Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread - Page 860

Hi everyone thank you so much for the help yesterday well yesterday my husband took one broody and moved her next box to its side si the opening is not straight up we use milk crates as the nests and made a little ramp so the chicks can get out in the middle of the night we took a week old chick out there and let the hen listen to chirping and she started to cluck and look around so we placed the chick next to her nothing happened chick chirped broody hen happy then we placed the chick under her during this whole thing she could not see us or the chick after a few min the chick got quiet so DH thought she has smuthered the chick so he went to look and she pecked the crud out of him and the whole time she has been broody she has never done this so we decided to take the chick out and brink it in because we realized it was limpy it gets arounf good but did not want it to get hurt since it already has a limped leg and did not know how the mom would act towards an injured chick once the sun came up so then we got 3 more chicks and as we placed one we took out eggs then we placed the second toop out eggs then placed the third broody hen repositioned herself and settled down chicks chirped a while then settled in to. this morning we checked on them they were all nesstled under her when DH checked on them to make sure they were all there they came out from under mamma and u would think they were gripping at DH with all the chirping so we put mamma back 2 went back right under her to snuggle the 3rd stooed there looking at DH crirrping so he picked it up and placed it back under her and they all got quiet. is this a good sign all went well. will mamma take them out of box and into the muddy run and floor of coop our coops floor is the ground and we hat 12hrs of rain straight and it has everything a mess this summer we plan on putting down a wodden floor.

ok another question what about the second broody she has given up on the first next after 18 days and decided to start over in a new box do i let her sit another 3 weeks or try and slip a few chicks under her to.

also when mamma takes babies out will the other hens and roo hurt them i was not able to move her to second coop that is empty a tree fell on it during storm and put a hole in the roof

So, she's out in the run with baby already?!

After reading about broody/baby integration, I noticed many said to not keep them cooped up too late the following morning to avoid stress of close quarters.  So I opened the hatch at 6am, saw that there had been no mayhem, and went back to sleep (I work nights).  At 9am, I came out to see momma and baby pecking around the run, under the coop.  The ladies were mostly leaving them alone.  Either baby fell out, or followed momma out.  No harm, cushy landing.  But it's a bit chilly... maybe 72 now, and 85 later.  Baby is not quite 6 days old.

If it gets sleepy, with momma sit?  If it gets cold, will she keep it warm?  The ramp is back on the coop, and I'm convinced baby can get back up.  Any problems, or should I "encourage" them to go back in the coop?

Well I have my first official broody hen!!!She has been on little nest of 10 eggs for a week now.  We had to move her out of her normal coop because she was stealing all the eggs from the other hen she was in with.  Plus the roo was paying a little to much attention to her, he kept running around their yard crowing and squaking I couldn't take it anymore.  The only pen I had empty was our feedhouse with a little yard attached to it for her to go out in.  My question is I didn't have an official nest box for her so put her in a milk crate with straw in it.  Will she be okay in that after the chicks hatch?  She is a Cukoo Marans hen.  She definatly is comfy now because she bit me last night when I went to check on her eggs, lol.  She is normally very laid back and has fussed at me when I checked them before but last night she must have had enough, lol.  I'm not sure if I will let her keep all the chicks that hatch or just a few.  The way she was stealing eggs her poor things will be hatching for several days.  I may just let her keep any sexlink roos that hatch out and take all the cukoo marans in to brood in the house.

I am hoping for some advice (I have been a chicken mom for 9 months and experience raised exotic birds in the past).

My situation:

coop 10 x 24 ft...with outside run aprox 20 x 30 with 11 hens and 1 roo

I have 2 broody hens....they have been broody for about 3 weeks so far. I wanted to wait until after my vacation and now want to put fertile eggs under them this coming weekend.

Is it possible they will loose their broodiness half way through sitting on fertile eggs since this has been going on so long?

I really would prefer to not seperate the hens out from the rest of the hens-no real way to do this without upsetting either the broodys or having to buy and put up new nestboxes for the rest of my girls and closing off their normal laying area. I would love to hear success stories of people that left hens in witht he rest of the flock & any advice on tips for this?

When you talk about putting a broody in a dog pen with eggs-the hole son this would allow babies to escape once hatched? how soon after hatching do you take them out of cage? Could trying to move her into a dog pen-cause her to losse/give up on sitting?

I sell eggs at my work-last week-one of my customers left a pkg on desk with a note "Please save baby duck egg". After talking to others with more experience_ I went ahead and put this one lone duck egg under one of the broody hens. I am thinking if I wait until one week after Broody mom has been sitting on this, I should be able to then add fertile chicken eggs and they would all hatch around the same time? Ducks=28 days, chickens 21 days). Any thoughts on this working?