Yikes! What do I do now?

[2pinkmom]

My broody Cuckoo Maran has been sitting on 11 eggs in one of the nestboxes of our Amish shed type coop. Just peeked in there to see an adorable chick! What do I do? The other 6 hens are out in the yard at the moment. I'm worried that they will try to kill the chick when they return to the coop tonight. Should I try to move mama and the remaining eggs into the chicken tractor I use for meaties? Cordone off the nest box somehow? Help! I'm not sure if I should be trying to move mama since I don't know if the other eggs are pipping or otherwise in the process of hatching. I guess I could put the other ladies in the tractor, too.

 

[zoo2u]

i would not move her as she still needs the other ones to hatch. she will protect her new baby and it should hide underneath, deep in her feathers anyway. We have tons of hens and hens that raise babies and never had a problem. Good luck!

 

[2pinkmom]

I put the wire part of an old hamster cage on it's side in front of the nest box. Still enough room for mom to get up and leave if she wants to. Figured that would at least discourage the other gals. Should I have not done that? I alsoput some food and water in there so she wouldn't have to leave the coop to eat. I feel like a dodo bird about the whole thing. I meant to have done more research on this and have a plan in place, but got sidetracked by sick kids and butchering the meaties.

On the up side, the chick is a beautiful BCM from the incredible hatching eggs I bought from a BYCer!

 

[cluckcluck42]

Definitely leave them there, the momma hen will fight off any hen that will come bother her. The other hens probably will not meddle with her anyways. Congrats on the new BCM chicks

 

[Mahonri]

Leave them there, Mama will protect.

 

[pnuts]

when i was in your exact situation i moved my hen to a cage in the main coop so she and her babies would be safe. she was in a high up area and i was worried the babies would fall out of the nest and hurt themselves. she sat back down on the baby and the rest of the eggs after having a 5 second tizzy. i forgot if i moved the chicken or the eggs first but she hatched all the ones that were hatchable

 

[Muggsmagee]

Even though she will protect them...maybe it would be a good idea to move them tomorrow night? After all the chicks hatch? I've read so many different opinions on here...I move my hens/chicks to a place by themselves so there is no room for error. Your meaties tractor sounds like the right spot!

 

[mothersin2ition]

It would be totally fine to move her, but do it at night while she's drowsy/sleeping...I have done both; leaving them in with the other chickens and also putting them in their own separate tractor. They do fine either way. In fact, after a couple weeks, mama hen is ready to take her babies out into the "real" world anyway and integrate them into the flock, so I let them out of the tractor at that time. She will aggressively defend them if any of the others get too nosy for her comfort