Broody in Michigan Winter?

[aart]

I have not been able to spend as much time as I'd hoped observing behaviors.

Chicks seem to be doing well, they don't seem to wander too far away from nest and creep feeder.
I'm sure the cold is what's partially keeping them and mama close to the nest for warmth.

Mama got into another fight yesterday over a feed pan, with a different hen this time, when I spread scratch out yesterday afternoon. Went on for some time, maybe 5 minutes or so. Woody tried to break it up but was ineffective and gave up, I tried to break it up to no avail. They just kept going back at each other with no apparent dominator.....mama will get kind of pinned down but just comes back up and keeps battling. I finally grabbed the other hen and tossed her in a nest when I saw mama's comb was bleeding a bit. Maybe I should have left them to it, but couldn't.

I have no idea if this is going on when I'm not out there and am beginning to be concerned that she will not be able to integrate the chicks, or herself, back into the flock....or if I am just on another learning curve here and it will all work out OK. She's always been in the middle of the pecking order and the birds she's fighting with are above her, she has no trouble calmly pecking/feinting off the lower birds with no real aggressive followthru.

 

[fisherlady]

aart, congrats on the beautiful chicks and a great first time broody!
I just finished reading your thread and see you have gotten a lot of great support and advice along the way and have done a great set up job with the creep feeder and temporary fence and broody box... you certainly set your hen and chicks up for success! I'm sorry you lost one but have found that mystery 'nest deaths' just seem to be a risk we take with raising with broody hens.

I am on broody #7 since mid January here in the still bitterly cold Pennsylvania ridges, much of the last month has been under 20*F, and many stretches of sub zero weather! mine stay in the coop with the flock, some temporary division is used to allow the hen peace for the first few days until the chicks are mobile and are good at following her vocalizations. When the dividers are removed there are certainly spats between hens, though by now our flock is so used to broody hens and chicks running around underfoot that the fights usually settle rather quickly unless there is a hen who is rather determined to not give way to the suddenly pushy broody.
I try not to interfere too much in the flock dynamics, but that is easier said than done when you are concerned with someone getting hurt, so I usually end up picking up the offending non-broody and removing them for a while, even if it is just placing them out in the run while the broody is inside or vice-versa. For minor spats I just let the roosters separate the hens, or let the hens sort it out themselves, or one of my dogs will often break it up before even the rooster can. (My dogs hate it when the birds spat, and place themselves between the fighting birds and become 50+ lbs of broody blockers!)

So your hope to have them raised within the flock is certainly do-able, and may be easier with each experience. I know my flock is quite different now with broodies than they were a few years ago..

 

[aart]

Thanks fisherlady......there were no fights today (that I saw) so I imagine it's just some pecking order stuff and I don't think my interference was detrimental in the long run. If the battles restarted I was prepared to separate the bully non broody, but sure hope I don't have to.

 

[fisherlady]

I'm glad it seemed more level tempered today.... it is hard to watch the scuffles when you want to scoop up the chicks and wrap them in cotton wool till they are big and brave, but to me it has been rewarding in the long run. I won't say it is a 'polly anna' kind of thing, there is no such thing as happily ever after when dealing with the reality of raising birds, there will be losses which will hurt and frustrate.. but it is an achievable goal and I am glad I have decided to go through the hassles that exist with broodies and flocks.

I will say that I had over 30 broody hatches in my backyard flock last year and although there are many similarities there are small tweaks needed for many hens to give them their best chances/lowest stress. Some hens were nearly totally hands off, we just had to count the chicks after they hatched and make sure hens had the right number in the evening. Other hens needed more space or time either before or after hatch to do well. You will find each brood will allow you to start 'reading' the needs better for the hens and allow you to spot and avoid possible flock problems.

We had many broods where hens 'joined forces' with other broodies and shared chick rearing duties and nesting areas after the initial spats and a few hens who weren't broody at the time who would aid in chick duty during the day (I dubbed them nanny birds after seeing it). It seems after the flock switches to a mode where hatching is a part of life it really becomes an everyday practicality for even non-broody birds. My husband sent me a pic this evening (I am at work) of a broody and a non-broody settled into a corner nest area. The broody has 6 chicks, one of which is sitting on the non-broody's back! He got quite a chuckle out of it.

 

[fisherlady]

The black hen is the broody, the brown one has never raised chicks and is 3 years old so I don't expect her to start now but she was fine with the little one using her for a roost.

 

[fisherlady]

aart, I recall you saying you fed everyone flock starter type feed but don't remember you detailing how many feeder set ups you had besides the creep feeder. One thing I have found is having numerous feeders both inside the coop and run has helped reduce the conflicts with the broodies. The hens are a bit neurotic about providing feed for the little ones (to put it mildly!) and I have noticed that even if the little ones have a separate area to eat the broody will still try to feed them from the 'big bird' feeders by picking pieces out and dropping it for the chicks. I think it is as much about teaching them where the food sources are in the coop to prepare them for normal flock life later as it is anything about being hungry. The problems occur when the broody tries to 'resource guard' for her little ones and tries to chase the other birds away.
If you don't currently have multiple feeder sites available you may want to add another inside to reduce competition for feeder space. Our coop floor is sand, which makes scratching easier for the broodies, but if you have deep litter or shavings you can add a piece of scrap plywood under the feeder to allow a flat hard surface for the them to peck off of as they learn to eat from the ground, we used a scrap fiberglass hatch cover from an old boat under one of ours and it worked great!

