One of my hens has been sitting on 10 eggs for a little over 2 weeks now. 2 Days ago another of my hens started getting broody too and they are fighting over the same box. My question is if I split the eggs between the 2 of them and separate them will I have a happy ending? Or am I better off moving momma and all 10 eggs till they hatch?
Thanks you!
Caren
Dueling Broodys
do I have you all stumped?? ; )
I have had several broodies brood together and it worked fine. They do tend to "steal" the eggs back and forth and one may end up with more than her share, but the chicks hatched fine.
With two of my Nankins, the mothers, who were sisters, raised the chicks together with one being the main Mum and the other sort of a secondary watcher.
Have you tried giving the newly broody hen her own eggs? Sometimes that works. You can try seperating the eggs between the two. We do that with our Silkies. We had 6 Silkies sitting on eggs, right now we have 5 sitting on eggs and for a while two of them were in the same nest. We had one hatch a baby and moved her out with her baby so the double decker hens got seperated..
I was mainly worried about when they start to hatch... With 2 hens in one box I was worried about a baby getting stepped on. I did separate the eggs between the 2 of them and both hens seem to be Ok with that. I don't know what Ill do if another hen gets the hot butt!
I have 4 cochin hens sitting in one small dog carrier.there was like 40 eggs between them covering the whole bottom of the carier.They have been hatching just fine.I have probly 20 chicks already and every day i gather a few more.I wouldent worry much about your girls in the same box.They are very gentle with the new babies and know right where they are due to the peeps and movement.
This message was edited Apr 19, 2010 12:05 PM
Wow! 40 Cochin babies! What will you do with them all? :)
Good to know they will be careful... perhaps when I get a few hatches under my belt I wont be such a paranoid mama ;)
I have been selling the blacks and mottled for now and keeping the best blues.I also just got 6 milli fluer cochin chicks with my marans order.I do love my cochins!
These are some of the lightest blue cochin.
This message was edited Apr 23, 2010 6:38 PM
I love those little furry legs!