Using Broody Hens to Hatch Eggs?

[serendipityfarm]

How often is too often?
I have a Silkie who has a 4 week old chick by my Cochin roo currently, and although she isn't laying at the moment, I have noticed the roo mounting her again in the last couple days. I guess my question is this: If she begins to lay soon & goes broody again, is it safe to let her sit? They seem to go through a physical stress, and I don't want to jeopardize her health!
~Terry

 

[huntsman]

Another lovely thread - thanks everyone!

I would also like to know the answer to serendipityfarm's questions...and to add a few of my own that might blend well into this thread:

I have banties that have become broody with no encouragement from me. I am naturally overjoyed but don't want to have this enthusiasm affect their health. Will they return to the brood chamber after raising their clutch, and if so, is there a maximum amount of time they should spend there without taking a 'break' so to speak? Raise two or three clutches, for example, and then be kept out somehow? Or am I been neurotic?

A member has suggested that 20 days is about the correct time for a hatching to occur. Should I remove all eggs older than, say, 26 days if they haven't hatched?

What do I do when five eggs hatch out of a possible 13? Separate the chicks under a heat light until the rest of the eggs have had a chance to hatch? Will the eggs that do not hatch be edible or do we toss 'em?

Hope these questions contribute to the enlightenment of us all...thanks!

 

[elmo]

Quote:
I think it may have something to do with the tameness of the hen (and what she teaches her chick by exampe), and also the characteristics of the particular breed; some breeds just tend to turn out more friendly individuals. Two chicks we hatched out this spring under a broody are now our tamest chickens, even as compared with the hens we raised in a brooder last spring. I really don't notice much difference between the two groups: some of each group are more standoffish, while others you just can't seem to keep out of your lap.

We did have one interesting incident this spring when we had three broodies each raising their chicks in separate pens. Friends of ours came over to see the chicks. The moment they set foot in our yard, all three hens puffed up, spread out their wings and screeched like banshees. So chickens definitely can recognize "strangers" because they never acted this way for any of our family members, even for my husband who only occasionally comes out to see them.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
I weighed my bantam hens after they finished hatching out their clutches and they had lost about 30 percent of their body weight. I would try to discourage a hen from going broody again until she at least is back to her normal weight. The other thing is that based upon the advice of a very experienced poulty keeping friend, I only raise chicks in the spring, not later in the summer and definitely not in the fall or winter. I feel that's the optimal timing, all the way around.

The hen will usually take the initiative and lead her already hatched chicks off the nest. Hatching usually occurs around 21 days. You can candle any eggs left behind when the hen leaves the nest with her chicks to see if any might still be viable, but I wouldn't just leave them there. If viable, they'd chill and perish being left behind. If you have an incubator you could pop them in there, or rig up a warm place to see if you can give them a chance to hatch. If the eggs left behind are not viable, they're likely to be very nasty if broken. You don't want that mess in the nest.

Nature makes it possible for chicks who have already hatched to wait around for their siblings to hatch for up to three days or so (this is what makes it possible to safely ship chicks through the mail, by the way). You don't have to take the chicks away and put them under a heat lamp. They'll do fine with the hen until she leads them off the nest herself.

No, you definitely do not want to eat eggs that have been under broody for three or more weeks and have failed to hatch. Yuck! Toss them carefully, someplace where you won't have to smell them if they break.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
I have one hen that tried to go broody in the fall of her first year, and twice over the winter! So it just depends on the individual. All four of my hens went broody the spring of their first year, though. Not all breeds of chickens go broody, though. Some have had the broodiness bred right out of them.

I just left my hens' eggs right in their nests. I think the collection of a clutch of eggs helped to stimulate broodiness. Of course, since hens like to lay in communal nests I wasn't able to tell which hen laid which eggs, but that was OK with me.

