Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[SumPeach77]

This morning baby wasn't cheeping... Didn't survive. Found 2 others dead under mama also.
I have two girls who started with 6 eggs each (shipped). My expected hatch rate was about 25 percent after candling on day 14. I noted all the bad eggs and removed any that smelled funny. This girl, my Cochin had all 6 left up to hatch date with 3-4 that candled great. So 3 out of those are unsuccessful. Ugh!
The other hen is down to two eggs and most likely they won't hatch. I think they are her bad ones.
This is her first time hatching and halfway through both my girls were showing mite infestation. Poultry dust seemed to do nothing! Maybe mites contributed to the chick losses or caused them. They weren't covered in mites though. Maybe my girls aren't good moms. So hard to say as I don't really know what happened.
If I ever decide to broody hatch again I know I will spray for mites before setting them.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

@SumPeach77 Don't give up on brooding or your girls...you started with new hens and SHIPPED eggs...that is a tough combination.

Shipped eggs at best usually have a 25 to 50% hatch rate....it all depends on how much the USPS dropped kicked it from hither to yonder rattling the air cells and yolks. I hatched 4 out of 16 once with shipped eggs....and 2 of those were assisted hatches (desperation set in), so technically only 2 of the 16 hatched normally.

You didn't mention what breed you were hatching, but if it is a specialty breed, then again, you can be up against odds. Rare breeds can have too much in breeding which causes low hatching rates. I had 2 attempts at Isbars and got 0 out of 12 (6 and then 6). I assisted hatched and nursed 3 out of 6 for the last attempt, but ALL died either at hatch or at juvenile ages as they simply were not thrifty.

Also, bad fertility rates create non-starters. That's something your girls have no control over. I just hatched, under an experienced broody, 2 of 6 Cream Legbar. Three were non-starters, not fertile, one a quitter.

So as you can see, there is so much that can go wrong that has nothing to do with the hen.

It is true that new hens can be less diligent, but I've also had excellent hatches from first time broodies, so if their instincts are good, they'll know what to do. If your girls have hunkered down 24/7 with just short breaks, it likely wasn't the hen. Take a look at the bedding then.

I do have to watch my bantam Cochins as they do sometimes lose eggs in what I call the "no fluff" zone as eggs roll on the flat surface of the wooden coop. They are so fluffy that eggs will roll to the outside of their fluff and cool. I've learned to be sure to have a deep, soft nest so that eggs can't roll to the outer edge. For my Cochins, I like to use a small cardboard box which really helps. (Somehow my bigger hens don't seem to have that issue).

The mites had no impact on the egg hatching whatsoever (unless they drove momma to dust a lot). Mites can definitely have an impact on newly hatched chicks, so you'll want to re-dust momma well (the chicks will run through the dust on momma). Use poultry dust with permethrin rather than DE. You can also try the Gordon's spray once the chicks hatch as you don't want to wet eggs.

So as you can see, there are so many factors that can go wrong even when everything is "right." Some hatches, I get chicks when everything went wrong. Other hatches, dang it, I can't seem to get a chick. Most hatches, you figure out stuff you should do better. (Momma needed better isolation from pushy hens, nest materials needed to be better as eggs rolled and cooled or crushed, needed a designated coop to keep a confused hen in the right nest, etc.)

Hopefully you'll get some chicks this time. If not, try again with some cheap local eggs to perfect your process.

LofMc

 

[Garden-fed Chic]

I'm a new egg and don't know the best way or where to ask a question, so please excuse my ignorance if I'm intruding...but, can someone help me with how to introduce incubator chicks to my setting hen please? I've incubated numerous times with good results, but i have a broody hen (actually a couple of them trading setting time) and I would like to try to sneak my incubated chicks under her while she's sleeping when they hatch...my question is: I have a rooster and seven hens in the coup. The nesting box has a cage door I can close, and I have an empty coup I could move the setting hen to if/when she accepts the new chicks. Would it be better to leave the chicks with the setting hen with the rooster and other six hens or close the cage and move her with the chicks to the empty coup when she has accepted the new chicks?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I'm a new egg and don't know the best way or where to ask a question, so please excuse my ignorance if I'm intruding...but, can someone help me with how to introduce incubator chicks to my setting hen please? I've incubated numerous times with good results, but i have a broody hen (actually a couple of them trading setting time) and I would like to try to sneak my incubated chicks under her while she's sleeping when they hatch...my question is: I have a rooster and seven hens in the coup. The nesting box has a cage door I can close, and I have an empty coup I could move the setting hen to if/when she accepts the new chicks. Would it be better to leave the chicks with the setting hen with the rooster and other six hens or close the cage and move her with the chicks to the empty coup when she has accepted the new chicks?

