[silverteen]

i habe 3 lovely silkie hens and two are broody, so i got 6 fertile eggs from a local farmer and placed them in the nest box they have been sharing.

they are both trying to sit on the 6 eggs although - macy one of the hens seems to have 5 or even 6 under her most of the time.

Im happy for them to share sitting, but i dont want to cause any problem when they hatch. theyve been there since thursday and i just candeled and seen small veins in at least 5 of the 6 so macy is doing well.

am i better to give the possible one unfertile egg to the other hen in a different nest box and hope she sits on that one and leaves the other 5 to macy to sit on?

if i leave them together if they begin hatching are they both likely to mother the the chicks? will it cause any problems? last thing i want is for one of them to try and hurt the chicks.

theres another silkie in there but shes timid and bottom of the pecking order so i cant see her causing any problems for any chicks.


would a partition in the middle of the coop be better sperating the hens now at night?


any advice welcome.

[ANHBUC]

Broodies are better off on their own.  I used 2 rabbit hutches for mine.  If you leave them in together they will keep stealing each others eggs and they can get damaged so won't hatch.  Once they have hatched they can get very aggressive towards each other, mine did when freeranging in the garden. 

Your other hen might also stop laying and join in being broody.  You might be better breaking the other broody out of being broody.  Then you can put Macy in a broody coop on her own with the 6 eggs.  There is loads of advice on here about stopping a hen being broody if you do a search.

Good luck.   

[Craigx]

hello,


from experiance id say seperate them n only have one with the eggs,  as they get closer to hatchin theyll start fighting( they even pecked at me wen i was attemptin to get food to them) and thatll lead to broken eggs, and losses, (from that reason alone i nolonger put eggs under broodies)

craig