Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[lawatt]

I moved my broody hen from my grandfathers to my house and she is not sitting on her nest anymore do you think she will stay broody or just stop ? ... she is still fluffing up and making broody noises but im not sure if she is gonna stay broody oh also she is a black australorp around a year old

as chickydee64 just said, some broodies move with ease, some don't -- i've tried moving three of my recent broodies, two settled in with no trouble, the other had to be moved back to her original spot. it just depends on the hen.

 

[CAjerseychick]

Well, My little "Pepper"" is a proud Momma.

She is taking the chicks just fine and she is super sweet with them.

She lets me pet her (even tho she fluffs up all cute like) and she let me show them all how the nipple bottle works.

Then at the end of the day once it had cooled down I put a little chick feed in her nest and the babies went mental pecking it LOL

I dribbled a little water on the feed so I made sue they got both and they all liked that.


So there we go.
My other 2 girls are hanging around the coop listening in to the babies trying to figure out what the heck.


They miss Pepper (she is the lead hen)

Now just to wait to see what color these 2 turn out to be....so exciting! Feather watch!!

Ahhh it is such an amazing process to watch! Despite all the worry and work... letting your hen be broody is so worthwhile...

 

[CAjerseychick]

What could I give her to make her feathers grow back?

Try some gamebird starter crumbles easy to eat and very high protein....

 

[farmer boy]

Hi, chickens are so different in their personalities it is impossible to predict what she will do.
That being said....I moved a broody to a new nest last week.1st time broody.
She stayed off the nest all day and I thought she was through setting.
I was going to take the eggs when I locked up the coop for the night and sure enough, she was on the nest.
She has stayed setting sooooooooooooo....hope it works out for you.................

I brought her in last night so hopefully she will do what yours did

 

[PuffyChick]

Raising chicks this way is so totally different than all the stuff you read about raising them yourself!

Pepper had her 2 babies basking in the early morning sun today. So cute to see them stretch their tiny wings to take in the sun.

Then she took them for a little "walk" (in her coop so not far ) on the grass and she is scratching up all the dirt and pecking at it to show them different stuff.

They come running over all nosey. Funny as heck.

Then they scoot out real fast as she starts scratching again. It's like a little dance.

It was real sweet to see them nipping at the grass and racing around.
Soooo much better than keeping them cooped up in a brooder for 5 weeks!

 

[jyurina]

One chick running around, one out but getting itself out of the rest of the membrane and one egg still being set on! These guys were supposed to arrive tomorrow, maybe the temps in the 100's brought them early. Super cute!

 

[lilliesanchicks]

Ok three hatched and she took them so she now has 4.
The little black one is hiding so you can only see the older black one and the red and yellow one.

 

[McCaskill]

Had to cull one of the eggs my broody was on , its day 9 and the egg was fully see through, one of the Silkie eggs might have a blood ring but not sure yet will check it again on day 14 to see, we are down to 11 eggs if no blood ring lets hope all is well

 

[EmmyJ]

What do you do if a hen has gone broody and you don't have any fertilized eggs to put under her? One of my Buff Orpingtons has been in the nesting box for a couple of days now. She gets other hens' eggs under her, so I know she's moving occasionally, but she's on the nest every time we go to the coop. She makes a light "clucking" noise when we open the top of the nesting box, but isn't grumpy, doesn't peck our hands when we take the eggs from under her, and doesn't "scream" (as I saw in someone's post earlier). I don't believe she's egg bound (we've already been through that once with our white Leghorn - scared the dickens out of me!), but I don't see the same behavior in the Buff. Best I can guess is she's broody. How can we help her?

 

[Jharper]

You can find her some hatching eggs or some day-3 day old chicks for. Best you could do for her I reckon.