No intrusion...welcome to the brooding fun!

As to your questions...since you've not done this before, nor has the hen, I suggest that the hen be kept separate in a cage. You'll have too much foot traffic for the introduction process if you don't.

Your hen will have to have been committed to sitting 24/7 with just a quick excursion to eat/drink/poo. If she hasn't done that yet, she is not likely ready to accept chicks. You mention she is trading off with the other hen, that may be true, which means she may not be fully committed, or the other hen may be pushing her off the nest (highly likely).

If you feel the hen is committed, and has been for at least a week, two being better, then take the freshly hatched, but dried off chicks, and place them under the mother at night. it is best if you can do that without the mother seeing the chick as she might peck at it. (I will place the chick under her tail with a scooping motion).

Since these are not hen hatched, the chicks may not immediately understand that the hen is a friend and that they should stay under her. Some may try to run away. That's why you need the hen enclosed and isolated. If the chicks try to run away, you'll need to stand by ready to place them under the hen again. You'll also need to watch the hen's reaction. She may view them as a threat to her "unhatched eggs" she is sitting on in her mind. If she accepts them, she'll scoop them under her, or peck at them to get under her (more dangerous if she actually hits them and they run away). Good mommas will swoop them underneath and peck at you to get away.

Some momma foster babies without a blink. Others will do so with some encouragement. A few will attack the chicks. So stand by and be prepared to assist for the next hour or so if needed. Also check early in the morning as that is the next vulnerable period when the hen may reject the babes.

Good luck!
LofMc

 

[Garden-fed Chic]

Thank you! She has been setting with short breaks for about two weeks. Another hen sets with her at times and one has replaced her for short periods. Just wasn't sure of what to do when the chicks are ready to be put under her. Thank you so much for the help!

 

[SumPeach77]

@SumPeach77 Don't give up on brooding or your girls...you started with new hens and SHIPPED eggs...that is a tough combination.

Shipped eggs at best usually have a 25 to 50% hatch rate....it all depends on how much the USPS dropped kicked it from hither to yonder rattling the air cells and yolks. I hatched 4 out of 16 once with shipped eggs....and 2 of those were assisted hatches (desperation set in), so technically only 2 of the 16 hatched normally.

You didn't mention what breed you were hatching, but if it is a specialty breed, then again, you can be up against odds. Rare breeds can have too much in breeding which causes low hatching rates. I had 2 attempts at Isbars and got 0 out of 12 (6 and then 6). I assisted hatched and nursed 3 out of 6 for the last attempt, but ALL died either at hatch or at juvenile ages as they simply were not thrifty.

Also, bad fertility rates create non-starters. That's something your girls have no control over. I just hatched, under an experienced broody, 2 of 6 Cream Legbar. Three were non-starters, not fertile, one a quitter.

So as you can see, there is so much that can go wrong that has nothing to do with the hen.

It is true that new hens can be less diligent, but I've also had excellent hatches from first time broodies, so if their instincts are good, they'll know what to do. If your girls have hunkered down 24/7 with just short breaks, it likely wasn't the hen. Take a look at the bedding then.

I do have to watch my bantam Cochins as they do sometimes lose eggs in what I call the "no fluff" zone as eggs roll on the flat surface of the wooden coop. They are so fluffy that eggs will roll to the outside of their fluff and cool. I've learned to be sure to have a deep, soft nest so that eggs can't roll to the outer edge. For my Cochins, I like to use a small cardboard box which really helps. (Somehow my bigger hens don't seem to have that issue).

The mites had no impact on the egg hatching whatsoever (unless they drove momma to dust a lot). Mites can definitely have an impact on newly hatched chicks, so you'll want to re-dust momma well (the chicks will run through the dust on momma). Use poultry dust with permethrin rather than DE. You can also try the Gordon's spray once the chicks hatch as you don't want to wet eggs.

So as you can see, there are so many factors that can go wrong even when everything is "right." Some hatches, I get chicks when everything went wrong. Other hatches, dang it, I can't seem to get a chick. Most hatches, you figure out stuff you should do better. (Momma needed better isolation from pushy hens, nest materials needed to be better as eggs rolled and cooled or crushed, needed a designated coop to keep a confused hen in the right nest, etc.)

Hopefully you'll get some chicks this time. If not, try again with some cheap local eggs to perfect your process.

LofMc

Thank you for your kind sentiments LofMc!
On a day that I feel horrible it really helps!

