Broody Hen Thread!

[crealbilly]

My hens hate being isolated.  If she felt like she was separated from everyone else???  That green poo is indicative of starvation.  You might moisten some regular flock or layer food with warm water and spike it with scratch and offer her that.  

Poor girl... She came out of the coop into the yard and was standing under the ramp. She is really weak, I have her isolated and mixed up some feed with warm water but she doesn't want anything to do with it. I'm going to get a eyedropper and see if I can't get her mouth open and feed her some water or Gatorade. I candled her 8 eggs 7 of them were developing so only one was bum...

I'm seriously considering replacing my RIR with buff orpington. I would like a good wintet hardy laying hen who will brood and is not so aggressive. My grand daughter loves chickens and turkeys and I honestly think BOs would be a good choice.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Poor girl... She came out of the coop into the yard and was standing under the ramp. She is really weak, I have her isolated and mixed up some feed with warm water but she doesn't want anything to do with it. I'm going to get a eyedropper and see if I can't get her mouth open and feed her some water or Gatorade. I candled her 8 eggs 7 of them were developing so only one was bum...

I'm seriously considering replacing my RIR with buff orpington. I would like a good wintet hardy laying hen who will brood and is not so aggressive. My grand daughter loves chickens and turkeys and I honestly think BOs would be a good choice.

Most of My BO's would tear your arm off ----(just about) when they get broody, I never had a RIR go broody. How old is your that was brooding??

I have watered down a teaspoon of chick feed---with warm water---making a gravy---draw it up in syringe and give it to sick chickens until they stated eating out of the container themselves. Good Luck

 

[microchick]

I have to admit that my lone BO broody was easy to work with. She did the usual fluff up and growl whenever I candled her eggs but never pecked. I was always careful to work behind her. I would pull out an egg from under her reaching in from her tail end and return it to her breast letting her work it back under her so she knew she was getting her egg back.

Speaking of conditioning taking a beating with broody hens. My Aggie is still struggling to regain weight that she lost. She snarfs down any food I offer her, and always seems to be hungry. She was wormed after started laying again, seems to be in otherwise good health. I give her scrambled eggs, sunflower seeds and she is eating Game bird started crumbles. Tonight they had chicken and beef broth (not canned or commercial, home brewed, low sodium content) mixed with crumbles and a can of corn. If I ate like she does I'd be on that tv program My 600 Pound Life!

What else can I try to get her weight back up?

 

[Morrigan]

My broody travails are not quite over and I could use some advice.

So, to recap. On Saturday morning, pre-dawn, I put 8 incubator-hatched chicks under my broody hen. At that point she was still sitting on eggs, and accepted them without question. On Saturday night, she got off the nest with her new chicks. Although I held out little hope, I stuck the abandoned eggs in the incubator. To my complete amazement, one hatched this afternoon (which is end of day 24). When it was dry and fluffy I tried to introduce it to the broody. She and her chicks were pecking about in the brooder and I just stuck the new one in a pile of chicks. Mama was not having it. She puffed up and began pecking it. I tried again, this time snagging one of her other chicks, then releasing both back to her at the same time. She knew who the "interloper" was and continued to peck it. So,I took it away and put it back in the incubator.

Question -- should I try to put her under the broody tonight after she is asleep with her chicks? Can a hen count? If she wakes up with it, will she know it's not hers? I hate the idea of separately brooding one lone chick, but I would feel awful if I woke up to find a dead and bloody chick in the corner of the brooder.

Has anyone here had any luck with introducing a late hatcher to a hen that's already left the nest with chicks? I was so happy I got another hatch, but frustrated now. All the eggs were "set" on the same day, but clearly the incubator kept a hotter temperature.

 

[varidgerunner]

It is my personal observation, in dealing with birds that have all of their instincts very much intact, that a hen can indeed count, or if not count, knows exactly how many chicks she has, and knows them by voice, and by sight, and can pick out the imposter. Once they venture forth, the window is over, they have to believe that the chick hatched out under them. Otherwise the chick belongs to some foolish hen who lost her chick, and her genetics don't need to be repeated. This is the system that kept them going until we took over.

 

[crealbilly]

Most of My BO's would tear your arm off ----(just about) when they get broody, I never had a RIR go broody. How old is your that was brooding??

I have watered down a teaspoon of chick feed---with warm water---making a gravy---draw it up in syringe and give it to sick chickens until they stated eating out of the container themselves. Good Luck

She is about 14 months old and yeah I've read it's not very common for a RIR to go broody but I have 1 more that is also showing signs of going broody also. With any luck she decide to sit too.

I did as you suggested I made a gravy out of some 21% feed and I was able to get about a 1/2 of a eye dropper in her. She had her head under her wing when I went in to try and feed her. I also set out a tray of gravy, water and feed for her. So hopefully she'll decide to eat and drink overnight.

I've never heard of a hen starving themselves sitting on eggs but I guess it can happen because it did to my RIR.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Dani4Hedgies

Does anyone know of anyone who has Sweetey Heaters for sale? Also I have a brooder that has a single eye hook to hang the light from can this be used for a SH too? Thanks

 

[Morrigan]

It is my personal observation, in dealing with birds that have all of their instincts very much intact, that a hen can indeed count, or if not count, knows exactly how many chicks she has, and knows them by voice, and by sight, and can pick out the imposter. Once they venture forth, the window is over, they have to believe that the chick hatched out under them. Otherwise the chick belongs to some foolish hen who lost her chick, and her genetics don't need to be repeated. This is the system that kept them going until we took over.

