Guide to Letting Broody Hens Hatch and Raise Chicks

So happy to have found this article! Just purchased fertilized hatching eggs for my broody Orpington. I had a tough time breaking her of it last year, but since I am ready to add to my flock now, this year she gets to be a mama!

Exactly what I needed to know as someone raising chickens for the first time.

thank you for this clear and concise information. it is very helpful!

This is a fantastic article! Living on Hawaii Island we have chickens everywhere. Jungle Fowl. We live in the forest/jungle. We have 7 hens and a Roo. We captured them from a broody that had been raising chicks on our property for years. We also have misc chickens/roos running around. They are fantastic egg producers! We have one that would go broody in a second if I left eggs in there. This article informed me how I could let her raise chicks if I wanted. Although I don't see the need as my wild chicken just hatched 12 and she is chasing them away and laying again in the forest behind my house.

Loved this article. We've never hatched eggs (always bought chicks), but we've been raising them for years, have a seperate/attached pen already set up (the sick bay/jail/psycho ward), and had a wyandotte that was seriously broody for over a month last summer. With this article I feel confident we can give it a go this year! Thank you!

This is an excellent article that sums up everything you need to know about broody hens hatching and raising chicks in a way that is easy to understand. I am glad the pros and cons of separating the broody or having the broody raise the chicks with the flock were included.

Great info here. I've been researching how to work with a broody, and this has all I need to know!

Nice article about broodies and their babies

I have had Dutch bantam broody’s hatching and raising chicks on 3 occasions. Tried different things and recognise almost everything in you’re article.

Marking the eggs is a really good tip!

One to add: if you want a broody, let 4 or 5 fake eggs lay in a nest of you're choice in spring. Chances are great you have a broody within a week on the right spot.

And one more: best not to have a stair or steep slide to climb up the nestbox. Chicks have no troubles getting down the stairs but often don't get it how to get up again in the beginning.

My experiences:
1th time I got 3 broody’s on one nest. After one hen started to breed the other two joined in. Cozy but not okay. I split the broody’s over two nests. Two broods on one nest with 7 eggs and one broody on a new nest with 4 eggs. This went all well until the first eggs hatched and chicks came near the other broody
She pecked the tiny chicks. Do I moved her to another spot. Separated from the two mama's with the chicks.

There was no problem to move her because I had a bottom of carton box under the nest. I picked her up complete with the nest and the eggs. MDH helped me to prevent the broody to leave the nest.

Next time I rebuild the coop and added a laying nest for the other chickens and separated the chickens after a few days of trouble. I finally let one broody breed alone on the eggs.


The third time the 2 mothers who did well on one nest did this again, only now on a separate and bigger nestcoop with a run of 6 m2. I separated the two broody’s as soon as it was clear they take their job serious. They did a great job. I had no trouble and mother and 5 chicks had plenty of room to grow up.

I found this really interesting. It gets over that you have to get well informed and prepared before you commit to buying the eggs.

very informative. I'm thinking of going this route next year, and found this article clear and easy to understand.

Thank you so much for writing this article! I'm going to use a broody to hatch eggs in a few days, and its my very first time! I learned a lot in this article.

This was a great introductory article on how to let a Mama hen hatch her babies the natural way.

i have done broody hens before and we have only ever managed to hatch two chicks. We set up an area that Rosa accepts as her own personal brooding zone. We can’t get Marsha to brood in there, and we have to lock Toffee inside so she doesn’t go back to the other nests when she takes a break. We have three roosters so just about all the eggs are fertile, except maybe Lucy’s... she’ll beat up a roo if he tries anything. Rosa hatched two chicks about two or three months in between each other so the oldest hates her for leaving her at a young age and so they fight a lot. Rosa is a bantam and the chicks she is hatching are not so she thought she was old enough once she was as big as her. Now I get that. I didn’t understand why she went broody so quickly after she left Ziggy but now I do. Thanks. She’s also a Cochin sooooooooo.....
Toffee has a habit of going broody for 7 months at a time and almost killed herself since she gets up every few days. We try to break her but it never seems to work. We just have to let her go. Any tips on that one?

My new little flock (14 hens, 2 roosters) is just about 8 months old, and have been laying for the last several months now. I've got a hen thats gone broody, and we havent let her keep any of the eggs (yet).
The poor little girl will will find one of the other nest boxes with a couple eggs in it, and claim those for her own, till we gather the eggs on our daily egg collection.
So anyways, a couple questions, to decide if i should let her sit on a clutch....
A: it's the end of Sept, and southern Alabama can run a little cool in the winter. Any concerns about winter temps for the chicks?
B: this is a young flock, and this would be the 1st chicks born into the flock. Not sure if the flock might be to immature still, to deal with newborn chicks... (the broody is pretty good at protecting "her" nest and eggs from the other hens tho), so maybe that translates to protecting the chicks from my immature flocks aggressions?
C: what might be a suggestion for how many eggs should i let her have, especially this 1st time around? I've got plenty of room for some new pullets, but not much need, so this is pretty much for the broody hens benefit, and my fun in letting it happen...

Great read! Thanks!

Very helpful thank you for the help!

Excellent post.
You have covered everything that is needed to raise a happy chick and brooder hen...that is apart from the little problem I have at the moment.
One hen went broody and after a week of her pinching her sister's eggs to sit on with her own (unfertile), I purchased a couple of fertile eggs and swapped them over. She has now been sitting on the fertile eggs for 25 days. 1 egg disappeared last weekend and with no trace of it we believe it was eaten by her sister. The second egg she is still sitting on and refuses to move. Obviously the egg isnt going to hatch but do I leave it for her to decide and walk away or do I remove the egg?

Thank you for the great broody hen info. I appreciate the article & learned things I did not know. Much appreciated, good job!