My friend has a broody hen, and she took some of my fertilized eggs. She has three chicks that hatched! Now, the question. Does the mommy hen protect the chicks from the other hens? Also, should she block the door to the coop, it is off the ground and she is afraid that the chicks will fall out, down the ramp. Does the mommy hen take care of there things?
broody hatch question
I keep my chicks seperated from the big girls utnill they are about a week old,my silkies are great with the chicks even the rooster,now the big hen that has four babies is really nasty and all the others walk way out aruond her because she is so protective and will really attack them hard.I have no big rooster so I don`t know about that.Now all that being said if your friend puts them in togather she will have to keep a close eye on them to see what happens,maybe the mother will not be a good protector if not then she will have to keep them seperate.
I have had bantam broodies that defended their babies from everything and everyone, and a very sweet Welsummer who lost all her babies to blue jays.
So it does depend. Also, much room is there for them? She will need to be able to get her babies away from the big hens for food and water as well as safety.
We have two babies that are in with 3 hens and one roo. The roo takes better care of the babies than the momma hens (two were sitting on eggs and hatched the two babies).
Another question. If you have a hen that is always going broody. Would it help to let her hatch a clutch of eggs? I mean would she get less broody after that?
Well, once she hatches the chicks she won't go broody for some time. She will be busy raising the chicks and then recovering from the whole business.
But once she starts laying again she is still likely to go broody as soon as she accumulates a clutch. Sometimes gathering the eggs as soon as she lays them, so that she doesn't have anything to sit on, helps...but a really determined broody will brood a rock, so it is difficult to prevent it if she is really set on setting.