What to expect if broody hen gets a hatch

[Blooie]

One chick hatched today. How long should I wait to see if there will be more? Can I move her nest at this point? Set up a pen within the hen house. Its a dog crate. She can protect chicks from the door. They will be able to get out, but no hens can get in. Is this good enough? I'd like to move her, the chick and the rest of the eggs. Anyone tried this?

I have my first broody and she's so crabby I wouldn't mess with her nest if I was paid to do it! Funny thing about Agatha - she is the chicken my 8 year old granddaugher "adopted" and she was so gentle and good natured - until she decided she wanted to be a mommy. The entire story of Katie and Agatha, and why we decided to let Aggie brood this clutch, can be found on the Broody Hen Thread on the bottom of page 625. It's a little too long to re-post here.

Inside the coop I set up a dog crate that has two doors - it has one left open on the front which butts up against the nest and another, closed, on the side. As soon as all of the other girls have laid their eggs for the day, then I open the side door. She can leave to eat, drink and stretch her legs for a bit if she wants, but she rarely does. There is a feeder and a waterer inside the crate. I changed out the waterer recently because the litter the other girls kicked up was making it nasty. She now has a plastic container with a horizontal nipple, which she was used to from before. I also ran hardware cloth about 10 inches up the sides to keep the littles from escaping and/or other girls reaching in to grab one. This is working great for us. Our coop isn't large, 6'x8', and we did lose some floor space because of the crate, but the pop door is open all of the time and the other girls spend most of their time in the run or ranging in the yard anyway. We put one of those soft, spongy chef's mats on top of the crate and now the others use it to get on and off the roost and into the upper nests.

So although I can't answer your question about whether or not to wait for more eggs to hatch, I can answer your dog crate question. They strike me as the perfect solution - at least for us - and if I ever need to break a broody I have a place to put her. If I need to isolate a chicken for any reason, I have a place. And best of all it folds up flat and can be stored out of the way when not in use. I'm glad we bought it. We expect our hatch on the 27th or 28th.....fingers crossed!

 

[Aphrael]

What kinds of problems? What can I do? I'm sure they were laid/set at different times.

If the eggs under her were all started at different times, then you have some choices. She can't take care of both the eggs and the chicks for more than a few days after the first one hatches. One or both will suffer for it. You can take the chicks that have already hatched and put them in a brooder with a heat lamp and let her finish hatching the eggs. Or you could take the rest of the eggs and place them in an incubator and leave the chicks with her. You could try a combination by moving her, the chicks and the eggs to a completely separate and secure enclosure, protected from the rest of the flock. Put in food, water and a heat lamp (in case the babies can't keep fitting under mom with the eggs). It's possible this could work out ok, but it could also end in disaster. The older chicks could kill newly hatched chicks; mom could decide the older chicks are interlopers if she decided to keep sitting and kill them; or she could just decide to go take care of the babies she has and abandon the remainder of the eggs.

I have my first broody and she's so crabby I wouldn't mess with her nest if I was paid to do it! Funny thing about Agatha - she is the chicken my 8 year old granddaugher "adopted" and she was so gentle and good natured - until she decided she wanted to be a mommy. The entire story of Katie and Agatha, and why we decided to let Aggie brood this clutch, can be found on the Broody Hen Thread on the bottom of page 625. It's a little too long to re-post here.

Inside the coop I set up a dog crate that has two doors - it has one left open on the front which butts up against the nest and another, closed, on the side. As soon as all of the other girls have laid their eggs for the day, then I open the side door. She can leave to eat, drink and stretch her legs for a bit if she wants, but she rarely does. There is a feeder and a waterer inside the crate. I changed out the waterer recently because the litter the other girls kicked up was making it nasty. She now has a plastic container with a horizontal nipple, which she was used to from before. I also ran hardware cloth about 10 inches up the sides to keep the littles from escaping and/or other girls reaching in to grab one. This is working great for us. Our coop isn't large, 6'x8', and we did lose some floor space because of the crate, but the pop door is open all of the time and the other girls spend most of their time in the run or ranging in the yard anyway. We put one of those soft, spongy chef's mats on top of the crate and now the others use it to get on and off the roost and into the upper nests.

