Wrath's Marans

[z3lda3]

Betty out with her babies for the first time. View attachment 3933348View attachment 3933349View attachment 3933350

A beautiful family!
Question:how long do you keep mama and babies separated from flock?

 

[The Coop Crew]

That's awesome.. won't be long now.

I’m so excited! Look at this. First picture was the 8th, next picture was the 30th. So crazy how fast it happened.

 

[wrathsfarm]

A beautiful family!
Question:how long do you keep mama and babies separated from flock?

Thank you

I missed this post, I'm sorry.
Some people let their broodys hatch right in the flock not separating them at all. I tried this year with a couple broodys but I was getting too many hens wanting to crowd in with the broody resulting in either eggs being broke in the nest or laying extra eggs which I need to pull to not have a staggered hatch.

All my broodys sit on specific eggs that are marked and dated.

So depending on the hen in question I may have to block her nest off or move her and the eggs but still allow her to get off the nest daily.

I have brooders built under the poop board to separate but still in sight of the flock. I had a brooder room built for the Easter hatch I incubated that was connected to the Marans coop but that since has been opened up to make one bigger coop.
I let the broody decide when she wants to bring the babies out but this is normally a couple days depending on if she's still sitting on eggs. The chicks will be stronger and curious about outside of the nest and that's when she brings them out to meet the world.
When she's ready to get them outside for her dustbathe I coax them to a spare run (I have 3 attached to the barn that are all interconnected) so she has no stress and can focus on just her babies for a day or 2. When I feel she's ready to get introduced I open the run door and the flock can come see the new additions.


2 brooders under poop boards

 

[wrathsfarm]

@z3lda3

I just took these.. Betty is on the right with her 3 and Dbl. Yellow is on the right with her 7.

There's plexiglass between the 2 brooders I can remove to make 1 large one. If you notice only Betty has a nest box in her part. After a few days most broodys will stop using it and just park wherever. If they stop using it I pull it out to give them more room.
It's really all trial and error to see what works. Copper has her 3 up on the roosts at night from an early age but Jett has her 2 still in a nest box that's on the floor at night. She hasn't wanted to get them on the roost yet where Copper was wanting them up there before they could fly up that high so there was a couple nights I had to manually put them up there with her...

 

[wrathsfarm]

3 different ways of thinking going on here. I think "funny" and can only guess the thought processing of Star and the hen in the nest box.

Star is our barn cat so they're all used to her being all snoopy, she only attempted to get close to one broody with chicks once and learned they're off limits, so she keeps a wide perimeter to them now.

 

[z3lda3]

@z3lda3

I just took these.. Betty is on the right with her 3 and Dbl. Yellow is on the right with her 7.

There's plexiglass between the 2 brooders I can remove to make 1 large one. If you notice only Betty has a nest box in her part. After a few days most broodys will stop using it and just park wherever. If they stop using it I pull it out to give them more room.
It's really all trial and error to see what works. Copper has her 3 up on the roosts at night from an early age but Jett has her 2 still in a nest box that's on the floor at night. She hasn't wanted to get them on the roost yet where Copper was wanting them up there before they could fly up that high so there was a couple nights I had to manually put them up there with her...View attachment 3934518View attachment 3934519View attachment 3934520

What an awesome set-up! Look like some hard work went into that. It looks amazing and all look happy. So when mamma decides to take babies out into the flock, she protects them pretty well from bigger chickens? Keep in mind I’ve never had a broody, I’ve had to incubate and introduce myself.

 

[z3lda3]

3 different ways of thinking going on here. I think "funny" and can only guess the thought processing of Star and the hen in the nest box.

Star is our barn cat so they're all used to her being all snoopy, she only attempted to get close to one broody with chicks once and learned they're off limits, so she keeps a wide perimeter to them now.View attachment 3934558

Does Star do a good job keeping little critters out?

 

[wrathsfarm]

What an awesome set-up! Look like some hard work went into that. It looks amazing and all look happy. So when mamma decides to take babies out into the flock, she protects them pretty well from bigger chickens? Keep in mind I’ve never had a broody, I’ve had to incubate and introduce myself.

Thanks...not really too hard. Comes easy with over 20 yrs in construction and hoarding material.

Yes... they are vicious towards the others if they get too close. Being separated even still in sight the pecking order changes over that 3 wks. So when reintroducing the hen with chicks there can be fights until order is re-established. With the OGs and especially head hen those don't last long at all, but I've had a couple fights drag out for 5-10 mins latching on to combs or necks and not letting go. I try not to intervene unless it gets bloody, because I'm just prolonging it to happen again.
But like Betty for instance..she's not head hen but she's an OG. She's brought the babies out, walked right thru the flock and found her little corner in whatever run and no one has messed with her. The POL pullets got a little curious who the new babies are but she chased the first one off, calm is restored and all is good...Instant integration.

Does Star do a good job keeping little critters out?

Oh yes, she's a hunter that rarely comes in the house.

 

[z3lda3]

Thanks...not really too hard. Comes easy with over 20 yrs in construction and hoarding material.

Yes... they are vicious towards the others if they get too close. Being separated even still in sight the pecking order changes over that 3 wks. So when reintroducing the hen with chicks there can be fights until order is re-established. With the OGs and especially head hen those don't last long at all, but I've had a couple fights drag out for 5-10 mins latching on to combs or necks and not letting go. I try not to intervene unless it gets bloody, because I'm just prolonging it to happen again.
But like Betty for instance..she's not head hen but she's an OG. She's brought the babies out, walked right thru the flock and found her little corner in whatever run and no one has messed with her. The POL pullets got a little curious who the new babies are but she chased the first one off, calm is restored and all is good...Instant integration.

Oh yes, she's a hunter that rarely comes in the house.

I’m wanting my bantam to have a clutch, from my understanding she’s the only breed I have that will go broody. My RSLs go “broody” for 6 hours or so and then it’s “well if they haven’t hatched by now guess they’re not going to -cya”. Until then I’ll just live vicariously through you
Does Kong or King act protective over the babies? Or are roosters more like lions and try to kill them?

 

[Tstraub]

Thanks...not really too hard. Comes easy with over 20 yrs in construction and hoarding material.

Yes... they are vicious towards the others if they get too close. Being separated even still in sight the pecking order changes over that 3 wks. So when reintroducing the hen with chicks there can be fights until order is re-established. With the OGs and especially head hen those don't last long at all, but I've had a couple fights drag out for 5-10 mins latching on to combs or necks and not letting go. I try not to intervene unless it gets bloody, because I'm just prolonging it to happen again.
But like Betty for instance..she's not head hen but she's an OG. She's brought the babies out, walked right thru the flock and found her little corner in whatever run and no one has messed with her. The POL pullets got a little curious who the new babies are but she chased the first one off, calm is restored and all is good...Instant integration.

Oh yes, she's a hunter that rarely comes in the house.

When I first let my Jersey Giant and her chicks together with the main flock I did it out in the yard so that if they got in a fight everyone had space to run away.

I let Gena out and she left the chicks behind and flew right into the middle of the main flock and started fighting one of the other hens. All the rest of the flock circled around. It looked like fight club Gena took on every one of those hens one at a time then flew back to the chicks and calmly walked them right out to the flock they all kept there distance from the chicks and I had almost no trouble after that

Once in a while one of the Easter Eggers would get to close and Gena would let them know it wasn’t ok. If Gena got too aggressive my rooster Axl would quickly put her in her place. Nothing ever got bloody just a whole lot of clucking a a few feathers lost.