Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[fluffycrow]

Forgot to post these, so here we are!

 

[bantyhen'sfriend]

I've been having a hard time hatching my white rock bantam eggs in my hovabator, so I have seven in the 'bator and seven under my white rock hen (who decided to go broody after I needed a hen...

). We'll see if nature does a better job than my hovabator on these eggs. Will post back with results!

I have had no luck moving the hen, so I moved the rest of the flock, lol! I have two pens bacause my rock cockeral fights with my cochin cock, so I just took all the hens (mutts) from the pen my rocks were in and put them in the other pen. This might not work for everyone, but it's OK for me. You might also be able to partition off a part of the coop, like we did for a new batch of youngsters a couple of years ago.

Our nest boxes are raised off the ground, and I am concerned about the chicks falling out and not being able to get back up to mama. Should I make a ramp? Should I close off the front of the nest box until everyone has hatched and then move the chicks and mama to ground level?

 

[Myabcs3]

Today is "hatching day" for our blue orpington! This is our first time broody hatching, so I love that someone started this thread. We left our hen in the coop in a nesting box with the rest of the girls. Previously when she was broody, we moved her and she stopped sitting on the eggs. So this time, we just left her. So far so good. The rest of the girls seem to understand what is going on; a few try to lay eggs on top of her, but we have a rooster that patrols and keeps peace when the girls start squawking over nesting boxes. Also, with the cold weather in Kansas lately, when she gets off the eggs daily to tend to her business, one of her hen friends sits on the eggs and then leaves when she comes back. Our plan is to move her and the chicks once hatched to a more protected part of the coop where she is still apart of the coop, but access to her and the babies are restricted...I hope this all works out!

 

[RedReiner]

I left my momma hen and her chicks in the run, seperated for a couple days with 1 inch chicken wire. but new baby chicks can fit thru 1 inch chicken wire. I kept her on the other side for about a week then removed it. there is a ramp to the nest box, baby chicks went up and down the ramp no problem although I did have one that needed to be shown the way a time or two.
Other hens, most mommas will thrash any who get to close but sometimes they are looking the other way. I had a pullet who was intent on pecking the chicks even while they were under their mom. I removed her to chicken jail for a week. When I tossed her back in she was low on the pole and they all picked on her. ended the chick pecking problem.

 

[fisherlady]

I shared some of these on the broody hen thread but thought it never hurts to show more broody babies! Lol

 

[timebider]

The chicks from my first-ever broody hatch are now eight weeks old. My experience is below, followed by a serious mistake I made that I'm sharing so others don't. Personal pros and cons first:

PROS: high hatch rate (11 out of 12 purchased eggs!), next to no work for me, no pasty butts to deal with (yay!), chicks are hardier, and the hen did the work of integrating them with the flock.

CONS: any chick that develops more slowly than the others is likely to be abandoned, and then you will have to raise it yourself or likely lose it; Mama may decide she doesn't like a particular chick and then you will have to raise it (this happened to me); outdoors/free-ranging chicks are more vulnerable to predation and exposure-related illness (e.g., flash downpour) than those raised indoors; first-time mama hens can make dangerous decisions (mine tried to get her week-old chicks to walk through a deep pond culvert and I had to intervene to prevent drowning/freezing - but she didn't try it again); you may have to force your broody off her nest every day to eat and drink if she won't care for herself voluntarily; you may find yourself having to re-home extra roosters or send them to the stewpot, which is something you generally don't have to worry about when you buy hatchery chicks (though keep in mind, those extra hatchery roos will be killed, just not by you); and, while Mama Hen taught the chicks that I was a friend, and they all run to me for treats when they see me, they aren't as puppy-doggish as the hens I raised myself (e.g., willing to be handled and eager to follow me around).

My experience:

My #1 and #2 top-of-the-order hens are both "super blue" hybrids from MPC. Don't know exactly what's in them, but broody breeds are definitely in the mix; they've both gone broody this summer - one of them twice. When I couldn't "break" Julia, the second to go broody, I decided to get her some hatching eggs. Didn't expect much, but she hatched 11 out of 12 of them! She was a great mama. I kept her enclosed in a dog crate inside the coop so she'd be "with" the other hens but they couldn't bother her, because a few of the others "caught" her broodiness and tried to "help" her brood her eggs. I knew hatching was imminent when several of the other hens began hanging around the crate and acting weird (making strange cries at me, listening hard by the nest, etc.).

It's a big plus if your broody is at the top of the pecking order. I laughed so hard the day I went into the greenhouse, where I have a large dust box for winter bathing, and found five of the hens sitting in that box and afraid to come out because Mama Hen was in the greenhouse with the chicks. The big girls always ran away from the chicks because they knew Mama would get them if she saw them around the babies! Mama Hen gradually backed off when the chicks were about five weeks old and then finally abandoned them. She went off with her old flock and the chicks formed their own flock since they don't like to range as far from the coop as the older hens do...but they all hang out together when the older girls are near the coop, and they go in and roost together at night.

