Anybody Hatch eggs under Hens anymore? (pic)

[speckledhen]

I wouldn't ever use a bator if I had broody hens. Out of almost 50 hens, only 3 have ever gone broody and raised chicks. I think I have more broody types among the pullets, though, so maybe this spring they'll do the work for me.

 

[LoneCowboy]

I have 3 with chicks now. I love it when they hatch and how cute they are with their babies. I also us an incubator and slip the chicks under a moms to take care of them. So far so good.

Biggest problem I have is what to with them when they need more room. I read that you can't put 2 momma's together with their chicks or one will hoard the waterer and feeder for her chicks and the others will suffer.

I'm having to figure out all this on my own since I couldn't get anyone to respond to my post about what to expect of a Broody as the chicks get older. I still don't know when to take the momma away from her chicks. Lily has started laying again, is that a sign it's time to move her back with her flock? I may have 3 but I'm clueless on how to deal with them post hatch and my chicken books don't cover this.

 

[Wildsky]

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
I've had mom hens share babies when they hatched out at the same time.
why do you want to take the mom away from the chicks? Mom will slowly separate herself sometime between 6-8 weeks after hatch.

I never removed my hens from the flock, they hatched their babies in the coop, and took care of them in the flock.

 

[jvls1942]

I have 13 bators.. I use them for mass production .. I let clucks do a lot of the small hatches for me..
right now I have 3 Buff orp chickens setting on 21 turkey eggs.

we have 1 turkey who lays an egg a day.. we just keep putting the eggs under the clucks as they are layed.. so as a result, when they start hatching, we get a turkey per day, if that particular egg was fertile.. we have 13 babies ranging from 1 day to 2 weeks,right now..

I heard that silkies were little hatching machines.. is that true??

....jiminwis....

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

Cynthia Get yourself some banty hens. I have never seen anything like it one goes broodie then another and so on. I still have one stting on eggs. and another with 2 week old chicks I havent tried separating them I don't have the heart. The Momas are so protective. Butercup attacked a goat that got to close. She is finally bringing them into the Banty pen up until now she has been keeping them to herself in the goat yard and sleeping in a goat house

 

[Wildsky]

Here is an old video.

You can see how mom puts herself between her babies and another hen.

this was babies first day out - at around 3 days old.

 

[jvls1942]

I have found that older chickens are more likely to go broody//

I have Buff Orpingtons and 6 of them are over 3 years old.. right now all 6 of them are broody..

I do not have a poultry book.. my chickens have not read it so they do not understand that two clucks cannot hatch 4 eggs together.. or that two clucks cannot take care of 13 chicks together.. or that a cluck cannot be forced to adopt a lonely goose, duck or turkey.. or that a cluck cannot hatch and raise a whole batch of guinea fowel..

.......jiminwisc.........

 

[asher]

I would LOVE to hatch some, but no one is laying right now and if they aren't laying, I'm not sure if they'll go broody? I have seven cochin pullets/hens...surely one would be tempted?

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
My Delaware trio comes from very broody stock, so I'm thinking I'll have a broody from those as well as maybe one or all three of my previous broodies getting the urge again. One of those, my Buff Orp, Sunny, didn't go broody this year, after the previous two years doing it. The first time was a month after she started laying.

Forgot to mention I do have one banty Cochin, Shadow. She hasn't started laying yet, but she's certainly old enough.