I was trying to hatch cream Legbar chicks. I started with 12 eggs and out of those only 5 made it to day 20. I didn't mind the low hatch rate of shipped eggs because I had hoped to add only three additions to the family. I'm truly bummed out but I know I tried my best and that sometimes things just happen! My Cochin mama didn't really talk to the baby but she definitely was protective. She did take long breaks though... Close to an hour I saw once. Coop is cleaned and disinfected as the last eggs were all non viable and marked as such. I had ran to TSC to get Gordon's spray last night because I worried so much about those damn mites!

Now I need to get my girls back to a healthy weight and mite free. Gordon's is working though, I saw improvement within the hour!
I will try again, either broody hatch but raised by me or look into incubating straight out.
Thank you!!

 

[Smiling Angel]

I just found this on another site VERY VERY GOOD SITE

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

Thank you so much for this link!! I was able to copy and paste in onto 4 double sided pages in a Word document and print it out for my daughter-in-law. We are expecting a hatching either Monday or Tuesday. While I was away for a week, but in constant contact with her for decision-making, my daughter-in-law was able to go in person and buy 10 eggs that had been in an incubator for ten days already, so we have only ten or eleven days to wait! She has candled them and we and my grandkids have seen several living, moving around chicks in the eggs, at least 5 of them. We are afraid to take too long checking out each and every egg, for fear of disturbing our broody, our beautiful Australorp, who has gone broody three springs in a row! We tried buying fertilized eggs last year, and there was only one chick, and she was not able to make it. We are very hopeful this year, although we have to hurry up and set up a broody box in a section of the coop on the ground level. The nests are off of the ground on top of a cinderblock shelf, and we know it is not safe to leave it up there. We have to move fast, since today is already Thursday evening. I will let you all know how this turns out!! Getting excited!!

 

[Curnow]

I have a broody Blue Copper Marans (big girl for sure) due to hatch some of our own Easter Egger cross eggs on the 7th. I have also found some different colored English Orpington chicks fairly local to where we live. I CAN'T pass up these Orpington chicks! They will be a just under a week old if the broody hatches on day 21 (my big girls seem to hatch in 19 days). She is an experienced mother.....do you think she would adopt the purchased Orpington chicks at that age if they were slipped under during or soon after her hatch. I have never tried the chick adoption thing.

 

[Curnow]

Also....because I am still having trouble navigating the new BYC....where did the pictures go that used to be with each thread in gallery view? I have searched for an answer and can't find it.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I have a broody Blue Copper Marans (big girl for sure) due to hatch some of our own Easter Egger cross eggs on the 7th. I have also found some different colored English Orpington chicks fairly local to where we live. I CAN'T pass up these Orpington chicks! They will be a just under a week old if the broody hatches on day 21 (my big girls seem to hatch in 19 days). She is an experienced mother.....do you think she would adopt the purchased Orpington chicks at that age if they were slipped under during or soon after her hatch. I have never tried the chick adoption thing.

Depends on the hen and the fosters.

You've got an experienced mother, and the ages are close. So it could work. (If it does work, it tends to be when the chicks are within a couple of days of each other and you know you've got an excellent experienced mom).

My experience is the hen is usually stellar; it is the artificially incubator fosters that cause the problems.

I would recommend that the broody chicks hatch completely and have dried off before adding the new ones or you could have the fosters interrupting their hatches as the fosters will be a few days older and advanced to the scratch and peck stage. You don't want them pulling mom off the nest to take care of them or stomping on babes trying to hatch. You are in warmer weather now, which is good, so that fosters and hatchlings won't chill quite as easily if mom does try to teach scratch and peck too early to the just hatched babes.

Definitely have a plan B. I have had some fosters take to mom immediately. I have also had fosters (usually feed store incubator babes but any incubator hatched chick is at risk) that don't seem to catch on that the hen is where to be. They often fear her and constantly try to run away. Those create havoc in the nest as they chill and mom tries to get them back or gives up and tries to force them away from her precious hatchlings who are staying with her.

Be prepared you may need to stand close by and monitor to prevent them from trying to escape with poor results from hen and chick. That may take an hour that first evening. Then early in the morning check on the chicks to make sure no one is wanting to wander away in the daylight. Then check again during the day if you can. Usually if everyone seems to be getting along and following mom's cues, all is well by day 2 or 3.

If all goes well, and sometimes it does, mom immediately takes in the extra chicks, the chicks immediately bond with mom, and she does all the work for you. If it doesn't go well, you get stranded chicks that chill and die and a very upset hen.

Good luck with your project.
LofMc