L Marques Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Hi all its bee a couple of weeks since i have posted. My Angie has started laying eggs again,the chicks are now 5 weeks old.listen to this...last friday i let her out of the sleeping area of the and the chicks and then she went back in, i wondered why so went to have a look and she was sitting in the nest i knew then she was going to lay an egg,and yes she did,i then went to take it out and she ame looking for it so i left it,(felt guilty) my 5 year old little girl go up and i told her her chicken had layd an egg so she went to get it and she said there are TWO eggs,i said no way! Well yes way ,there was 2 eggs.i ould not believe my eyes.Anyway she has laid another egg the next day and today aswell. The bad news is she no longer cares for her babies and today she started pecking them quiet alot poor things,i am worried for them tonightas they are sleeping with her.There was no blood they are not hurt.Why is she been so mean to them?Will she stop doing that?Or do you think i will need to put them sleeping elsewhere? I checked them this evening and they where all in there but she wasn`t pecking them,at least they where quiet.so i left them and i am hoping for the best. Any sugestions please ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Its quite normal It means Mum is fed up of having her chicks and is ready to go back to be being a normal chook who lays eggs as you have seen The key is to make sure that the chicks are fully feathered (so they will be warm enough at night), which is normally around 6 weeks, but the hen usually knows best. If yours look ready then no problem! You can take her out and put her back in with the main flock. Some people with merge the hen/chicks in with the main flock but I never do this for 2 reasons. Most importantly, chicks and growers should really be brought up away (as far away as possible) from older birds. Their immune systems are not fully developed and they are more prone to disease that an older bird might shrug off. The other reason is that some flocks will pick on chicks and although in theory Mum should defend them, this doesn't always happen, particularly when she has decided she's had enough of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miller30 Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Yep my bantam girl is fed up with her babies she is quite mean to them now. Poor babies don't understand so they have all gone up for sale but I wont sell mum and babies to the same people as she will just pick on them this pekin was one of my for sale girls but decided to go broody leanne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittyl Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Oh dear, it's a shame when this happens and a nuisance for you. As you know my brahma Beany left her chicks & was quite mean to them - still is, but Nettle my pekin happily lets hers hang around her all day even though she's stopped sleeping with them at night. 2 of Beany's chicks are late feathering up so at night I let them sleep in a rabbit cage in my conservatory with a heater. (they're 6 weeks old) If your hen is attacking the chicks I think you really need to separate them till they are a bit bigger, which I know is probably a bit hard for you to arrange as your other hen is probably still sitting? so you may need 3 runs & coops! a rabbit hutch may do for now if you're stuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
