Broody Hen Thread!

[Wrightsx4]

Hi all! My broody BA hen, Betty, is hatching eggs for me as I type I lifted her wing and saw at least two peeking out. She's sitting on 7 eggs (SF) total. I have her in a pen underneath the nesting boxes - sort of her own private suite. If I leave her door open she'll be able to take them outside. Is that safe? She'd be walking them out amongst the rest of the flock. OR do I need to fence in an area for them and cut another hole in the coop by her enclosure so she can take them in and out out of a private run? I've raised lots of incubator chicks but this is my first time with a broody. I'd put them in the separate coop, but my 9wk olds are currently using it.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Hi all! My broody BA hen, Betty, is hatching eggs for me as I type I lifted her wing and saw at least two peeking out. She's sitting on 7 eggs (SF) total. I have her in a pen underneath the nesting boxes - sort of her own private suite. If I leave her door open she'll be able to take them outside. Is that safe? She'd be walking them out amongst the rest of the flock. OR do I need to fence in an area for them and cut another hole in the coop by her enclosure so she can take them in and out out of a private run? I've raised lots of incubator chicks but this is my first time with a broody. I'd put them in the separate coop, but my 9wk olds are currently using it.

My broodies do their business in the coop with rest of the flock. I have really mellow Silkies though. I did have to put my little frizzled Cochin hen and her chick in a separate hutch bc she was being a butthead, but my other 3 have been fine with each other and everyone else so far. I guess you could let her out with the rest and keep an eye on her. As long as she can keep up with all of them and protects them all will be well.

My 4th, and final broody, is hatching her eggs out. The first chick hatched yesterday, the second last night and the other egg is still just hanging out. I candled it to make sure it was still alive and it looked good so it hatches today! I only gave the hen 3 eggs bc she did a horrible job the first 2 times she went broody (I moved her to a cage the first 2 times, this time I left her in the nestbox she started in). She did much better this time, thank goodness.

 

[kukupecpec]

So I gave my broody BLRW 10 eggs morning before last and when I went out to check on her this morning, 3 eggs were covered in broken egg goo and ad been pushed over 15 ft completely out of the chicken run(the gate was open for the non-broodies to free range).I picked her up and she had one crushed egg, and 4 others. So I'm missing at least 2... is this normal? Did I just give her too many eggs? I mean she's HUGE and covered all 10 for a whole day no problems lol. She did kick more of the hay out of thenest box so the eggs are resting on the hard solid floor, do I need to do something to make it softer? Any ideas for somethign she can't kick out?

 

[Wrightsx4]

So I gave my broody BLRW 10 eggs morning before last and when I went out to check on her this morning, 3 eggs were covered in broken egg goo and ad been pushed over 15 ft completely out of the chicken run(the gate was open for the non-broodies to free range).I picked her up and she had one crushed egg, and 4 others. So I'm missing at least 2... is this normal? Did I just give her too many eggs? I mean she's HUGE and covered all 10 for a whole day no problems lol. She did kick more of the hay out of thenest box so the eggs are resting on the hard solid floor, do I need to do something to make it softer? Any ideas for somethign she can't kick out? 

I have a 2x4 across the opening to the nest to help hold in the nesting material. Other than that she's sitting in straw on concrete. No crushed eggs and she's a big australorp. I did sprinkle under the straw with DE so mites would stay away - we don't have mites but I didn't want to take a chance since she'd be on the floor.

 

[Jharper]

I have a 2x4 across the opening to the nest to help hold in the nesting material. Other than that she's sitting in straw on concrete. No crushed eggs and she's a big australorp. I did sprinkle under the straw with DE so mites would stay away - we don't have mites but I didn't want to take a chance since she'd be on the floor.

My Australorp is broody, too. She is the same size as my EE roo!!!

 

[dodgewoman]

Omg, I have a ton of questions for you all! My broody hen actually hatched put chicks! I'm shocked! Seeing as I've only had chickens for a year I now nothing about this.

We went out today to feed and water. We noticed that one chick was trying to emerge. We had to leave. When we came back it hadn't made any progress. We picked up the hen(mich to her dismay) and 3 little chicks started peeping! Another one is also trying to emerge.

First. Should I help those two that are trying to emerge? Should I break away part of the shell for them? Them have made no more progress in 3 hours.

Second. Do we section off a corner of the coop for the hen and her chicks? I don't want the other hens to brutally kill them. I have 14 week old chickens that I tried to integrate a few weeks ago and they pecked one to death. So I'm worried about the this time.

Third. Should we get chick crumble foe them and get another water fount? Currently the water is outside of the coop.

Hope someone answers soon! This is exciting and scary at the same time, lol

 

[Wrightsx4]

Congratulations! Just found this thread myself but I'll try to help with a few things! I'm still up in the air about keeping them separated or not - I'll let her take them out with close supervision and see how it goes. That's why I got onto this thread
Chick starter - yes definitely - and mom hen can eat it too. She won't be laying again for a while so you can do medicated or non - either way is safe. And yes, definitely a waterer at their level and put rocks or marbles in it so it's super shallow so they drink between them and don't drown. Make sure they don't have access to other water too - they try to "get in" and drown.

 

[CaCO3]

I
Is ripping out of their feathers a sign of about to go broody? My australorp that is setting now, has lost her feathers below her vent (kind of between her legs) for a few months. Wasn't sure if she had always been that way and never noticed it, or if it happened recently. When I saw your comment above, the lightbulb went off.

Well, yes and no. I'm going to say that most common is broody behavior. The hens that do rip out their feathers look like the are about to go in the oven as a roaster. Totally nekked.

On the other end of the spectrum, they can lose feathers around the vent area if something is wrong. This has only happened to me once, and it was a leghorn that died from egg yolk peritonitis and I didn't even notice it till the very end so the feather loss was not dramatic. I've seen other people's chickens with naked butts and they'd been like that for a long time with no apparent health issues. I have others one who is always bald in patches- one Araucana who always has bald rump (feather picking victim) and bald chin (muff alopecia???

). Then of course molting, but I think this is off-season to molt and I"ve never seen a bald molter.

I'm going to try and get a few pics. Will post.

 

[CaCO3]

I
Is ripping out of their feathers a sign of about to go broody? My australorp that is setting now, has lost her feathers below her vent (kind of between her legs) for a few months. Wasn't sure if she had always been that way and never noticed it, or if it happened recently. When I saw your comment above, the lightbulb went off.

PS- Is she lining her nest with the feathers? That's a good indicator that its her broodiness. They rip the feathers out for that plus the eggs are toasty right up against their skin.

 

[kukupecpec]

I have a 2x4 across the opening to the nest to help hold in the nesting material. Other than that she's sitting in straw on concrete. No crushed eggs and she's a big australorp. I did sprinkle under the straw with DE so mites would stay away - we don't have mites but I didn't want to take a chance since she'd be on the floor.

It does have a lip on it to help stop the hay from FALLING out with regular in and outs, but she full on scratches it all out until she hits the hard plastic floor. Weird chicken lol