Our 1st broody - advice needed please!

[mom2chicksandpups]

We have our 1st broody hen and have decided to let her sit on some eggs. It's an Australorp hen that's about 8 months old. Their eggs have had a very good hatch rate in our incubators, so I hope she can hatch some chicks.

We have never had a broody hen before, so I need advice on what we should do. She's in a nest box that is elevated off the floor of the pen, so I feel like we need to move her. Do we need to separate her? Any other advice? We have a chicken tractor we aren't using right now that we could put her in and leave her there to take care of the chicks if the eggs hatch. Or at least that's what I want to do, but I am not experienced with broody hens.

Any advice on what I should do or what to expect will be appreciated. I think my daughter will really enjoy having a hen with chicks!

Thanks!

 

[gottalovemychickens]

im going to be watching this , i have my first ever broody also and would like some advice on what to do .....

I just dont have a rooster , does that make a difference ???

 

[Whirlwind]

Hi I will try to help a little.

I always move mine to a broody pen. Your chicken tractor would do fine. I would put something in there to put the nest in.

I use a med dog crate with a nest box inside it. Just makes it a little more cozy. If you dont move her there could be problems with other hens getting in her nest

when she gets up to eat, drink and do the dreaded broody poo. She will not poo in the nest.

Just put food and water in there for her. When the chicks are due to hatch I would switch her to chick starter and the babies will eat it too.

I would move her at night, wear gloves she might peck hard. Don't bother her to much she will know what to do.

After they hatch she will get up when she thinks all eggs that are going to hatch are done.

My last chicks started hatching on day 20. Then just sit back and watch momma teach them and keep them warm.

 

[Whirlwind]

Quote:
If you don't have a rooster you will need to get fertile eggs from somewhere.

 

[blueskylen]

Hi, I had my first broody black austrolorp this spring, so this is what I did

she was in the last nest box elevated off of the floor and seemed comfortable, so just left her there. sometimes I would take her in a special treat all her own when the others were out in the run. i marked the eggs with a marker after some new ones suspiciously appeared in the nest - so i could take the new ones out . She would not peck at me and is a real sweet hen. I really didn't think that she would hatch anything, but low and behold, one day i went to put in the daily feed, and there was a little chick sitting under her neck. I then moved her to a corner of the coop and blocked it off with chicken wire so that i could move the wire to the side and put her feed and water in daily, but kept the others out where they could still look at her and the chick. after a few weeks, when the chick was big enough they rejoined the other hens. both are doing fine and the little one is half grown now.

i hope she has good luck , i have 10 other hens and not one of them has gone broody in 2 years.

 

[mom2chicksandpups]

Thank you. I think my husband is out there building something for her now. I hear him hammering on something. I will go out now and help get her set up.

 

[rcentner]

We had a broody hen this last spring in the same situation..up high in a nesting box. We moved her to a dog crate about 2 weeks in so that when the chicks hatched they didn't go tumbling to their deaths. It went really well, the hen did not mind us picking her up and was very calm about the whole thing. we placed her back on the eggs and she was content. However, we did not move her out of the general population and they stressed her (we had just got some new ones that were still trying to hide from the residents) so she got off her eggs cause there was too much commotion. Move her for sure. Good luck!

 

[mom2chicksandpups]

Ours is calm also, but I was just worried she might not sit on the eggs any more if we moved her. After reading the advice you guys gave me, I will go ahead and get her moved. I have been petting her for a few days and she has been fine about it, but today she did raise her neck feathers when I reached toward her. She has not pecked me though..... yet. The Australorps really are a calm breed. We have had some problems with the rooster being a bit mean and overprotective, but the girls are the sweetest!