My other super blue, Jeanette, has now been broody for a week, so I got her some Croad Langshan eggs to sit on. I may try not putting her in the dog crate because she's #1 and the other hens don't bother her, plus she doesn't leave the nest at all except when I remove her from it for food, water, and a quick constitutional while I'm doing coop maintenance—which means I'm able to prevent mix-ups with other hens laying in her box while she's gone, or her going back to the wrong one. The other girls finally understand what's going on now, too, so they just lay their eggs in the nest box next to her and go about their business.

Now, for my big mistake: The first nine eggs hatched between 22 and 23 days after I'd put them under Julia. The last three had not pipped by the end of day three, so the morning of day four, I took them out of the nest and set them aside to throw away later. (I'd read that any eggs that hadn't hatched by three days after the first egg hatched were duds/spoiled, and to take them out so they wouldn't crack or "explode" and make a stinky mess.) To my dismay, I discovered when I went back later to throw the eggs away that one of the three "duds" had begun to unzip and one was fully unzipped, but the eggs had been cold and exposed for hours by then. The partially unzipped chick was dead. The fully unzipped chick seemed exhausted and was gasping for air so I carefully removed the rest of the shell from around it and put it under Julia. An hour later, I couldn't tell that one from the other chicks. (The third egg actually WAS a dud). So, bottom line, I likely lost one chick and endangered the other because I followed advice that said to discard un-pipped eggs at the end of day three. It's possible the one that died would have died anyway, but I'll never know. I do know I won't make that mistake again - I will be more patient and give any "duds" a little extra time this go-around.

Good luck and have fun with your broody hatch!

 

[WVduckchick]

A serama pullet of mine went broody last month. I had some of her and a sister's eggs in the incubator anyway, so once i was sure she was serious, i gave her the 5 eggs on day 7. The sister later joined her sitting on them. I noticed a few days later there was an additional egg. I hoped it would hatch soon with the others, i wasn't sure how long it had been there, but it was developing nicely. Well, the 5 hatched last Monday and Tuesday. The girls finally left the other egg, so i put it in the incubator because it looked close to hatching. Finally on Sunday, yesterday, it hatched. I took it outside, stuck it under one of the girls and left for the day. Came home, not sure what i would find, but the chick is doing well. Right where it belongs.

 

[fisherlady]

Busy few days, 3 hens hatched a total of 16 chicks, and Mindy is a happy pup. Already posted on the broody hen thread but thought I would share here too.
The hens all hatched in their own boxes Thursday afternoon and overnight, moved them to floor boxes around mid morning on Friday. The two in our lower coop decided individual boxes weren't needed and we found them sharing a box and 10 chicks Friday evening. Guess they are going to follow the co-brooding trend our coops tend to like. The hen in our other coop doesn't have another hen to share with, will see if she joins the other 2 once we have them free ranging later this week.
Now for the pics...

 

[PouleChick]

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Update:
Candled tonight. The 3 remaining unhatched olive egger Cream Legbar-Barnevelder eggs probably do not have live chicks. It was hard to tell with the blue egg color, but I'm not seeing movement and a definite swish in one, a sign of passing, probably at day 15 or so when this less than faithful hen was off a few times during the day longer than she should have been.

...And I'm pretty sure from the down colorings that I've got 1 girl and 3 boys on the Cream Legbar-Barnevelder chicks. Sigh. I'd much preferred 3 girls and 1 boy. I'm hoping one of the whisp of head dots isn't really a head dot, so I hope maybe I get lucky and have 2 girls. Last time I hatched Cream Legbar-Barnevelder I got 1 girl and the rest roos too, which I gave away.

I do plan to keep a roo, if he is at all nice, as I really would like those blue genes continued, and my Barney is getting older. I'd love to have one of his sons.

But good news. I candled the bantam Cochin eggs being set by my third broody. I knew not all would be fertile due to the short exposure time to my roo when she was egg laying and age of the eggs as I had to wait to gather a clutch slowly.

Most are not fertile, no surprise, but I have clearly 2 eggs that are developing. Yippee. I'd hoped for more, but I'll take 2. I still placed all 7 back under the hen as they are small, and I think that will help her continue to set....and maybe something else will develop, but I doubt it.

Got momma and babes sprinkled for NFM....couldn't get momma completely underneath as she was fighting me so much to get back to her babes, but the babes ran right at my sprinkle area and they got a good dose.

My first broody is doing well with the earlier Cream-Barn chicks....although the little dickens managed to find a hole somewhere in the fence and were on the other side. I never could fully tell where they had gotten through, but it looks like a POW camp now along that fence line.

So broody life is percolating along.

LofMc