 

[aart]

aart, I recall you saying you fed everyone flock starter type feed but don't remember you detailing how many feeder set ups you had besides the creep feeder. One thing I have found is having numerous feeders both inside the coop and run has helped reduce the conflicts with the broodies. The hens are a bit neurotic about providing feed for the little ones (to put it mildly!) and I have noticed that even if the little ones have a separate area to eat the broody will still try to feed them from the 'big bird' feeders by picking pieces out and dropping it for the chicks. I think it is as much about teaching them where the food sources are in the coop to prepare them for normal flock life later as it is anything about being hungry. The problems occur when the broody tries to 'resource guard' for her little ones and tries to chase the other birds away.
If you don't currently have multiple feeder sites available you may want to add another inside to reduce competition for feeder space. Our coop floor is sand, which makes scratching easier for the broodies, but if you have deep litter or shavings you can add a piece of scrap plywood under the feeder to allow a flat hard surface for the them to peck off of as they learn to eat from the ground, we used a scrap fiberglass hatch cover from an old boat under one of ours and it worked great!

Yes, I am well aware that fights often start over food and have multiple feeders and pans for scratch/scraps when necessary.

There are 3 feeders in the coop, the big main trickle feeder with a deep pan underneath, a small bowl attached to the wall and a bin feeder very close to the nest and creep feeder. The creep feeder has maybe stymied the natural inclination for mama to feed the chicks since the wall came down, but I did put ground up crumble on the ramp in front of the nest before removing the wall, mama and chicks all ate wet mash together on the ramp and there's a waterer attached to the front of the nest.

There's a heated waterer in the main coop area, a waterer in the creep area but the older birds can put their heads thru and drink from it....and a few do, including mama, hasn't been a problem that I've seen. I've even seen one of the pullets working the nest waterer with several of the chicks while mama sat in the nest and watched apparently unperturbed. All the waterers have horizontal nipples, the non-heated ones get swapped out as temperature dictates.

When I put scratch down in the coop(usually it goes out in the run but the snow cover and low temps have deterred that) I have a couple shallow dishes I lay out as well as putting some in the deep pan under the trickle feeder, the wall bowl and spread on the bedding too. I've been sweeping the shavings away from the floor near the nest, creep and bin feeder and putting some scratch and chick grit down there for mama and the chicks.

Mama mostly eats out of the bin feeder. The fights have started, I believe, over mama at the trickle feeder and a scratch pan and been between higher ranking hens that mama has not submitted to like she has in the past. None of the chicks have been threatened, that I've seen, they were in or near the nest when the fights happened. I do believe that it will work out, it's just another pecking order thing that I've not dealt with up to this point in my chicken keeping experience. Time will tell.

The next step in the integration will be to make some kind of a wide low roost for mama and the babies, with creep feeder under it I think, outside the partition area so I can bring the hatched chicks out to the partition coop(wall back up) sometime in April. I'm getting jammed for space in my population balance, might not need the low wide roost if I can get the old ladies harvested before the newest chicks come out to the coop. <woman juggling chickens icon here> All this is also dependent on the weather and snow melt (the run space is reduced because of snow cover), I may push incubation out giving more time for harvest as well as broody integration.

 

[fisherlady]

You have a great set up for giving the broody the best chances from what you described. Sounds like pecking order growing pains will work out soon. It certainly is quite an education and experience to watch a flock in action when a new generation is added.
I totally understand on the flock number and balance issue, practicality has to rule around here but winter schedules makes it harder.

 

[aart]

You have a great set up for giving the broody the best chances from what you described. Sounds like pecking order growing pains will work out soon. It certainly is quite an education and experience to watch a flock in action when a new generation is added.
I totally understand on the flock number and balance issue, practicality has to rule around here but winter schedules makes it harder.

Thanks.
I've only had chickens since Sept 2013, I figure it will take a few years to get a good cycling of generations pattern down.

 

[aart]

Well, I think we're done with the subzero temps here......was a wonderful 37F in the coop today.

I've seen no more fights, are ranging farther away from nest more often and even saw one of the chicks pecking a pile of scratch with one of the fighter hens.
Hen feinted at the chick a bit but chick didn't back down or run away and they went back to business-eating...mama was watching from nest with no reaction.

Was warm enough to hang out in the coop for awhile today so was playing with new video capable camera...here's some vids.

Snacking scratch with mama....yes they've had chick grit available.

They still need mama to warm them up tho.