how and when do I move my broody with 4 chicks into hen house

[mrsbusy]

Hi everyone. I have 3 week old chicks and their mum in a separate henhouse - an Eglu Go which is in the secure run attached to the main hen house. They run with the other hens all day and put themselves to bed a couple of hours before the others. What is the best way way to move them into the main henhouse?
I could put the Go into the henhouse on the roosting bars - there is a substantial droppings board under the roosts - so I could put some extra supports under it.
I would be very interested to know how other people do it. TIA

[Nicos]

I think that's a good idea for the Next week or so.
Maybe on the floor so they can come and go as they wish during the day?

My hens brood in a separate , contained box within the henhouse ( it's an old pigsty so it's plenty big enough)
Once the chicks are a couple of days old I open the box so that mom and babies can come and go as they please.
They mix with the rest of the hens and cockerels.
Mom will defend her chicks so she needs somewhere to be able to hide them if necessary.
Expect a bit of scrapping between mom and the other gals at first.

[mrsbusy]

Hi Nicos - thanks for your response. Yes the chicks mix well with the other hens and they all free range all day and can get into the hen house / run / garden whenever they want. I think I will put the broody hen house up on the roost as there is not enough room to get it under the roosting bars/ droppings tray - it's a 6 x 4 pent shed, so lots of vertical room so I don't have to stoop. I will see how it works tomorrow. The other hens are kept in their place by broody as she is the top hen, however the chicks are quite confident and get under the other hens legs and do get the occasional peck but are very quick at getting out of the way! They don't seem to come to any harm.

[Nicos]

Sounds good!
Lovely to see them all interacting isn't it?
My 4chicks are about 4/5 weeks old now and sleep in a cardboard box with their mom. ....not long and they'll be up on the perch!

[mrsbusy]

Hi Nicos - what has amazed me is the mother hen - her ability to care for / protect the chicks is amazing. Compared to chicks hatched in an incubator and then heat lamp sub for the mother hen - well there can be no comparison. I have seen the mother hen take on a (rather feeble) red kite attack and also my young cat - the message was very clear indeed.
I was not expecting to raise chicks - but one of my new hens went broody and I was very fortunate to be able to get some fertile eggs from the same person who sold me the new hens (Australorps) These chicks are Swedish Flower Hens, and thank goodness 3 pullets and 1 cockerel (we don't have a cockerel - let's see what the neighbours think - apparently Swedish Flowers are quite noisy!) So this has been a learning experience for me and mrbusy.

[Nicos]

Several years ágo my best bantie mommy took on a peacock which had accidentally landed in their run ( don't ask!)
You could see the peacock thinking "what the hecks that tiny thing doing?"
She was sparring like crazy at him and he decided it would be less hasstle to fly off again!
Interestingly both cockerels had run and hid along with the other hens!
So, so brave!

[Nicos]

Nice looking hens....just had a goooogle!