Broody Hen Thread!

[aart]

I would try and move her first. Make sure she stays broody and then give her new eggs. I will only let my broodys hatch chicks if they let me move them to a safe location. I do not want other hens laying eggs in there with her. Sometimes they will even lay on top of the broody if she wont move out of the way. I have had too many eggs break. If she wont let me move her she has to go to the big bad broody busting coop where she stays for 3 days or so.

If you do try and move her do it at night, take some or all of her nesting material with her and then put some kind of towel or burlap over the area for a couple days to make it kind of dark. It all depends on the hen if she will stay on the eggs or not. I have some portable nest boxes that I can just move, broody and all and that seems to work the best. Lets see if I have a picture of one.....


I made these from instructions from Anna Whites website.

Ditto^^^
They either go in this, to hatch:




Or this, to break:

 

[katatonic123]

How and when do you reintegrate into the flock?
Betty had her baby out at the feeder today. It was so cute!

 

[PD-Riverman]

How and when do you reintegrate into the flock?

For "ME"---Never. But I am sure there are alot that do.

 

[svfarm]

My broodiness are top of the flock. No one messes with them. Also, my flock is so used to new birds that after an hour they don't really care anymore.

 

[svfarm]

*broodies

 

[Demidog]

Those next boxes all look great.Maybe i should do that too. I've not got a separate area for her and the chicks when they hatch. That was actually going to be my next question - do i need to completely separate her from the rest of the flock, and what does she need while she's brooding? Just now i've moved her to another next box because they all like to lay in the same box on top of her, and my husband has just nailed a bit of wood over the entrance to stop the others going in. The wood can still be moved to the side to open the 'door' and let her out. Is this suitable or do i need to put her in another coup away from the others? There is a feeder inside the shed with her, but the water is outside. Should i bring food and water right next to her because I've not seen her outside since she became broody. What's the whole procedure? Will the other hens and the cockerel attack the chicks? The cockerel is evil, it attacks me when i go in and i have to take a stick to protect myself. He's pretty rough with the ladies too, one of them has a lot of feather loss on her back and visible red skin which I'm assuming is from his claws when he's mating with her, and some of them have spots on their heads from pecking. I'm not sure who's doing the pecking, maybe it's all from the male when he's mating with them. The hens are all really placid, but the cockerel likes to struts his stuff and show who's boss.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Those next boxes all look great.Maybe i should do that too. I've not got a separate area for her and the chicks when they hatch. That was actually going to be my next question - do i need to completely separate her from the rest of the flock, and what does she need while she's brooding? Just now i've moved her to another next box because they all like to lay in the same box on top of her, and my husband has just nailed a bit of wood over the entrance to stop the others going in. The wood can still be moved to the side to open the 'door' and let her out. Is this suitable or do i need to put her in another coup away from the others? There is a feeder inside the shed with her, but the water is outside. Should i bring food and water right next to her because I've not seen her outside since she became broody. What's the whole procedure? Will the other hens and the cockerel attack the chicks? The cockerel is evil, it attacks me when i go in and i have to take a stick to protect myself. He's pretty rough with the ladies too, one of them has a lot of feather loss on her back and visible red skin which I'm assuming is from his claws when he's mating with her, and some of them have spots on their heads from pecking. I'm not sure who's doing the pecking, maybe it's all from the male when he's mating with them. The hens are all really placid, but the cockerel likes to struts his stuff and show who's boss.

Don't restrict her - she needs to be able to get out when *she* wants to, not just when you are there to open the door for her now and then. Rather than trying to keep her in and others out, simply mark the eggs that she is intended to hatch and check the nest daily to remove unmarked eggs, which will be those laid that day by other hens visiting the box. Leave feed and water where they normally are - a broody needs to get up and move around and having to move to the feed/water helps accomplish this. Feed/water right at the nest can also lead to fouling of the nest.
Whether you opt to separate or not is up to you - some do, some don't. I am in the don't camp and have not had any issues whatsoever with using this approach - plus it's a whole lot simpler, imo, as not only does it not require setting up entirely separate quarters, it also eliminates the issue of re-integration of the hen and integration of the chicks into the flock.

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Today is the day! I pick up chicks on my way home from work and tonight after dark I will swap them out for the fake eggs the girls are sitting on. Keep your fingers crossed for me please!

 

[yyz0yyz0]

Today is the day! I pick up chicks on my way home from work and tonight after dark I will swap them out for the fake eggs the girls are sitting on. Keep your fingers crossed for me please!

Good luck, hopefully you'll be back on here tomorrow with updates on how well they took to the new chicks.

I put 12 fertile eggs under my brooder 10 days ago, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. Tonight will be our first attempt at candling them to see if they are growing.

 

[Cindra]

We have had 4 Plymouth Barred Rock hens sit and hatch eggs - they are all under a year old as they started laying late last fall. If anyone wants good mommas I would suggest that breed.