Broody Hen Info for Beginners

[ChickensForEggs2500]

Sell or give them away. Have you thought about just trying to give her day old chicks rather than eggs? Are you able to have roosters?

You don't have a rooster, but are you allowed to?

About half of chicks will be male. But it's not rare to hatch two or three chicks and have them all be one gender--so there's a chance that you will get multiple males and no females. (Equally good chance of getting all females, but that wouldn't be a problem.)

I agree that buying chicks for her to raise might be a good idea, especially if you only want females. Let her sit in a safe place for about three weeks before you try it, because she's not ready to take care of them yet (hormones change during broodiness.)

For how many eggs or chicks: it's not good to raise a baby chick all alone, with no other chickens. If it's being raised by a hen, I wouldn't worry about it, because it clearly has Mom for company. So I would say to not do more eggs or chicks than you can keep, unless you are willing to later butcher some, or have a plan to rehome them.

I will be getting the fertilized eggs from a friend with a lot of chickens, so I don't think it will be too much of a problem to give back the ones I don't want/ need. I'll probably let my broody just raise them (the extras/roos) and then rehome them back to the source. How old do they have to be before I can tell the gender? I was thinking of getting chicks, but it isn't chick season at my feed store yet, and I don't feel like paying a ton of money for a few to ship here. I am able to have roos, but I have a small flock (11), and last time I had a roo, he was mean and was dinner.

 

[LizzzyJo]

I will be getting the fertilized eggs from a friend with a lot of chickens, so I don't think it will be too much of a problem to give back the ones I don't want/ need. I'll probably let my broody just raise them (the extras/roos) and then rehome them back to the source. How old do they have to be before I can tell the gender? I was thinking of getting chicks, but it isn't chick season at my feed store yet, and I don't feel like paying a ton of money for a few to ship here. I am able to have roos, but I have a small flock (11), and last time I had a roo, he was mean and was dinner.

Since you have done the rooster=dinner deed before and have a friend who could maybe rehome, I think you should feel fine hatching some babies even if they are male. Watching a broody with their eggs and babies is wonderful. I would get 4 eggs minimum. Your plans for separation sound fine. I have had great success with full integration brooding (not moving the broody or babies). It all depends on the space and the flock. It is a less popular option, but I think that everyone should hear all viable solutions to a problem. You will know at 6 weeks if they're male.

 

[ChickensForEggs2500]

Since you have done the rooster=dinner deed before and have a friend who could maybe rehome, I think you should feel fine hatching some babies even if they are male. Watching a broody with their eggs and babies is wonderful. I would get 4 eggs minimum. Your plans for separation sound fine. I have had great success with full integration brooding (not moving the broody or babies). It all depends on the space and the flock. It is a less popular option, but I think that everyone should hear all viable solutions to a problem. You will know at 6 weeks if they're male.

Thank you!! I'll try to post pictures if and when the process starts.

 

[WAchickychicky]

Hello, here is my two cents : ) I hatched eggs with a first time broody this winter. I also agree with everyone that multiple eggs is best. With 6 hatching eggs, we ended up with one live chick. Two more partially hatched, but look like they died in the night under the hen. She is a jersey giant, and a first time broody, maybe two of the reasons they didn't survive.

We supplemented with three chicks from our feed store, slipping them under her at night. I watched a lot of youtube explanations beforehand, and it went very well! We bought the chicks right before the store closed, and put them immediately in a dark box with a towel that the broody had been sitting on. We were very quiet and with as little light as possible slipped each chick under her wings. Immediately she began making mama noises (deep clucking sound) to them, and the chicks stopped peeping from the cold. The adoption went perfectly. If this hen goes broody again, I will 100% adopt, not hatch eggs, it was much easier than monitoring eggs.

For a broody pen, I used a very large dog kennel next to our coop (which is all covered by a wood shed), insulated the outside of the kennel with thick cardboard and used a storage tub for her nest with lots of shavings. With a small flock of 6, and one very protective mama hen, I never segregated them from the flock. She took the babies on field trips to the free range area and made it known to everyone to stay away haha.

Good luck! It's so wonderful watching your 'girls' raising chicks!

 

[NatJ]

How old do they have to be before I can tell the gender?

Sometimes the young cockerels are obvious by 3 weeks or so.
Many are obvious by 6-8 weeks.
A few keep you guessing for months.

That's unless you get eggs that hatch sexlinks, where you can tell from the first day. But I'm guessing your friend would have already told you if they have the right combination of breeds to produce sexlinked chicks, so probably not.