Integrating Mum and chicks into flock

[Julesey]

Hi,
I have 2 broody hens at the moment that I’m letting sit on eggs provided by a neighbour (we don’t have a cockerel). I’ve set up a private area for them both with their own coop (plastic, Omlet coop) on the ground with their own attached run. Neither are moving off the eggs at all so I’m having to turf them out each day to eat, drink and poo. I know this for a fact as I’ve got cameras on them (married to a geek !!). If anything above seems wrong, please let me know but I think it’s OK from what I’ve read here. What I can’t get my head around is how they will integrate with the flock.

I have a few questions. If anyone can help answer I’d be extremely grateful:
1. If they have been separated for 21 days and barely left the coop, will the rest of the flock ‘recognise’ them still as part of the flock?
2. If the chicks need chick crumb followed by growers pellets, do I need to keep all the chicks separate from the rest of the flock until 18 weeks when they can go on layer’s pellets?
3. Do I let the chicks in amongst the flock with Mum when they hatch, if yes, at what stage and how does that work with point 2?
4. How much room will Mum and new chicks need initially? whilst we have a fair amount of free ranging space, the ‘maternity wards’ aren’t huge 3x3m run. Is that enough room?

Apologies for the questions, never done this before and couldn’t see a direct answer to the specific questions in other threads. Many thanks in advance for advice.
Jules

 

[DobieLover]

1. If they have been separated for 21 days and barely left the coop, will the rest of the flock ‘recognise’ them still as part of the flock?

They shouldn't be isolated from the flock. Their little maternity ward setups should be set up within the main flock area so they can be around them all the time. Ideally, you would manage their broody breaks by removing them from their maternity ward apartments to permit them to intermingle with the flock, even briefly, and then when they were ready to return to their nest put them back in and close them up.

2. If the chicks need chick crumb followed by growers pellets, do I need to keep all the chicks separate from the rest of the flock until 18 weeks when they can go on layer’s pellets?

If you switch the flock over to an all flock type of feed you never have to worry about this. The mother, the chicks, males, and pre-point-of-lay pullets can all eat the same food. You just offer a container or two of oyster shell on the side for free choice feeding by active layers.

3. Do I let the chicks in amongst the flock with Mum when they hatch, if yes, at what stage and how does that work with point 2?

I typically wait until the chicks are highly mobile before I open the door to the maternity ward. Then mom will either leave with the chicks or permit some of her friends to enter to visit the chicks. When she's ready she will take them out to meet the rest of the flock.

4. How much room will Mum and new chicks need initially?

About three times as much space as a single adult hen. She needs room to maneuver and feel safe with her chicks. She will aggressively drive away any bird that she does not want near her chicks.

Are both of your broody hens do to hatch at the same time? That can be a very complicating factor.

 

[Julesey]

Thank you SO much for all the below. Responses in line:

They shouldn't be isolated from the flock. Their little maternity ward setups should be set up within the main flock area so they can be around them all the time. Ideally, you would manage their broody breaks by removing them from their maternity ward apartments to permit them to intermingle with the flock, even briefly, and then when they were ready to return to their nest put them back in and close them up.

They are within the enclosure so the flock is around them but shut in the cages and aren’t mingling with the flock when I chuck them out. Should I just open the cage door so the rest of the flock can get in and the broody ones can go out if she chooses?

If you switch the flock over to an all flock type of feed you never have to worry about this. The mother, the chicks, males, and pre-point-of-lay pullets can all eat the same food. You just offer a container or two of oyster shell on the side for free choice feeding by active layers.

Thank you. Had no idea such a thing existed !

I typically wait until the chicks are highly mobile before I open the door to the maternity ward. Then mom will either leave with the chicks or permit some of her friends to enter to visit the chicks. When she's ready she will take them out to meet the rest of the flock.

Thank you

About three times as much space as a single adult hen. She needs room to maneuver and feel safe with her chicks. She will aggressively drive away any bird that she does not want near her chicks.

Thank you

Are both of your broody hens do to hatch at the same time? That can be a very complicating factor.

If all goes to plan, they will be 9 days apart. Is that OK? Why does it complicate?

 

[DobieLover]

Should I just open the cage door so the rest of the flock can get in and the broody ones can go out if she chooses?

Whether or not I open the door to the maternity ward during the incubation is highly dependent on the hen herself and how she ranks within the flock. You can try it and see how things go for her. But make sure that all of her hatching eggs are very clearly marked so that you can remove errant eggs if another hen slides into her nest to lay her egg.

Why does it complicate?

Mostly it has to do with the very protective nature of the mothers. Having two hens near each other, both with chicks, is a crapshoot. Sometimes it works out okay. Other times they fight and sometimes the chicks can be injured or killed. A lot of this will boil down to how much space they have to work with. Hopefully they are not tightly confined and have plenty of room to maneuver around along with the rest of the flock..