This makes a lot of sense. Ironically, the late chick is not only her egg, it's an egg she sat on for over two weeks. She is the "foolish hen" involved. After going back and forth, I ended up putting the chick under the sleeping hen tonight. In a last chance desperation ploy, I also put the hatched egg shell under her with the chick in the hope that maybe the hen would recognize the smell or look of a newly hatched egg and get fooled. She was sound asleep so the insertion was uneventful. I'll check before I go to bed tonight and cross my fingers for the morning. It's so hard making these decisions.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

She is about 14 months old and yeah I've read it's not very common for a RIR to go broody but I have 1 more that is also showing signs of going broody also. With any luck she decide to sit too.

I did as you suggested I made a gravy out of some 21% feed and I was able to get about a 1/2 of a eye dropper in her. She had her head under her wing when I went in to try and feed her. I also set out a tray of gravy, water and feed for her. So hopefully she'll decide to eat and drink overnight.

I've never heard of a hen starving themselves sitting on eggs but I guess it can happen because it did to my RIR.

To me, your hen's poo indicated being over-heated and/or illness. Broody poo is big, thick, and especially large in content. Thin and runny poo is not a good sign. You had her high in the rafters, is it possible she was too warm in that area?

Also, I keep hearing it repeated that hens can brood themselves to death as if this is a natural occurrence and something that we poultry managers need to regularly protect our brooding hens from. However, It has been my experience that a healthy hen does not starve herself to death while brooding. Hens are designed to brood and withstand brooding. Unless a hen has developed a worm overload, external parasites, or has very poor food/water support during the brood, (all things to manage and maintain during the brood), she will not succumb to the ills of brooding in and of itself.


I do ponder the stamina of commercial layer breeds, such as RIRs, and hybrids for brooding. Broodiness has been genetically selected out of them, but occasionally you'll get one who does have enough hormone imprint left that she will undertake a brood, often half-heartedly. Typically they will play at brooding, sulking, rather than really committing to a good brood. However, doing so may lower their immune system enough that something latent kicks in.

I have had a couple of sulky brooders in my large fowl commercial breeds, but they snapped out of it to return to full health with a little encouragement. However, I had one lingering sulky/broody girl waste away and eventually die, even after encouragement and support. After viewing a multitude of healthy broods, and several unhealthy broods, I have come to the conclusion that this gal brooded and died from poor health rather than true broodiness.

I suspicion what is mistaken for a normal brood is sometimes actually an unhealthy brood brought on by un-natural hormonal imbalance and/or underlying disease.

Curiously, I know that in commercial breeds, ovarian tumors are very common in laying hens by the age of 2 years (which is why the industry culls at 2 years of age). One article states: "These tumors [in poultry] are so prevalent that scientists studying human ovarian cancer use chickens in their research. A study in 2005 of 676 four-year old laying hens determined that 45% had tumors! 18% of those were adenocarcinomas." (cited below)

Which causes me to ponder even further that there may be a link between these common ovarian tumors and an unhealthy, wasting brood.

I suspicion ovarian cancer was a possible culprit in that one hen. While she appeared to be truly broody at the beginning, she was especially sulky, lethargic in her brood, then weakened and wasted. No manner of encouragement or care helped. Once you see it, this wasting brood is not like a normal brood but something truly more sinister. I therefore wonder if the ovarian tumor causes a trigger of hormones which sets them into an unhealthy brood, then they slowly succumb to weakness and eventually death as their stressed immune system cannot fight off the growing, cancerous tumors.....just totally guessing as I did not do a necropsy on the hen, but I highly suspicion tumors present as her abdomen was more distended, typical of the tumors created by ovarian cancer. (Something I noticed but did not understand at the time.)

Other underlying illnesses, like slow growth Mareks, can be triggered by stress, such as brooding, and cause a slow wasting and weakness as well.

So while I am sympathetic to those who feel their hens need to be closely monitored for brooding behaviors, with significant daily intervention, and I know brooding is definitely a marathon sat by the hen and needs good support like any athlete should receive, I remain skeptical that poor health/starvation/wasting is the nature of normal brooding in itself.

Just thoughts...perhaps ramblings....in response to my continued observation that a healthy hen will brood and come out fine without a lot of human intervention but only reasonable support and maintenance.

Have any of you other experienced broody keepers noticed anything of the same kind?

@fisherlady @nchls school @vpatt @Sydney Acres

@varidgerunner I know you've contemplated the same thoughts with your more wild type games having more of the natural instinct and stamina to brood

LofMc
Sources:
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2759668/
2. http://hencam.com/henblog/2011/02/why-old-hens-die/
3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1474556/

 

[the poppster]

Day 15, she quit - how disappointing...

I checked her this morning she was off the nest, I figured she may have just wanted to get food and water.

About 2 hours later, I checked again she was off the nest. I could see her eating. I felt the egss and they were cold. She was sitting on 8 eggs.

I took her out of the hen high-rise and took the high rise down. This is what was on the hen high-rise floor - pretty nasty green runny poop. She came out of the coop and into the yard her feathers were puffed up and were still puffed up when I left the chicken yard

Anyways she now back with the flock...later today I'm going to candle the eggs and see what went on.

Any ideas what went wrong so I can learn what to do next time?

I had a broody JG hatch out a clutch of chicks and proceed to ignore them...it was weird! When you gave them treats she rushed in and chowed down, I never heard that hen call those chicks...she kept them warm at night, but only passively...a week or so after they hatched, I checked the nest box for cleaning and found a half dozen eggs??? She must have broke out of broody right after the chicks hatched out. They survived, but were neglected as far as mothering was considered. Did you rescue the eggs? I've hatched out cold eggs by placing the eggs under a heat lamp if I don't have another broody available...those eggs can be amazing survivors! I figure it's worth a try. If you do nothing they're dead.