Broody Hen Thread!

[sonderah]

Tomorrow is hatch day for my sweet black Silkie, Emmy's 2nd clutch this spring! Her BFF, my white Silkie is raising 3 now that are around 2 weeks. I gave Emmy 5 eggs! These were all in the 'bator til Saturday, & my incy eggs have been hatching late, guess I should turn it up some. I sure hope they hatch b4 I leave town Friday! I'll be gone for a MONTH! They will be HUGE before I see them! My poor bf is left in charge with all of my "mess" while I'm away. 3 chicken coops/runs, a turkey pen, a huge brooder, and my incubator & hatcher! He's SOOOO awesome to volunteer himself while I go take care of my Mommy!!!

 

[fisherlady]

Call me crazy but I just went out to discover that my favorite silkie/winner of the most devoted broody award, was broody so I took one of my serama eggs from my incubator and stuck it under her! Is there anything I should know about using broody hens?
(P.S. It is day 1 for the eggs and it's my first ever time attempting to hatch chicks with a bator and/or broody hen!)

make sure you mark the egg so you can identify it easily in case anyone else tries to lay in her nest.... though I know the egg is probably smaller than any other average hen's egg... make sure she is in a safe location and has minimal stresses. you have lots of time (though she may hatch anytime after day 19, my silkie historically has all of her hatching done by day 20 no matter what eggs she is given... she just bakes them quick I guess! LOL

Take time over the next few days to go back about 6 weeks on this thread and on the 'Old fashioned broody hen hatch along' thread also.... there have been a ton of questions for situations, feeding, tending and emergency fixes asked and answered and discussed on both threads recently, certainly too many to summarize in a short post. And as a bonus there are a ton of adorable pictures to enjoy.

one more thing to think about... I don't know how many eggs you have in the incubator, but a silkie can easily cover 5 or 6 serema sized eggs. So if she is in a safe location you can always switch more out to her if you want or graft the newly hatched chicks out to her once they have dried in the incubator. A hen will certainly be content with just one chick, but they do well with more also (as long as they are able to safely cover them during cooler evenings and such)... so she could lessen your work load by brooding more of them so you don't have to.

 

[jajeanpierre]

one more thing to think about... I don't know how many eggs you have in the incubator, but a silkie can easily cover 5 or 6 serema sized eggs. So if she is in a safe location you can always switch more out to her if you want or graft the newly hatched chicks out to her once they have dried in the incubator. A hen will certainly be content with just one chick, but they do well with more also (as long as they are able to safely cover them during cooler evenings and such)... so she could lessen your work load by brooding more of them so you don't have to.

Hen-raised babies are just so much better than incubator raised babies. They are happier, acclimate more easily to the variable temperatures in the environment and best of all, they are so much easier to care for. I suspect they are healthier if only because so many of their stresses are reduced.

 

[fisherlady]

Hen-raised babies are just so much better than incubator raised babies. They are happier, acclimate more easily to the variable temperatures in the environment and best of all, they are so much easier to care for. I suspect they are healthier if only because so many of their stresses are reduced.

I agree! I don't have scientific evidence or studies to back it up... but I do have a lot of 'observing' time and I just like the broody raised babies... Maybe it is because they are just so much easier, since they are part of the flock from the start. There is nothing like seeing a pint sized 2 week old chick running under the legs of all of the adult flock members stealing bits of goodies at treat time!

or a full grown rooster pulling apart a treat and offering it to a baby... anyone who isn't moved by the 'awwweee' factor of seeing that must be made of stone! LOL

 

[fisherlady]

Well, I posted this on the other broody thread.... so will share a little bit of 'cuteness' here also.... I work long shifts (24 hours at a time) so DH sent me this picture last night to keep me posted on how our latest chicks are doing...

 

[fisherlady]

Tomorrow is hatch day for my sweet black Silkie, Emmy's 2nd clutch this spring! Her BFF, my white Silkie is raising 3 now that are around 2 weeks. I gave Emmy 5 eggs! These were all in the 'bator til Saturday, & my incy eggs have been hatching late, guess I should turn it up some. I sure hope they hatch b4 I leave town Friday!

I'll be gone for a MONTH! They will be HUGE before I see them! My poor bf is left in charge with all of my "mess" while I'm away. 3 chicken coops/runs, a turkey pen, a huge brooder, and my incubator & hatcher! He's SOOOO awesome to volunteer himself while I go take care of my Mommy!!!

A month will seem like forever, but it will pass quicker than you think, family needs are just something that you have to do... it is so great that you have such a good guy willing to keep things well taken care of so you can go do what you need to do!

I hope all goes well with your mom and make sure the boyfriend can send you lots of pictures to help you get your daily cuteness fix!

