How to successfully hatch eggs under a hen

[Trinny]

hello
I have never hatched chicks under a hen before and have always used incubators
About 8 months ago I had 2 hens go broody and they both sat on a clutch of about 10-12 but they both stopped sitting after a week because my cockerel would go in the house kick them off there eggs.
But 3 days ago I decided to let my 3 broody hens sit and I checked the eggs and they are fertile and developing whoop but what do I do now let the hens do the work or should I be doing something I have no clue they are all shearing one big house as I have no place to move them they have water and food because I understand being broody is hard work but what can I do to improve my chances.

 

[L1sa]

Broodys are fantastic at what they do, and they just know how to do it! I've allowed 2 broodys to hatch for me over the past few years however, both times they have only managed to hatch 1/6.
But, that is not their fault, I kept them in gp (general Population) because I had nowhere else to put them and that is where the problem lies. While they are brooding over their eggs, other birds disturb them, lay eggs on top of them (seriously, I've seen other birds actually laying on them!). The other hens scratch around and in the nest, sometimes breaking eggs, sometimes kicking eggs out, and just being a general nuisance. And of course, if other hens are laying in that same nest box, you have to collect the other eggs, or she will end up sitting on all kinds of different date eggs. My last brood, I actually collected 2 of the fertile eggs from under her by mistake and found them a day later in the fridge!!

So if at all possible, move her somewhere secluded (that in itself is difficult as they sometimes won't be moved!) Or if you can't move her, protect her with her own pen inside the main coop, making sure she has access to food, water and somewhere away from the nest to broody poop (the foulest thing known to man!!). Or actually let her out 2 times a day but that is kind of impractical.

You have to do what's the most practical for you and sometimes broody hatching in gp can be pretty successful, I guess it depends on your own set up too.

Best of luck and keep us updated.

 

[Trinny]

Broodys are fantastic at what they do, and they just know how to do it! I've allowed 2 broodys to hatch for me over the past few years however, both times they have only managed to hatch 1/6.
But, that is not their fault, I kept them in gp (general Population) because I had nowhere else to put them and that is where the problem lies. While they are brooding over their eggs, other birds disturb them, lay eggs on top of them (seriously, I've seen other birds actually laying on them!). The other hens scratch around and in the nest, sometimes breaking eggs, sometimes kicking eggs out, and just being a general nuisance. And of course, if other hens are laying in that same nest box, you have to collect the other eggs, or she will end up sitting on all kinds of different date eggs. My last brood, I actually collected 2 of the fertile eggs from under her by mistake and found them a day later in the fridge!!

So if at all possible, move her somewhere secluded (that in itself is difficult as they sometimes won't be moved!) Or if you can't move her, protect her with her own pen inside the main coop, making sure she has access to food, water and somewhere away from the nest to broody poop (the foulest thing known to man!!). Or actually let her out 2 times a day but that is kind of impractical.

You have to do what's the most practical for you and sometimes broody hatching in gp can be pretty successful, I guess it depends on your own set up too.

Best of luck and keep us updated.

Thankyou so much for replying I tried moving them but they refused to be moved luckily the lay out of my house means there’s 3 nesting boxes and a 2 meter by 1 meter floor and the girls have decided to keep their clutches in the corner so my other 3 hens and 1 cockerel havnt botherd them as much but I think I’m going to move them and they the broodys have the entire house

 

[stephcraig78]

I have had two successful hatchlings with broody hens. Both were some what accidental where the hens starting sitting and after being unable to get them to stop I let them sit eggs I felt had a good chance of being fertile. Both times I left them in GP for first couple of weeks. I lost an egg or two because of other birds crushing them or them getting rolled too far away and mom didn’t go get it. Otherwise they handled it all on their own. The last week I moved the eggs to a large dog cage with plenty of straw and set mom back in them. The only thing I did during the sitting was occasionally candling the eggs and tracking their development. Once I hear them peeping I let them be. Momma knows what to do. Once hatched I let them stay in cage with mom for a couple weeks at most then move them outside to small pen. Mom will let you know when she wants to get away from them. I have four new chicks just hatched this week where a silkie hen and frizzle hen shared the nest and are both tending to chicks. They sat together the whole time and are now co-mothering them. Very cute to see. Good luck with your batch and remember to let nature take its course!

 

[backinthecoop45]

We have a question that we're really hoping that you can help. Even though we've had chickens for several years now, we've always incubated & raised them because we have never had a broody hen... until recently (of course right We now have 2 of them so we gave them some eggs but the eggs for each are all at different development stages.
Our question is..... will the 2 broody hens continue to sit on the eggs and hatch out all of them even though a couple have already hatched or will they abandon them to take care of the hatched chicks, in that case should we get the incubator ready?
Thank you so much in advance for all of your tips and advice!

 

[L1sa]

We have a question that we're really hoping that you can help. Even though we've had chickens for several years now, we've always incubated & raised them because we have never had a broody hen... until recently (of course right We now have 2 of them so we gave them some eggs but the eggs for each are all at different development stages.
Our question is..... will the 2 broody hens continue to sit on the eggs and hatch out all of them even though a couple have already hatched or will they abandon them to take care of the hatched chicks, in that case should we get the incubator ready?
Thank you so much in advance for all of your tips and advice!

It really depends how far apart the staggered hatch is. If it's only a couple of days you might get away with it, if it's any longer, you're right, mumma will abandon the remaining eggs to take care of her living chicks. So you may want to dust off the incubator!
The most mumma will sit for is about 3-4 days after the live chicks have hatched as that is how long the yolk will last them, after that they will need to go and find food.

Good luck

 

[backinthecoop45]

Thank you very much! We did have to dust off the incubator too!
Do you think the chicks will be able to navigate the coop ramp up & down into the run or do we have to put their food & water in the coop for a while?

 

[backinthecoop45]

Do you think the chicks will be able to navigate the coop ramp up & down into the run or do we have to put their food & water in the coop for a while?

 

[L1sa]

Do you think the chicks will be able to navigate the coop ramp up & down into the run or do we have to put their food & water in the coop for a while?

For the first few days I put the feed and water up in the house with them (I'm sure you know this, but make sure it's a proper waterer as a chick can drown in a bowl pretty easily - or just add rocks/brick in the bowl so chicks can't fall in). After a few days mum will start to take the babies down the ramp and out to forage, at that point I put the food and water back outside for them. The chicks usually have no trouble going down the ramp!! It's going back up that's the problem!! Mine took about 10 days to work it out, but to be fair they worked it out after I added more cross steps to the ramp, so maybe if I'd done that earlier they would have worked it out earlier too. For those 10 days I had to pick up each chick at bed time and put them at the top of the ramp to join mumma, as she had gone up and just sat at the top calling for them.

Enjoy them, there's nothing quite so beautiful as watching a broody mumma with her babies.