Broody Hen Thread!

[vpatt]

My little frizzled hen (bantam cochin) is deep into a brood. Every so often i am convinced that she is dead and i have to tickle her with a twig to see her move. Hatch date is next Monday. I hope they do well.

I still have a fox. I heard him barking yesterday so i stayed outside all day. I didn't let them out of the coop until i came home from church today. I have already lost one of the new chickens,the black star pullet.

 

[warrens]

...

How did the duckling adoption happen?  Did she hatch the egg?  Was she in a broody phase and you gave it her then?  Or, did she just glom onto the duckling when she saw it?  I've heard it is very rare, but not completely unheard of, for a hen to adopt chicks if she doesn't think they hatched under her.    But, if she took the duckling right in, even if she wasn't broody, maybe she's one of those rare hens that just loves to nurture chicks.  But, I would be prepared to raise them yourself if she won't take them.  If she hatched the duck egg, or was in a broody phase and the duck adoption snapped her out of her brood, I would think it quite unlikely that she would want more chicks three weeks from now.  
[hi we put four duck eggs under her and a week later four chicken eggs, we then went away for a week leaving our neighbour looking after the hens at this point she was in the main coop and we asked our neighbour to remove any eggs the other chickens lay so our broody doesn't try to sit on them, we moved her three days ago to the brooding coop and noticed the four chicken eggs where gone (neighbour didn't listen properly), so far only one duckling has hatched two eggs have gone bad and I'm sure the fourth one is dodgy, we really wanted some more chickens so I was wondering if to put ten eggs in our incubator and when they hatch put them under her ??. We do have a brooding coop so if she don't accept them we can raise them but didn't want to try if the general thoughts are against it from the experts on here.

 

[Morrigan]

That's too bad about your neighbor taking the chicken eggs, Warrens. They must have gotten an unpleasant surprise when then went to eat them.

I'm going to have to assume that in a day or two, she is going to get off the nest to raise "her" duckling. At that point, she is unlikely to be interested in adopting chicks. If she is still sitting on the dodgy egg, and you can get your hands on some chicks that are less than a week old, you could probably get her to take the chicks right now.

For what it's worth, my own personal history was that I had a broody hen who immediately and gladly adopted 8 chicks when she was still sitting on a couple of unhatched eggs (it was day 22 at that point). A day later, she abandoned the unhatched eggs and took the chicks off the nest. I put the abandoned eggs in my incubator and, lo and behold, a chick hatched out at day 24. I put the new one under her at night, and at first I thought she had adopted it as all seemed well in the morning. But as I watched carefully over the next day, I could see she was gently, but determinedly, driving the new addition away when she noticed it. Once she had left the nest, she no longer believed that the chick could be her hatchling and didn't want to raise it. I asked a few questions here, and the advice as I got was that this was normal. Hens don't want to raise some other hen's abandoned chicks.

 

[n3kms]

For those who need to hear how not to manage broodies, I have a story. We started with our first two broodies last year. One raised 3 times and one once, I had a broody coop that was separate that I used, I read all about how to do it, asked some questions, got great answers and everything was pretty good. Then in late winter this year we had a silkie go broody. Yay! Put her in the coop and she hatched a few eggs. Before hers hatched another chicken went broody, a CCL. Then her sister decided she wanted to sit in the same nest with her. They stayed together day after day. Once the silkie had hatched hers and got them up and going we moved her out and then moved the 2 CCLs together to the one broody coop. They separated themselves slightly and constantly moved eggs back and forth, frequently breaking them. When some started to hatch they were fighting over them and sitting so tight they were crushing them. I took the eggs away and put the two broodies in the run. They carried on something awful. I finally put them in a different run that was totally unfamiliar to them and that broke them. Then I sold them with a CCL rooster I had. In the mean time another couple of gals went broody and I put them in a wire rabbit cage and finally broke them but it was an ordeal due to work schedules and everything. A little more time goes by and I have three more broodies and then another and then another. I was so short of time and so flustered. They were constantly changing nest boxes. They would be sitting on a big bunch of eggs and then abandon them for two new eggs. I got afraid to sell any eggs to anyone for fear someone would get a half formed chick. I temporarily gave up and just quit collecting eggs. Had a lot of life issues going on. Finally a chick managed to hatch and that mom was happy then another broody hatched one and was happy. I tossed a lot of eggs. Yesterday one hatched and another was pipped and I placed the pipped one under a little silkie that had been sitting quite a while but somehow someone else ended up with it and two hens were fighting over the one chick that was hatched and I didn't know who hatched it. So I took the one that was trying to hatch and helped it a bit due to the fact it was having a hard time and put it under the one and the already hatched chick under the other and they both seem happy. So now I have 4 chicks with 4 hens. Still have two that have been broody and one newly broody today. I do have a building plan to keep this mess from happening again but time is always at a premium. I hope to find someone locally to sell me some newly hatched chicks to make these gals happy. In this heat with me working 9 hr shifts and having long drives I don't have the heart to try to break them in the wire cage. So...... Broodies can be great but you better make some plans on how you are going to manage if they all go broody at the same time. I guess I should be thankful that my original Barred Rocks that I got from a hatchery have never been broody.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