So although I can't answer your question about whether or not to wait for more eggs to hatch, I can answer your dog crate question. They strike me as the perfect solution - at least for us - and if I ever need to break a broody I have a place to put her. If I need to isolate a chicken for any reason, I have a place. And best of all it folds up flat and can be stored out of the way when not in use. I'm glad we bought it. We expect our hatch on the 27th or 28th.....fingers crossed!

Those wire crates are handy suckers. We have 4 or 5 large ones and 2 small ones. The small ones are for my chis on the rare occasion I have to crate them. But the large ones serve many roles, like yours - broody breaker, temporary chick run, quarantine pen, nest box trainer for stubborn pullets, etc. I love em.

 

[2dancingrats]

I am fortunate to have several of these crates in different sizes. Some belonged to a retired dog groomer and others were given to me by a friend when her dogs were too large for them. I too have used them to separate one chicken from the flock. I've even brought one down to my basement to use for a vent injured hen in hopes she would have a chance to recover. I have feed and water in the crate and have kept the door shut to keep other hens out. I think I'll need to add the hardware cloth. My thinking was the chicks could get out when they were ready, but could escape to the pen if hens were after them. My first time at this rodeo. Even the old gent at the feed store, who has kept chickens for decades, hasn't had the fortune of a hen hatching her own. This may not work out, but either way, the hen and I will both learn from it. I am grateful that there are so many helpful and experienced people on this site.

 

[Blooie]

I am fortunate to have several of these crates in different sizes. Some belonged to a retired dog groomer and others were given to me by a friend when her dogs were too large for them. I too have used them to separate one chicken from the flock. I've even brought one down to my basement to use for a vent injured hen in hopes she would have a chance to recover. I have feed and water in the crate and have kept the door shut to keep other hens out. I think I'll need to add the hardware cloth. My thinking was the chicks could get out when they were ready, but could escape to the pen if hens were after them. My first time at this rodeo. Even the old gent at the feed store, who has kept chickens for decades, hasn't had the fortune of a hen hatching her own. This may not work out, but either way, the hen and I will both learn from it. I am grateful that there are so many helpful and experienced people on this site.

I'll have to go out and take a photograph of what I'm about to try (probably very badly) to explain. Three days ago we had to have a tree service come out and cut out three limbs that were hanging over a neighbor's fence and part of her house. When I say "limb", I mean limbs the size of tree trunks! The trunk of the tree I'm talking about can't be spanned with 6 of us linking arms. One limb in particular was really dangerous - it was split almost in half and hollow when they dropped it.
This is the tree I'm talking about :



I had the tree guy spare me two large lengths of that limb. It was so rotten inside that it literally crumbled. Hubby grabbed one side and I grabbed the other and we were able to rip one in half - with just our hands! The other section of it has some hollow areas at each end but wasn't rotten all the way through. We took one half of the hollow one and put it in the run. The other half is in the coop. They form "caves" that the littles should be able to escape into if they need to, either inside or outside in the run. The intact section is in the yard. I knew I'd muff up this explanation.

The girls can't get into the "cave" but the chicks can, and it's big enough even if all 14 eggs hatch to hold them all. So if it turns out that the hardware cloth is preventing them from being able to escape trouble, they have places to go until Momma can come to the rescue.

 

[Blooie]

Okay, I went out and took the photos...


This is the side we had the limbs removed from.


The "cave" for the chicks. I think you can also see the hardware cloth running partway up the crate.


That thing is long enough for the chicks to hide and dance a can-can at the same time, without bumping into each other!


The other half is in the run. That should work, don't you think?


And of course some of the girls are still looking for goodies hiding in the bark, but they can't fit under it. <insert evil laugh here>


This section we left intact and put just outside the run. Functional AND decorative.

 

[2dancingrats]

Sounds like a great idea! I can picture it perfectly. Keep me posted on you hatch and on how the tree limb caves work out.

 

[Blooie]

Sounds like a great idea! I can picture it perfectly. Keep me posted on you hatch and on how the tree limb caves work out.

Thanks, I'll do that! You'll probably hear me cheering on hatch day no matter where you are!

 

[Aphrael]

You didn't mess up the description at all. I could see it perfectly even without the pics. That is a fabulous idea! I have something similar, but not as much space inside. Mine is two chunks of hollowed out stump from an old honey locust that was killed by lightning and drought. I've been saving them for partial burial in the rabbit runs when I finally manage to get my rabbits. But now the chicks and younger pullets like to hide inside. Not near as much room as it looks like yours have though.

