VickenChicken
Hatching
- Dec 17, 2024
- 1
- 0
- 4
So I'm brand new to raising chicks. And to this group! Hello! So about 3 weeks ago we found a hen (jersey giant) in the hay loft with 7 babies. We moved her into separate room of the coop in a brooder with her babies. 2 days later a buff brahma hen that was missing i found outside the coop on a really cold morning with 14, day old chicks under her it's amazing they all survived! I moved them into a large dog cage in back of coop as well. After about a week i started lifting the lid on the brooder so momma hen could stretch a little. And the 14 we had in cage on floor i started leaving open as well. Everything seemed fine the past week or so, til 2 days ago. 3 of the chicks from the 7 jumped onto the floor so mom came down we decided to let the rest out of the brooder and we were rotating the 2 mom's in and out the cages throughout the day. This evening i came in and noticed the brahma was away from her chicks a bit and i gave some treats and filled water and she wouldn't let her chicks by her and seemed very mad about the other mother hen and her chicks puffing up and pecking at them inside their cage. She kept going after her babies i thought when they went by other hen so i covered the other hen so she couldn't see them and she kept going after the chicks. I removed her for the night. Should i try to get her back with her babies? They are about 3 weeks old now. Or should i try to see if other hen will accept them? Or just keep them in the brooder and take care of them? I feel bad i think the other hen is stressing her out we shouldn't have let her down it all seemed fine but we were scared the chicks would hurt themselves trying to get out of the brooder and the 3 on ground were hard to catch.
