Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Fuffy]

Broody setup by FuffyKing, on Flickr[/img]

This is my broody nursery Mom and babies will be in here until they are around 6 weeks old.
After that they go into a sectioned off bit of the main run. This way the grown up flock can see the little ones, but not get to them and they can all meet through the fence. Momma will tell me when she wants to be a laying hen again, I hope

This is my momma hen taken last year when she was broody and grumpy

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:
I love this description, it does look like a backhoe when the hen reaches out with her beak and pulls the eggs under her with her chin. Now the boys & I will have a new phrase to say when we're setting a hen with eggs. We love to watch the hen once she gets all the eggs tucked beneath her and then rocks from side to side to settle them in place. We call it "The Chickie Cha-cha" and will chant "Chickie, chickie, cha-CHA!" as the hen seems to dance. They just give us the dirty look that broody hens are so famous for.

Once I gave a bantam hen a big goose egg to incubate. I had scooped out the little banty eggs she had begun with and placed the goose egg against her breast. At first she just stared at it with wide-open eyes -- "What in the world is THAT!?" Then her gaze softened "Awww, it's a dear baby egg that needs my love" and she bravely backhoed it beneath her. Then she awkwardly did the dance "Chickie -- ugh! Chickie -- ooh!! Cha -- aah CHA!!!"

 

[kuntrygirl]

This is one of my broody hens. I placed 8 eggs under her. I call her the Queen of Mean (Leona Helmsley). I talked about her on another thread and this is how I described her.

It's the start of "broody season" and I have the Queen of Mean (Hen Leona Helmsley) who has decided to go broody. I love her to death but she is the meanest chicken that I have ever seen on the face of this planet. She is not friendly at all. She is usually off to herself and has no friends. I try not to have any eye contact with her when I go into the chicken yard for fear of turning into a pillar of salt. I hate to see when she goes broody because I know what I am faced with. I have to dress in complete armor when I open her brooder to give her fresh food and water and to tidy up the place. I have to wear a helmet, steel gloves, bullet proof vest and goggles. As soon as she hears the latch unlatch, she gets in position and then attacks. I have no idea how I became so fortunate to have been bleesed with this little gem but something out there in the universe has played a dirty trick on me and now I have to live with it for eternity. And to top it all off, she tends to go broody at least 3 times a year.

Just a warning, if you all don't hear from me in awhile, please send out the armed forces and tell them to look for me in the chicken yard at Brooder Apartment #3. That is her address for the next couple of months. I'm sure she will be responsible for whatever happens to me.

Introducing Leona................

 

[lannfren]

My first broody experience and two days ago...2 are here, 2 eggs left. The entire thing has been amazing!!

 

[Citychick11]

I did it! I found a little one acre farm near me with just hatched chicks. I bought 3 and brought them home to my broody. I swapped one egg she was sitting on for a chick. When she seemed ok with that one and it started listening to her call it, I introduced the next one. All the rest of the eggs were duds. Even though when I candled them they were dark and not clear. The yolk was spread out throughout the whole egg. And it was rotten. I have a video of the hen teaching her chicks how to eat and drink. And when she went back into the nest box she called her chicks and they all followed!!

 

[fisherlady]

And a few more...

 

[Faraday40]

So glad you have faithful broodies. That is such a blessing. Mine would be better, but I already hatched this year with my first gal, and the later hens' persistence encouraged me finally to think bigger. I knew I risked over extending some, but fortunately have others just coming into set so can flex a bit.

As to length of laying years, it really depends on breed genetics, care, and individual bird.

All my commercial red sexlinks are pretty played out by 3 years. My breeder quality birds have been less prolific but overall longer laying. My California Grey, a commercial hybrid breed, has been an awesome layer, but at age 3 her egg quality is now poor.

I like the longevity of breeder quality, so I have been breeding for color and hybrid vigor for a more sustainable flock hoping to average more of 4 years productivity with reasonable laying.

I have barnyard mutts now, due to that, but they appear to be sustaining better...but I'm still only a couple of years into the project.

Some have claims of 8 to 10 years life span, but that is not the norm in my experience. Those aged lay infrequently.

Generally it is 3 years of best production with larger eggs but slowing quantity by age 3 to 4. How much beyond that is genetics and care.

Longevity has been greatly skewed by the commercial industry's selectivity for very high production then cull at 2 to 3 years of age as that prevents a lot of med need in closer quarters.

LofMc

Tyrion is probably a mutt. She came from a breeder who showed Amerucanas but decided to get into fancy rolling pigeons. So he put all his breeds together in the barn to let them live out their lives as a layer flock. That's where her egg came from. Her eggs have always been a very pretty blue in spring but fades by fall. Her 1st 2 years were not as productive as my other birds. Maybe 3-4 eggs per week + winters off. However when she turned 3, all of a sudden her production increased up to 5 eggs per week (but still took winters off). Her Leghorn mix "sister" laid daily and took a max of 1 day off per month - not even a break for molting until she was 2! Sadly, her giant eggs were very fragile when she turned 3. They'd break more often than not. I was afraid the hens would become egg eaters, so I had to put the leghorn down.