Chickens are precocial birds, meaning that when a chick hatches it's fully feathered and ready to go. It is not fed by its parents like altricial birds (parrots and most doves, for example). The hen does not regurgitate food for her chicks, but she does peck and show them what to eat. You will want to offer chick feed for both hen and chicks. Layer feed has too much calcium in it for chicks (and the hen won't need it because she won't be laying until she finishes her job of mothering, usually around 5-6 weeks or so).

We had three broodies each raising a clutch of chicks this spring, and it was one of the most wonderful and unforgettable experiences of my life.

 

[elmo]

Barb's Organic Garden :

I have read this whole 4-page thread and learned a lot. But what I'm trying to find out is how long does a chicken egg take to hatch under a hen? Also, regarding cuddlesomeness, keep in mind chickens aren't mammals. We mammals are all cuddly. Have to be for our system to work. Birds and other egg layers are not cuddly by nature, however protective they may be as setters/mothers. I see from all these entries I read that some individuals can be induced to cuddle. Wonderful when it happens. I bought Buff Orpingtons because they are reputed to be such good mothers. However now all my nesting boxes are filled with setting hens (I have nine nests for 31 hens) and my daily egg count is way down. I take out the eggs from all but Ms. Top-Row-2nd-From-The-Left, but I'm only getting 11 to 16 eggs a day, and especially as I'm feeding organic mash, they are not paying for themselves! She has been setting continuously for weeks and weeks. I finally gave her 6 to hatch, and found under her an increasing number up to 16. After some three weeks there was nothing to show for it but a bad smell, but how to know which are which? Finally I found three had been broken and eaten, and the number reduced back down to 8. Strange are the ways of birds. Now she has 8 new, marked ones to work on, but how long will it take her? The other hens that set all have one or two eggs under them every day, but I just take them out. Some of them peck when I remove them, but I don't mind. How can I induce them to stop setting and start laying?
By the way, I have two cocks for them. I had three but that was a story for another thread.

The usual incubation period for chicken eggs is 21 days from the day the hen settles down to continuously incubate them. You may find you get better results if you separate your setting hen on her eggs from the rest of the flock. As you see, other hens bother her by adding eggs to the nest, which means some eggs can get broken and others will be a different stages of development.

I would be concerned, though, with a hen setting for "weeks and weeks," if that's significantly longer than three weeks. It's physically stressful and they lose weight. If your hen has been brooding for more than a month, I'd certainly check her weight and make sure she isn't wasting away to nothing.​

 

[huntsman]

Hey,

Thanks, elmo!

 

[TheFeatheredTempest]

Very useful thread. I'm getting ready to put some fertile eggs under my broody bantam hen. The other hens have still been laying in "her" nest so I was thinking of putting a box over it with an opening big enough that she can use it but that the standard hens won't be able to fit through. Will this work? She is by far my smallest hen. What will the other hens do at this point? Will they get "angry"?

Will they just use a different nest box? Should I place some eggs in one of the other nest boxes to try and get them started? I am so excited but I am SO obsessed and worrying over this!

 

[FisherMOM]

well, for me, it was easier to put my broody in a cat carrier and give her eggs.
She's always as happy as a clam when I do this!

And I did not have to worry about the bigger chickens breaking the eggs she was sitting on or laying new ones.

 

[serendipityfarm]

Well, she's at it again! She was sitting for nearly a week, and try as I might I couldn't convince her otherwise. Even after 2 days in an EMPTY nest, she wouldn't give up!!! So, since I had pulled all of her eggs and then felt bad, I broke down and gave her back one of hers, and a couple "test" eggs from my BO (wanna see if the bantam Cochin is having any luck doing his thing. Well, effectively that is. I know he's trying).

Any suggesteions of something extra nutritious I can feed her? I gave her some hard-boiled eggs this AM, but once she's back in the nest she doesn't want anything to do with it!

So, I gave her the eggs yesterday afternoon. Guess we'll see in 20 days or so, right?
Tempest, if you give eggs to your broody we can have a hatch along!!!

~Terry