 

[Julesey]

Thank you very much for the invaluable insights. They have plenty of space and I have the possibility of separating their large runs so all should be well. Hens are 1 and 2 in the ranking so I’ll see how it goes and will mark the eggs as you suggest.

Really appreciate your advice.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some good advice from Dobie. I'll add my perspective. As a general statement, you are dealing with living animals. You do not get guarantees. A lot of different things can happen. We can tell you what might happen or how we manage it, but your results can be totally different.

I’ve set up a private area for them both with their own coop (plastic, Omlet coop) on the ground with their own attached run.

Some people let the hen hatch with the flock. They do not isolate the hen or her nest at all. Others isolate the hen and nest during the entire process. If you wanted to let her hatch with the flock I'd want to know what your coop and the nest looked like so I could assess that, sometimes it does not work really well. But you have already made that decision so I won't go into that. There is nothing wrong with isolating a broody hen and her nest.

Neither are moving off the eggs at all so I’m having to turf them out each day to eat, drink and poo. I know this for a fact as I’ve got cameras on them (married to a geek !!).

I've had hens come off of the nest twice a day and stay off an hour each time. I've had hens come off 15 minutes early in the morning and that is it. I've had hens that I never saw off of the nest but I knew they were coming off as they did not poop in their nest. Some do not come off every day. I don't know how much time you are actually giving them but there is nothing wrong with you removing them as you are. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

1. If they have been separated for 21 days and barely left the coop, will the rest of the flock ‘recognise’ them still as part of the flock?

I don't know. For this I don't think it matters which size Omlet coop you have since they are all plastic so they can't see inside. The only way they are going to see them is if the rest of the flock happens to be around when they come outside. But I would not worry about this. If they free range a hen can go broody on a hidden nest and not be around the flock much if at all during those three weeks. They rejoin the flock when they hatch. I don't give guarantees with chicken behaviors but I would not worry about this.

2. If the chicks need chick crumb followed by growers pellets, do I need to keep all the chicks separate from the rest of the flock until 18 weeks when they can go on layer’s pellets?

I do as Dobie mentioned. I usually have immature chickens in my flock so they never get Layer.

3. Do I let the chicks in amongst the flock with Mum when they hatch, if yes, at what stage and how does that work with point 2?

I let the chicks hatch with the flock and stay with them. Others keep them isolated. I've had broody hens wean their chicks as early as 3 weeks of age. Some wait until closer to 3 months to wean them. By letting the hen raise them with the flock she handles integration. Even the three-week-olds were OK with the flock on their own. If you isolate them you may have to integrate them yourself.

4. How much room will Mum and new chicks need initially?

If they are isolated, not much initially but the chicks grow fast. If they are with the flock the hen will keep her chicks well away from the others. If the chicks are unprotected the other hens may attack them. Mine generally do not attack them, but it is possible a hen may go out of her way to kill an unprotected chick. I have never lost a chick to another adult but mine have a lot of room. I can't give you a set distance or area. If they are shoehorned together Momma may have trouble protecting her babies. So give them as much room as you reasonably can. It sounds like you have enough.

Many people have multiple broodies incubating eggs in the same building, either in the same nest of each on their own nest with different hatch dates like yours. A lot of the time that works great. Many people never have a problem with that. But this is under the category of you do not get guarantees.

Sometimes a hen will kill chicks with a different hen. It is rare but there are a lot of people on this forum. You can read about that occasionally. While this is really rare the risk is not zero. I'll mention again many people allow multiple broodies to hatch in the same coop and don't see this problem.

Something I have experienced. Two broody hens fighting over chicks. Instead of wanting to kill the other chicks the broody wants to adopt them and raise them. Sometimes two broody hens work together as a team to jointly raise them. This happens a lot. But sometimes one or both broodies do not want to share so they fight with the winner getting the chicks. The fighting is vicious, it is possible one could be injured or killed, but usually one wins and gets the chicks. The other soon breaks from being broody.

My experience with this was that I had a hen go broody two or three days before another hen was set to hatch. When the new broody heard the chicks peeping in the shell before they hatched she attacked the other broody to take over. The new broody won but they destroyed about half of the eggs during the fight.

I'll repeat myself. Many people never have problems like this. I have no idea what will happen with yours. But since this happened to me I have never allowed two broody hens to share a common space.

Good luck! I wish you the best.

 

[Julesey]

Some good advice from Dobie. I'll add my perspective. As a general statement, you are dealing with living animals. You do not get guarantees. A lot of different things can happen. We can tell you what might happen or how we manage it, but your results can be totally different.


