Broody Hen Thread!

[gpeters3]

I think you guys are overthinking this hatching thing. If you pay attention to the one sitting more than the others, mark a few eggs and see if she goes back to that nest every time. If so, you will probably have some chicks. Maybe im too laid back but i had a lot of fun with mine that way.

I dont think you make a brood hen, she either has that personality or not from what i could see. The same ones always tried to incubate the eggs and she didnt care who's they were. She was always the one sitting on the biggest pile of eggs and didnt like being disturbed or having her eggs stolen. They have a different personality than the other hens.

 

[Jessorr2]

Went out to count heads tonight and was missing a chick! After much searching and pulling hens out of nests, disrupting the whole group I found her under "momma's" twin in the next nest! Much chaos ensued but finally got everyone settled then twin hen climbed in on top of momma and babies. Pulled her out and put her in her own next and stuck the baby she had swiped back under her. They both settled quite contentedly. Have you ever heard of such a thing? These are 3 week old chicks even.

I had had 2 mommas who had hatched out chicks decide that my 50 incubator chicks also belonged to them even though they were 3-4 weeks old -I'd come down to the coop to find the 2 of them trying to sit on /cover 50+ chicks ... Lol funniest thing I've ever seen !! I wish I would have gotten a picture of it!!
I've had a few times where the chicks climb under a surrogate momma and that momma just decides " ok you can be my baby if ya want " it has always worked out fine for me

 

[MsDejesus1]

I have a broody silkie that keeps pushing all the hay out of her nesting box. Any ideas on what I should do or should I just let her be?
Thanks.

 

[2lilchkns]

Well, out of the six eggs under our broody, at least three hatched! I moved the mom and the babies to a new location in a portable coop. Two of the eggs did not hatch, I am guessing they were not fertile. Keeping my fingers crossed that the new chicks remain healthy! They are so cute!

 

[FarmerMac]

Well, out of the six eggs under our broody, at least three hatched! I moved the mom and the babies to a new location in a portable coop. Two of the eggs did not hatch, I am guessing they were not fertile. Keeping my fingers crossed that the new chicks remain healthy! They are so cute!

Did you candle the eggs at least once to see if the were developing while she sat on them? When I have a broody in a nest, I candle the eggs at least once to make sure they are developing and pull out the bad ones.

 

[nchls school]

I have a broody silkie that keeps pushing all the hay out of her nesting box. Any ideas on what I should do or should I just let her be?
Thanks.

I have a similar problem, but it is not the broody. It's young hens/pullets pulling the straw out of the nest. That problem was solved by clipping wings. Are you sure it's the silkie doing this? Possibly making the nest box deeper would help.

 

[FarmerMac]

I am concerned about leaving her in the nest box for too long; it is about 12 inches above the floor of the coop, and I am worried about the chicks falling out and getting hurt (or not being able to get back in). I have shavings down to cushion their fall but still, the nest box situation is not ideal.

Thanks!

You should have no problem moving the hen and babies to a new place. I do it all the time. When you move them have a makeshift nest where you can place the babies. The hen will be noisy but once she sees her babies, she will go to them and protect them.
I had the same situation last week with one of my hens, I had to block the box so other hens stayed out. Once the chicks hatched, I moved them to the coop floor in a separate section. 3 weeks ago when we had the cold spell, I had a hen take out her babies on the second day they hatched, some of them could not get back to the nest under her and got cold, found them dead outside the coop.

Here is one of my game hens with her Dominique chicks in the nest box, notice the hardware cloth blocking the entrance.

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Here she is in her section away from the flock. Not sure where those white ones came from they were supposed to be Dominique eggs

 

[microchick]

I have a question for y'all. My Aggie's chicks are 9 weeks old now and I am trying to get them used to being with the main flock. I was hoping Aggie was going to help with this butshe had enough of them at 4 1/2 weeks and went back to the flock leaving the chicks under a brood light to finish growing. Now I need to get them out of the nursery and with the main flock. I tried to set up their coop as a 'safe room' for them using a piece of cattle panel over the door so they could go in but the big hens and roosters couldn't. That worked until one of the juveniles got pecked by what I suspect was one of my Welsummer hens. Now I'm dealing with a frightened youngster with a scalp wound on its neck along with a flap wound that I'm having to debride daily and 7 more youngsters who don't want to have anything to do with the adults at this point. The roosters are great with the youngsters but the hens are being real biddies about the who situation

I'm building a new coop for them (the whole flock) and really was hoping that by the time that I get it finished I'd have two flocks merged into one. Any suggestions about how to get this done?

 

[gpeters3]

I built a hardware cloth pen (the blue one in my pics)and placed it in tne coop to put my brood mom and chicks in so they would be in the flock but protected. It had its own feed and water. As soon as the chicks hatched they were moved into the pen with mom. Any other chicks that hatched got moved in there too. Mom and chicks ate the same medicated crumbles.

Like i said, you cant make a brood mom, either she is or she isnt and if she is, she will protect any chicks you give her. You dont need to worry about chilled chicks either as long as there arent too may for her to cover. She will actually spread her wings to cover them and keep them warm. If you only have one mom and too many chicks you can always add a heat lamp (carefully and securely )

 

[FarmerMac]

I have a question for y'all. My Aggie's chicks are 9 weeks old now and I am trying to get them used to being with the main flock. I was hoping Aggie was going to help with this butshe had enough of them at 4 1/2 weeks and went back to the flock leaving the chicks under a brood light to finish growing. Now I need to get them out of the nursery and with the main flock. I tried to set up their coop as a 'safe room' for them using a piece of cattle panel over the door so they could go in but the big hens and roosters couldn't. That worked until one of the juveniles got pecked by what I suspect was one of my Welsummer hens. Now I'm dealing with a frightened youngster with a scalp wound on its neck along with a flap wound that I'm having to debride daily and 7 more youngsters who don't want to have anything to do with the adults at this point. The roosters are great with the youngsters but the hens are being real biddies about the who situation

I'm building a new coop for them (the whole flock) and really was hoping that by the time that I get it finished I'd have two flocks merged into one. Any suggestions about how to get this done?

I have a couple of sections on my main coop where I put the hens with their babies. It has some 1/2 inch hardware cloth so nobody get pecked but they can see each other. Once the chicks get older or the mom takes them out with the flock then I can move them to the main coop with the flock. Try putting some chicken wire or hardware cloth on that cattle panel to block the big girls from pecking the little ones until they can defend themselves.