Tyrion's eggs are bigger with age but shell strength is still good. From late Feb - early Sept she lays about 3-4 eggs per week. With her adventurous lifestyle, I never thought she'd live this long. (She was a hen that liked to chase squirrels, steal dog food, fly over the fence, grab cookies from toddlers, investigate new things, beat up the roosters, etc. She even chased off a hawk once!) She calmed down a lot in her 3rd year. Perhaps her reduction of risky behaviors reduced her stress and allowed her to lay more.
I'm sure it's also her genetics.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Second set of Cream Legbar-Barnevelder olive egger chicks are hatching.

I took a quick look under mom tonight and heard a peep with some fluff...other eggs were not hatched yet...so hopefully tomorrow morning I'll have a bunch.

Banty is off the nest again, sigh. She keeps tempting me that she'll brood her own eggs. Instead she laid another...I think she is almost there as she spent a lot of time on the nest today.

Oh well....the grey Marans-Barn is happily brooding and flattened like a pancake on the banty eggs in the main coop. Hopefully I can get her to hatch...means I'll have to shift these olive eggers in about 2 weeks...but hey....I can do that...right? (Just where did I put that second dog crate???)

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Okay funny update.

Momma #2 has been in the left small side coop, closed, with the 4 babes, remember? (Two of the babes were actually hatched by Momma #3 in the main coop, but I took the first one as it hatched 2 days earlier than the second black babe...in the heat it needed water and care while Momma #3 was still hatching the black babe (who I didn't think was going to hatch). I then took the black babe, who had been in the main coop with Momma #3 for several days, foraging food and water I set there, as Momma #3 had led black babe into the yard and tried to sleep in the wood pile that night...not a safe place).

So Momma #2 has been cooped up, literallly, with 4 babes for about 1 1/2 weeks. Today being a beautiful day, and the littlest a week old and strong enough, I opened that coop up after closing all the run gates and blocking the larger birds. I wanted to give Momma #2 a break and time in the run with babes. That ramp can be tricky for the less bright, so I also set up a dog crate below in the run planning, if necessary, to use a gated system for awhile.

Well....Momma #3 has taken the loss of her babe fairly well...although she looked for it several days in the wood pile where she left it and still clucks for her chick. I thought she was over it as she has been running with the flock all day this last week.

Somehow, of all the 4 babes, this little black chick was the ONLY one to venture down the ramp into the run. When I looked up, it had squeezed through a small hole (I was actually looking for the wedge I use to stop up the gap in the gate bottom), and was chirping madly in the main yard.

Momma #3 and black chick quickly reunited and are now foraging together in the yard.

The other 3 babes stayed with Momma #2 in the coop, who didn't look as eager to venture out as I thought. So, I closed up that side coop again and re-opened the run so Momma #3 can get to the waterer and feed I have set low in that run for the chicks in those coops.

Hopefully Momma #3 will take up residence in the dog crate I set up in the run, but I saw her eyeing the wood pile today with chick in tow.

I may have to call Chick Services again tonight for poor housing choices by her.

News at 11.

Lofmc

 

[Kabootar]

I prefer an incubator over a broody hen. My hatch rates are a lot better also, I usually get 80% to 90% hatch rate with my incubator. My hatch rate wasn't even 10% with my broody hen. I hatched eggs under a broody once, but the rest of the flock tries to kill the chicks and separating is too complicating. The chicks ended up dying a couple days after too. Which I'm guessing the hen passed on a disease to them. I'd rather just do my incubator.

A good broody doesn't necessarily mean good mother. Raising chicks in a brooder is too much of a responsibility for a lazy person like me so I always keep a bunch of aseel hens in my flock. They are the broodiest breeds I have seen. An average aseel will go broody about 4 times in a year.
Aseels are not only extremely determined broodies they are the best mothers in the chicken world as well. They are always on the top of the pecking order, even roosters avoid them when they are broody. You will never need to separate aseel hen from the flock cuz no hen will ever risk taking fight with her. A broody aseel or an aseel hen with chicks knows no relations, no sister, no friend, no boyfriend. I have seen one of my aseel hens with chicks beating up a rouge RIR rooster who pecked on of her chicks. They look after chicks even after they resume laying. They try to cover almost grown up chicks under their wings.
Since aseels are excellent foragers and stay on the top of the pecking order the chicks raised by them are well fed and grow up to be excellent foragers. I have seen them spanking slow learners. Since aseels are very comfy with humans chicks raised by them tend to be docile.
Trust me there is no better mother in the chicken world.