Some people let the hen hatch with the flock. They do not isolate the hen or her nest at all. Others isolate the hen and nest during the entire process. If you wanted to let her hatch with the flock I'd want to know what your coop and the nest looked like so I could assess that, sometimes it does not work really well. But you have already made that decision so I won't go into that. There is nothing wrong with isolating a broody hen and her nest.


I've had hens come off of the nest twice a day and stay off an hour each time. I've had hens come off 15 minutes early in the morning and that is it. I've had hens that I never saw off of the nest but I knew they were coming off as they did not poop in their nest. Some do not come off every day. I don't know how much time you are actually giving them but there is nothing wrong with you removing them as you are. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.


I don't know. For this I don't think it matters which size Omlet coop you have since they are all plastic so they can't see inside. The only way they are going to see them is if the rest of the flock happens to be around when they come outside. But I would not worry about this. If they free range a hen can go broody on a hidden nest and not be around the flock much if at all during those three weeks. They rejoin the flock when they hatch. I don't give guarantees with chicken behaviors but I would not worry about this.


I do as Dobie mentioned. I usually have immature chickens in my flock so they never get Layer.


I let the chicks hatch with the flock and stay with them. Others keep them isolated. I've had broody hens wean their chicks as early as 3 weeks of age. Some wait until closer to 3 months to wean them. By letting the hen raise them with the flock she handles integration. Even the three-week-olds were OK with the flock on their own. If you isolate them you may have to integrate them yourself.


If they are isolated, not much initially but the chicks grow fast. If they are with the flock the hen will keep her chicks well away from the others. If the chicks are unprotected the other hens may attack them. Mine generally do not attack them, but it is possible a hen may go out of her way to kill an unprotected chick. I have never lost a chick to another adult but mine have a lot of room. I can't give you a set distance or area. If they are shoehorned together Momma may have trouble protecting her babies. So give them as much room as you reasonably can. It sounds like you have enough.

Many people have multiple broodies incubating eggs in the same building, either in the same nest of each on their own nest with different hatch dates like yours. A lot of the time that works great. Many people never have a problem with that. But this is under the category of you do not get guarantees.

Sometimes a hen will kill chicks with a different hen. It is rare but there are a lot of people on this forum. You can read about that occasionally. While this is really rare the risk is not zero. I'll mention again many people allow multiple broodies to hatch in the same coop and don't see this problem.

Something I have experienced. Two broody hens fighting over chicks. Instead of wanting to kill the other chicks the broody wants to adopt them and raise them. Sometimes two broody hens work together as a team to jointly raise them. This happens a lot. But sometimes one or both broodies do not want to share so they fight with the winner getting the chicks. The fighting is vicious, it is possible one could be injured or killed, but usually one wins and gets the chicks. The other soon breaks from being broody.

My experience with this was that I had a hen go broody two or three days before another hen was set to hatch. When the new broody heard the chicks peeping in the shell before they hatched she attacked the other broody to take over. The new broody won but they destroyed about half of the eggs during the fight.

I'll repeat myself. Many people never have problems like this. I have no idea what will happen with yours. But since this happened to me I have never allowed two broody hens to share a common space.

Good luck! I wish you the best.

Thank you very, very much. I’ll let you know how it all goes. The first one is definitely dedicated to seeing it through I would say but I think the second is still deciding if she wants to sit. Both sitting for now. The first one will not leave her eggs so I’m still putting her out once a day but I’ll now let her mingle with the others when she’s out, thanks for the advice. She’s not out for long, stuffs her face, drinks a lot, smelliest poo in the world and back to it. She’s not off for more than about 15 mins. At the moment, the second hen comes out first thing when I open the coop door, same routine but spends longer off the eggs and usually goes back to the first coop she chose which is not where the eggs are ! I put her back where she should be and she stays there. For now

 

[Tormund]

We are currently in the process of hatching out eggs with 2 broody hens and this is our 3rd time hatching chicks. Each time we have separated the hen from the flock after about 10 days of them being broody and we have never had issue with reintroducing the chicks to the flock although like the other commenters have advised we wait until the chicks are big enough that they can all run well enough that they can run with mom outdoors and we let the chicks out with the moms to roam in the yard during the day and put them back inside the nesting box at night. They do not stay out with the flock overnight until they are able to jump up to the lowest level perch which is about 3 feet off the ground.
Our 2 broodies, Momma Hen (seems to go broody at least every other month of not more has hatched all of our previous chicks 3rd hatching) and mean hen (Alpha Hen 2nd hatching) are 4 years old and the oldest hens in the flock. the chicks have always integrated will in the past and other than the pecking order squabbles have been pretty seamless.
As far as the food goes, we feed them chick crumb until they are old enough to be integrated and then we mix whatever is left of the chick crumb in with the feed all the chickens eat after that.
And finally, as far as box. We have a nesting pen for our broodies. A 60inx60inx18in box that has nesting boxes in it with waterer and food containers mounted on the walls.