 

[PD-Riverman]

What kinds of problems? What can I do? I'm sure they were laid/set at different times.

Alot of people just do not know about setting a hen or just do not worry about it, or scared they will get pecked or just let nature take its course Or?????? I just do not want to put my hen through the stress she will have to go through if "I" allow other eggs to layed in her nest----without removing the fresh layed eggs daily. Think about it----21st days after the hen started setting there is probably going to be a chick or two hatched, on the 22nd day maybe another hatches, the 23rd day maybe another one. The hatched chicks are getting very hungry and Mom know this, she is hungry too. She has to decide to either get off the nest to find food for her and the babies or stay on the nest and forget the already hatched ones etc, etc, etc, I am sure it bothers her mentally. "This" is our fault that this has happen. We got the chickens confined to a area, and they usually share the same nest with other hens. If this hen was "free" she would probably go off somewhere and make a private nest that other hens do not know about. "We" should help them if we want the best hatch and do not want to put them through this stress. You do this by collecting the eggs daily even under a hen that is on a nest----never pass a nest. If you got a broody hen she will usually be on the same nest tomorrow-----still collect the eggs under her. After 2 or 3 days if she is still on the nest and you want her to hatch you some chicks "Set" her. You set her by taking fresh layed eggs, mark them and put every how many you want UP to every how many she can cover. Now every day when you collect eggs, remove any fresh layed eggs from her nest-----then on day 20/21 she will hatch about all the good eggs that are under her------then the next day she can leave the nest with her family-----because she knows there are no more eggs in the nest to hatch. Good Luck!!

 

[2dancingrats]

Well, I seem to have a broody disaster on my hands. But first, its my understanding the hens don't actually "feed" the chicks. In fact, every time I buy chicks, they are two days old and seem to feed themselves just fine. So, I don't know what is different for chicks who have a mother. Do they wait for her to show them food and water? I just don't know how that works. Now, for my cautionary tale: I just let my hen sit on eggs. She was on them for several days before I realized they weren't all hers. Afraid to disturb her nest, I left it alone. On Wednesday she hatched one healthy happy chick. I moved them to a safer location and both seemed content and settled right in. I also put food (chick starter) and water in that location so they didn't need to leave and look for it. That was the last time I saw that chick, although I did hear it a few times. Yesterday, there was a half-hatched and bloody egg in there. I removed it. Later yesterday, I could here a lot of peeping. I sat in the hen house for quite some time and my hen stood up to reveal a partially hatched chick peeping away. She tucked it under her and I left. Today, I found that chick also never made it out of the shell. This time, no bleeding, but dead none-the-less. She still has some eggs under her. I'm thinking she is literally smothering them as they try to hatch. She has also been sitting for 25 days now. Should I take the rest of the eggs away from her? Is she likely to go broody again sometime? I was so happy to see this happen and admittedly naive about how to take care of it. Right now, I just need to know what to do right now. Any help is greatly appreciated, as always.

Alot of people just do not know about setting a hen or just do not worry about it, or scared they will get pecked or just let nature take its course Or?????? I just do not want to put my hen through the stress she will have to go through if "I" allow other eggs to layed in her nest----without removing the fresh layed eggs daily. Think about it----21st days after the hen started setting there is probably going to be a chick or two hatched, on the 22nd day maybe another hatches, the 23rd day maybe another one. The hatched chicks are getting very hungry and Mom know this, she is hungry too. She has to decide to either get off the nest to find food for her and the babies or stay on the nest and forget the already hatched ones etc, etc, etc, I am sure it bothers her mentally. "This" is our fault that this has happen. We got the chickens confined to a area, and they usually share the same nest with other hens. If this hen was "free" she would probably go off somewhere and make a private nest that other hens do not know about. "We" should help them if we want the best hatch and do not want to put them through this stress. You do this by collecting the eggs daily even under a hen that is on a nest----never pass a nest. If you got a broody hen she will usually be on the same nest tomorrow-----still collect the eggs under her. After 2 or 3 days if she is still on the nest and you want her to hatch you some chicks "Set" her. You set her by taking fresh layed eggs, mark them and put every how many you want UP to every how many she can cover. Now every day when you collect eggs, remove any fresh layed eggs from her nest-----then on day 20/21 she will hatch about all the good eggs that are under her------then the next day she can leave the nest with her family-----because she knows there are no more eggs in the nest to hatch. Good Luck!!