game hens (gas station hens, street chicken hens) are legendary for their mothering. We LOVE them. They are the first part of predator control and feed efficiency. Incubator/Hatchery/Breeder chicks need a good teacher for what to eat and what to watch out for. We started with 10 originals and now have ~15. All of our Super Broody hens are game hens.

 

[Silkie Princess]

My broody hen is sitting on eggs in a run that is placed beside a chick brooder. She didn't snap out of being a broody. Actually, she was so broody I had to place her out of her nest so she would eat and drink ( and poop of course). Although she freaks out every time she sees them.

 

[HardinRanch]

Update. Our second hen has successfully hatched 10 out of 11 eggs unaffected by the chicks barriered off in the same brooder . Just in time for the first batch of chicks to graduate from the brooder with their mama. Now this batch has the whole brooder to themselves.

 

[Silkie Princess]

Thats great!