Backyard Poultry Forum

Hi all. I have 4 peahens in a large fully-meshed enclosure, about half the size of a tennis court. It's an old vegie garden so has plenty of vegetation and a couple of fruit trees inside. We've had a visiting male that we've popped in with the girls every weekend for the last 6 weeks, so there's been a lot of action. Now, I have two hens sitting on nests they've made, one on 7 eggs and one on 3. I'm concerned that I am asking for trouble by letting two hens hatch chicks at approximately the same time. One hen has been sitting for a week longer than the other, and I'm thinking I should remove the eggs from the 'later' (3 egg) hen.

Has anyone had any experience with more than one batch of mum-raised peachicks? I don't have another pen I could move one batch into, and I'm worried there's going to be a big mess if there's two batches of chicks in the same pen. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Update: well, I've decided to let both hens do their thing and see what happens. We've had 6 chicks hatch this past weekend, and the second hen is due to hatch hers this coming weekend. So far all is well --- the other 2 adult females in the pen are ignoring the mother and chicks, and the chicks are ignoring the gamebird starter crumble I've put out for them! preferring to forage for the plentiful grass seeds in the enclosure. There's two chick-friendly water sources available. Will update further if/when the second batch hatch.

Thanks for the update. Glad it is going well. I’ve no experience of anything other than ducks or chooks, so I can’t help I’m afraid. Would be great to hear how it’s all going once the second lot appear.

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks

Update number 2: DON'T DO IT!

The second hen hatched 5 chicks over the weekend, and as soon as she'd moved away from the nest the older mother started a campaign of terror. She would stand a short distance away and make 'mother' noises, and the new chicks would move towards her, whereupon she would peck them viciously, and if we hadn't intervened she would have killed them all. We spent the weekend dividing the pen in two so each could have a safe space.

Thankfully the injured chicks seemed to recover overnight.

Hopefully this info may help someone else in the future!

Glad you were able to launch a rescue!! This is always a risk... Sometimes it works out but if it doesn’t it’s rather awful.

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks