Broody Hen Thread!

[5boys]

Hello! Does a hen have to sit in the eggs 24/7, for them to hatch? (winter, summer). Do you prefer incubator or the chicken? How many eggs have to be in the nest for the chicken to sit? Do you force a broody chicken to sit in the eggs (cage), yes/no and why? Do you have a homemade incubator? (better/worse/the same like commercials?) My chickens & rooster are 7 months old. Thank you very much

 

[rebrascora]

@5boys

Hi

Apart from taking a short break of 10-20 mins each day to stretch her legs, poop, eat/drink and dust bath, then yes a broody hen needs to sit on the eggs 24/7. In summer when it is warmer she can afford to take a slightly longer break than in winter but not longer than an hour generally.
I prefer a broody hen because she does the whole job not just incubate the eggs. In other words she also raises the chicks, teaches them to eat and drink and dust bath and roost and integrates them into the flock. Broody reared chicks are usually hardier than incubator and brooder reared chicks and are less likely to suffer from pasty butt and coccidiosis. And it is a joy to watch a broody hen looking after her chicks.

A nest full of eggs will not trigger a hen to go broody. It is a hormonal change that causes it and a hen that has gone broody will try to hatch an empty nest once she is "in the zone"!

You cannot force a hen to go broody. If she is not ready to be broody, then locking her in a cage will just stress her out and she will not sit down on the eggs to warm them. Broody hens hold their poop so that they don't soil the nest and relieve themselves usually just once a day when they get off the nest for their short break. A hen that is not broody will just poop on the eggs day and night if she is confined and can't get out. Also, the hormonal change in a broody hen causes her temperature to rise slightly to help her to incubate the eggs at the correct temperature (she will also sometimes pluck the feathers from her breast so that she can heat the eggs more effectively and she turns the eggs regularly. A hen that is not broody would not do that.

No I don't have a home made incubator....I have plenty of broody hens.

Hens(over a year old) are more likely to go broody than pullets(under a year) and some breeds are much more likely to go broody than others. ie. silkies, bantam cochins(pekins) and orpingtons are more likely to go broody than sex links, production reds and white leghorns.

If you are wanting to raise chicks with a broody hen, then it is worth while adding a silkie or two to your flock to improve the odds of getting a broody.

If you are going to raise chicks then it is a good idea to figure out in advance what you are going to do with the surplus cockerels that will almost certainly result from your hatches regardless of method of incubating. If you are lucky you will only get 50% cockerels or less...I always seem to be nearer 65% cockerels..... and currently working my way through processing them for meat... which is not an easy task if you are not used to it.

Good luck with your little flock and I hope you now have a bit better understanding of broody hens.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[5boys]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! I didn't expect anybody to answer with so much info!
How long had you been raising chickens? When chickens go 'hormonal"(age)? All year long? I have Orpington, so I Think is OK. Do you enclosed your broody chickens? D o I have to? Do you have them with your flock or are they separated? (broody). Thank you very much for answered me

 

[rebrascora]

@5boys

Hi again

I've had my current flock for nearly 4 years but I had a previous flock about 10 years ago that unfortunately got picked off by a fox.

Hens are more likely to go broody in the spring and summer when conditions are best for raising chicks but it is not totally unheard of for a hen to go broody in winter, just much less likely.

At the moment I actually have several flocks...some free range and some are in pens. I like to let them brood within the flock if at all possible as this allows the hen to maintain her position in the pecking order and the chicks get integrated into the flock from day one. That said, I believe that broody hens should have their own private nest wherever possible so that other hens are not climbing into her nest to lay more eggs in it as is often the case when hens are penned up. I have an old cabinet in the hen house that I move the broody to once she is committed to being broody (usually I wait until she has set on the nest for 2 days and nights to show commitment). Use old drawers for nest boxes, so it is easy to pick up the drawer and place it in the cabinet. There are holes drilled in the door for a little light and ventilation. Once she has settled in the cabinet and is clearly still broody, then I give her the eggs I want to hatch. I let her out once a day for a broody break to eat poop and dust bath whilst I do chores and then fasten her back in once she is ready to go back to her eggs. For the first few days after moving her into the cabinet, she goes back to the area that she was originally nesting in before I moved her, so I wait for her to settle and then pick her up and move her back into the cabinet. After a few days, she figures it out and returns to the cabinet herself and I just have to shut the door. The advantage of this system is that she isn't disturbed by other hens whilst she is brooding. The other hens are not able to lay in her nest and there is less chance of an egg or newly hatched chick being trampled and squashed. She still remains part of the flock though as they see her each day during her broody break. For me it is the best of both worlds, but it does unsettle some broody hens being moved and can break them of their broodiness if they are not totally committed. The other option is to leave her in her chosen nest and mark the eggs you give her to incubate and remove any other eggs that are laid into the nest after that on a daily basis.
In a free ranging environment, the hen would usually make her own sneaky nest away from the main nesting boxes where only her eggs would be laid and incubated. If I have hens that do this I will usually move them into the safety of the cabinet in the hen house as there is a risk of predators finding them outside. If they have been very sneaky and they are in a location where I can't get to them, I make it as secure as I can and leave them to it.