 

[jajeanpierre]

I agree! I don't have scientific evidence or studies to back it up... but I do have a lot of 'observing' time and I just like the broody raised babies... Maybe it is because they are just so much easier, since they are part of the flock from the start. There is nothing like seeing a pint sized 2 week old chick running under the legs of all of the adult flock members stealing bits of goodies at treat time!

or a full grown rooster pulling apart a treat and offering it to a baby... anyone who isn't moved by the 'awwweee' factor of seeing that must be made of stone! LOL

This year I raised twelve chicks under a Brinsea brooder and was so surprised at just how much better they did than under a heat lamp. The most noticeable difference was the noise level--the chicks were just so much quieter. Quieter chicks are indicative of chicks whose needs are being met more fully than noisier chicks.

I just hate having chicks in the house--they are just so dusty and need constant monitoring to make sure they haven't tipped the water and soaked their bed. A broody is just so much easier.

I was also surprised at how much teaching and guiding the hen does. Several times I given them live meal worms or bugs and the hen takes it and gives it to the chicks. If they are unsure, she picks it up and repeatedly drops it in front of them or breaks it into more manageable chick-sized pieces.

After a lot of thought about where to raise these chicks, I decided that they really weren't safe from my mini Dachshunds so they are penned in my back yard. It is so sweet to see the other chickens come over to watch. I wish they were with the flock, but I just can't risk it while I have these (older) dogs. If I only had only one Dachshund to keep track of, I could cope, but there is no way I can keep track of four Dachshunds at once when I let them out.

 

[fisherlady]

This year I raised twelve chicks under a Brinsea brooder and was so surprised at just how much better they did than under a heat lamp. The most noticeable difference was the noise level--the chicks were just so much quieter. Quieter chicks are indicative of chicks whose needs are being met more fully than noisier chicks.

I just hate having chicks in the house--they are just so dusty and need constant monitoring to make sure they haven't tipped the water and soaked their bed. A broody is just so much easier.

I was also surprised at how much teaching and guiding the hen does. Several times I given them live meal worms or bugs and the hen takes it and gives it to the chicks. If they are unsure, she picks it up and repeatedly drops it in front of them or breaks it into more manageable chick-sized pieces.

After a lot of thought about where to raise these chicks, I decided that they really weren't safe from my mini Dachshunds so they are penned in my back yard. It is so sweet to see the other chickens come over to watch. I wish they were with the flock, but I just can't risk it while I have these (older) dogs. If I only had only one Dachshund to keep track of, I could cope, but there is no way I can keep track of four Dachshunds at once when I let them out.

I understand about the dogs for sure!! Never an easy balance... one thing to consider would be the chain link kennels or doggie play pens for the broodies... you could easily maneuver the ones which are 4ft tall and move it around the yard to give a broody different environments every few days... you would just need to add hardware cloth around the bottom foot or so to prevent chicks from escaping. It may provide you a compromise.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I understand about the dogs for sure!! Never an easy balance... one thing to consider would be the chain link kennels or doggie play pens for the broodies... you could easily maneuver the ones which are 4ft tall and move it around the yard to give a broody different environments every few days... you would just need to add hardware cloth around the bottom foot or so to prevent chicks from escaping. It may provide you a compromise.

I have two sets of broody hens with chicks in little pens that can be moved easily. Their chicks (all LF Ameraucana full siblings) are separated by five days in age. Seven are with an LF Ameraucana broody and one with a Silkie. I have small moveable pens with a dog-house coop attached to each pen. My problem is finding shade for them--the large fowl Ameraucana can really trash the grass in my lawn in a few days. I'm in South Central Texas and it is very, very hot.

My Dachshunds are old--one is 12 years, two are 10, and one is 8. They will be my last dogs from a breed with a high prey drive. They are fine with the grown chickens, but I can tell the fluttering chicks are tempting to at least one of the dogs. My other dog, a pit bull, is fine with my chickens. Who would have imagined a pit bull would be safe with livestock? (Yes, I had the dogs before I ever imagined I would have chickens.)

 

[abserbean]

Well, I was unable to break my hen's second broody this season, so she is on six more eggs! I did manage to find a placement for the two roos that she hatched out nine weeks ago, I just have to decide what to do with the five pullets. I picked up the eggs at a farm swap this weekend, so they are local, but they were fertile eating eggs, so we'll see what hatches out. I know there are two green eggs, probable EE's, one brown marans egg, and three white eggs. One of the white eggs is a hamburg, but the other two are ??, the lady wasn't sure who had laid them. They are a free range flock, she keeps her hatching egg flocks penned and separated, so they may just be barnyard mixes. I'm not picky, I think it will be fun to try and figure out at hatch time! She is doing great so far (only three days in), I just want to watch her for the heat. It is so hot and humid here, so we'll see how that affects the hatch.Hoping for good results for her, she is such a good little momma hen.