Three and a half weeks ago I had a broody hatch out 7 chicks. A week later another broody hatched out 4 chicks. So I had 2 hens with 11 chicks together in a coop that I had made for use as a tractor. They were separated by chicken wire which kept everything pretty stable. I pulled out the chicken wire to see if the hens and chicks would coexist and immediately had one hen attack the other. So that wasn't going to work. The first broody with 7 chicks came from my flock of 8 TSC pullets. They are very well behaved and I'll be darned if I can see a pecking order. They're never aggressive to each other. After the attack mentioned above I moved the first broody back into the run with her other 7 flock mates. She took off after them with a vengeance which I can only assume was because I hadn't moved her chicks in yet and she was confused and worried about them not being around. Once I got the chicks in there everything settled down and she took pretty good care of them. I had to corral them into the coop nightly because the chicks couldn't figure out how to get into the coop so they'd all stay together out in the run. It is cold now and the broody with the 7 chicks in the run doesn't seem to want to mother them very much. As such they end up huddled outside in the cold so I am going to fence them into the coop in their own are where they have their water and food. The second broody is still in the coop with her 4 chicks and much like the first hen she doesn't seem to pay much attention to them. I am thinking about integrating her back in with her free ranging flock and moving her 4 chicks up with the other 11 in the main coop. I'm sure that someone will get picked on a bit but they'll be with 7 chicks that are accepted by the flock in general and they will be separated from the larger girls while the weather is cold. There's only a weeks difference between the 2 sets of chicks. It can really make a lot less work if I only have to deal with 1 set of chicks rather than the 2 that I have now. And I want to move my free ranging flock into the tractor coop where there is some heat for them since the weather is so cool. At least until I get them their own coop. AND... I also have a broody that is on day 16 of brooding 21 eggs. Next weekend will be very busy at the Baker household. I still haven't told the wife that I'll be putting her and the the eggs in the house later this week.
3.5 weeks is about when most mama hens stop mothering their chicks and turn them loose on the world. I hope you have a lot of coops. Here's an excellent article on integrating chickens: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-adding-to-your-flock
Quote:Can you tell that to my American Game hen??? Her chicks are at least 12 weeks old and she still tries to fit them under her wings at night