One of the most important things I would say is to treat their nest for mites before you set them. Mites normally feed off chickens(blood suck) at night whilst they roosting and hide in the cracks and crevices of the coop during the day. Broody hens are a 24 hour banqueting opportunity for mites and I have seen nests get so infested with them that the hen had to abandon the eggs when they were a few days off hatching and you could see the mites crawling all over the eggs. Having access to a dust bath is therefore important for the broody, which she often cannot do if she is confined to a cage and dusting the nest with DE regularly to keep the mite levels down.

Hope all of the above makes sense. If you are in the northern hemisphere then it is unlikely that your pullets will go broody before next spring unless you live in a tropical climate.

The one problem with broody hens is that when you want one, it just doesn't happen and then just when you give up hope, you end up with 2 or 3 of them fighting over eggs. Broodiness seems to beget broodiness!

Regards

Barbara

 

[5boys]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! YOU AMAZE ME! GOD BLESS!!

 

[rebrascora]

My pleasure.
Wishing you lots of luck and at least one broody hen next year. It is an absolute joy watching them raise chicks... just try not to interfere too much when you do have one hatch chicks....I know it's almost impossible because you worry about every little bit thing. My poor first broody, Tasha, had such a lot to put up with from me, but thankfully she coped and now has me trained reasonably well. I had 11 clutches of chicks hatched by broody hens this past summer. 56 chicks! The other main hazard I should warn you about.....Beware of chicken maths! You will be overrun with the little oiks before you know it!

 

[Chickensfan]

when does the process of the chick growing in the egg start?
i have a small broody silkie on a pile of eggs.she seems very happy with herself. except, she is less then a year old. the eggs are definitely fertile, because i have roos to fertilize them. she has been sitting on the eggs for about 3-4 days straight. she only comes out for a minute each morning, and she sleeps with her eggs.
thanks, Marie

 

[the poppster]

when does the process of the chick growing in the egg start? 
i have a small broody silkie on a pile of eggs.she seems very happy with herself. except, she is less then a year old. the eggs are definitely fertile, because i have roos to fertilize them. she has been sitting on the eggs for about 3-4 days straight. she only comes out for a minute each morning, and she sleeps with her eggs.
thanks, Marie

You should be able to make out the beginning embryo by candleing the eggs at about 7 days or so....give or take a day....all you will see is a dark spot about the size of an Apple seed...or small pea...and the air space should start to show....as it gets larger....I'd give them a good week or so more before checking....9 or 10 days....and I'd toss any clear or runny looking eggs....watch for blood vessels forming, that's a good sign....unless it's a bloody line following the edge of the air space, that usually means that the embryo started to form....but for one reason or another it died....I toss those as well...if you're wondering....wait another day or so, and check it again....

 

[Witchgrass]

Great info here. Most of my new hens aren't laying yet, only a few. I hope to have some start setting in the Spring. Not sure if they would even start setting this time of year anyway.

 

[rebrascora]

@Chickensfan

When you say she has "a pile of eggs".... how many exactly? If there are too many it can result in a very poor hatch rate. If this is her first time being broody, I wouldn't give her more than 8 eggs.

Also, if she is hatching in the coop with the other hens, then you need to mark the eggs she has and regularly check and remove any that the other hens lay into her nest, otherwise you will end up with a staggered hatch which causes complications and again too many eggs in the nest compromises the chances of success of those that have started developing.

Good luck to you and your broody.

Regards

Barbara