Broody Hen Hatching Newbe

[sheerchaos11]

This is my first time having a broody Buff Orpington sitting on 4 eggs. Today is the day they should hatch, do I need to put out some chick starter? Do I need to put momma and babies in a separate coop.

 

[ChattyChickens4Life]

Yes, you should create a seperate area for mom and babies. I would wait for them all to hatch to move them. In the seperate space, put our chick starter, water and bedding. Momma hen will take care of the rest! Good luck!

 

[IZZYBELLA]

You will get different answers on this, but I always separate the broody and her chicks after they are hatched. For now, make sure that they can't fall out of wherever your broody is nested and make sure that the other hens can't reach them. (I had hens eat a newly-hatched chick once. Gruesome!) The broody will usually keep everyone under her until all are hatched. At that point, I move them to a large dog kennel with shavings, cardboard partway up the sides so they don't jump out, food and water. Make sure your waterer has rocks or marbles in it to make it shallow. Chicks can easily drown. The broody will show them where food and water is, or you can dip their beaks for them. Finally, if this is a first time broody, have a "plan b" in case she rejects the chicks. Sometimes they get confused and can be violent.

 

[sheerchaos11]

UPDATE: OH MY GOODNESS! So we were putting the door on our Brat Pack Coop so that our 12 chicks (who are 3 weeks old) could be in their coop, away from my Fancy Lady hens (older flock) when all of a sudden, a baby falls (2 ft) down to the ground from the nest where my broody hen was sitting on 4 eggs (2 fertile 2 not-fertile). I scooped her up and she was cute and fluffy so I stuck her back under her momma. All was well. We got the door on the coop, moved the Brat Pack to the coop with a heat lamp and plenty of straw and pine shavings and loads of room. We moved the broody to the brooder, set up the water and chick starter and left them alone. I went to work the next day after checking on them. I came home to find the baby chick missing. Some how the baby managed to get out of the nest, out of the chicken wire on the side of the brooder and was stuck between the Hen house and the brooder about a 3" space. She was cold but breathing. We rushed to the incubator with the last fertile egg as the momma was still sitting on the eggs but began to peck them. After about an hour, the baby perked up, was chirping and I dribbled water into her open mouth. Dipped her beak into the water I set out on the counter and she drank and drank and drank. We laid out some chick starter but she wasn't interested. Feeling like we saved her, we moved our smaller brooder into our office, put the heat lamp on it, got the temp up to about 75 degrees, covered the bottom with pine shavings, set the water and feed out. Laid a fleece towel (dish towel size) into the brooder and tucked the baby into it and called it a night. We checked on the baby chick (we named it Meep) a couple times and she was warm and comfy in the towel.

Woke up this morning and she was laying behind the waterer on the cold side of the brooder, again cold but still breathing. We rushed her to the incubator again until she warms up.

At this point, we are praying that the other egg hatches to give Meep some company and help in keeping her warm.

ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

 

[sheerchaos11]

Last update: Meep just couldn't recover. She passed away last night after many attempts to warm her and feed her water or food. The other egg in the incubator stopped growing too. Oddly enough though, I pulled off about 6 brown lice bugs that were on Meep. I checked all my other birds, no lice. Just the momma and Meep had them. DE is on the agenda.

 

[IZZYBELLA]

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of Meep. Always sad to lose one, especially when you have fought for it!

 

[sheerchaos11]

Thank you.