For those who need to hear how not to manage broodies, I have a story. We started with our first two broodies last year. One raised 3 times and one once, I had a broody coop that was separate that I used, I read all about how to do it, asked some questions, got great answers and everything was pretty good. Then in late winter this year we had a silkie go broody. Yay! Put her in the coop and she hatched a few eggs. Before hers hatched another chicken went broody, a CCL. Then her sister decided she wanted to sit in the same nest with her. They stayed together day after day. Once the silkie had hatched hers and got them up and going we moved her out and then moved the 2 CCLs together to the one broody coop. They separated themselves slightly and constantly moved eggs back and forth, frequently breaking them. When some started to hatch they were fighting over them and sitting so tight they were crushing them. I took the eggs away and put the two broodies in the run. They carried on something awful. I finally put them in a different run that was totally unfamiliar to them and that broke them. Then I sold them with a CCL rooster I had. In the mean time another couple of gals went broody and I put them in a wire rabbit cage and finally broke them but it was an ordeal due to work schedules and everything. A little more time goes by and I have three more broodies and then another and then another. I was so short of time and so flustered. They were constantly changing nest boxes. They would be sitting on a big bunch of eggs and then abandon them for two new eggs. I got afraid to sell any eggs to anyone for fear someone would get a half formed chick. I temporarily gave up and just quit collecting eggs. Had a lot of life issues going on. Finally a chick managed to hatch and that mom was happy then another broody hatched one and was happy. I tossed a lot of eggs. Yesterday one hatched and another was pipped and I placed the pipped one under a little silkie that had been sitting quite a while but somehow someone else ended up with it and two hens were fighting over the one chick that was hatched and I didn't know who hatched it. So I took the one that was trying to hatch and helped it a bit due to the fact it was having a hard time and put it under the one and the already hatched chick under the other and they both seem happy. So now I have 4 chicks with 4 hens. Still have two that have been broody and one newly broody today. I do have a building plan to keep this mess from happening again but time is always at a premium. I hope to find someone locally to sell me some newly hatched chicks to make these gals happy. In this heat with me working 9 hr shifts and having long drives I don't have the heart to try to break them in the wire cage. So...... Broodies can be great but you better make some plans on how you are going to manage if they all go broody at the same time. I guess I should be thankful that my original Barred Rocks that I got from a hatchery have never been broody.

So sorry to hear your troubles with broodies.

Yes, it is sometimes like cooping up extremely hormonal, out of control, clucking and fighting hens....and time is always short when there is an issue....which usually brings more issues.

Hopefully things will calm down, free time will allow some adjustment, and happy flock life will ensue.

Shout out to middle TN....I have family in the Nashville area.
LofMc

 

[n3kms]

So sorry to hear your troubles with broodies.

Yes, it is sometimes like cooping up extremely hormonal, out of control, clucking and fighting hens....and time is always short when there is an issue....which usually brings more issues.

Hopefully things will calm down, free time will allow some adjustment, and happy flock life will ensue.

Shout out to middle TN....I have family in the Nashville area.
LofMc

Thanks so much. I don't suppose any of your middle Tennessee family has chicks about to hatch?

 

[lydiagirl99]

My babies are hatching, guys !

My broody, Crumbs seems to be taking to the commotion well. So I have 12 eggs. Lets see how many will hatch

 

[StoneHillHens]

QUESTION:

Okay, so we here at Stone Hill are new to the chicken game…and loving every second of it!! Everything has been going swimmingly, however we did recently have a hen (one of our black australorps) go broody. Now, we don't have a rooster, so she can sit on those eggs until the cows come home and they obviously won't hatch. I haven't gotten brave enough to try and see how many are under her, as she's made it abundantly clear to leave her be.

So here's the question; do I have to do anything? I don't like the sounds of a "broody buster", I don't know where I would get fertile eggs to swap and give her, and I'm not worried about being down a layer. Can't I just let her run her course? After she gets it out of her system won't she eventually realize on her own they won't hatch and give up the cause?

 

[Penny Hen]

Thanks so much. I don't suppose any of your middle Tennessee family has chicks about to hatch?

My broody OE, Crystal just hatched five last week. Two OE's, Silver Partridge, two OE/Sapphire, a red and a blue, and one Silver Penciled Bantam Wyandotte. Using feather sexing the two Silver Partridge OE's are pullets; the red OE/Sapphire is a roo and the blue is a pullet. The SPBW seems to be a pullet though I am not as confident about that as I am the OE crosses. I have been raising the OE's long enough to know that they feather sex reliably. This is my first SPBW chick. Vent sexing seems to agree with the feather sexing.

 

[urbannarnia27]

QUESTION:

Okay, so we here at Stone Hill are new to the chicken game…and loving every second of it!! Everything has been going swimmingly, however we did recently have a hen (one of our black australorps) go broody. Now, we don't have a rooster, so she can sit on those eggs until the cows come home and they obviously won't hatch. I haven't gotten brave enough to try and see how many are under her, as she's made it abundantly clear to leave her be.

So here's the question; do I have to do anything? I don't like the sounds of a "broody buster", I don't know where I would get fertile eggs to swap and give her, and I'm not worried about being down a layer. Can't I just let her run her course? After she gets it out of her system won't she eventually realize on her own they won't hatch and give up the cause?

What's a broody buster???