Broody Hen Thread!

[zinkie]

Wow! It's so amazing that you can hear them peeping before they hatch! How cute is that?

Wow! It's so amazing that you can hear them peeping before they hatch! How cute is that?

sorry for double quote....

yes. it is soo cool! But makes me realize.... OMG they are coming!

 

[zinkie]

She is adorable with her adopted brood! Since she seems so taken with them you can probably expect to have them more active than you are used to with brooder chicks, if you notice them spending most of their time as far away from the heat/light you may want to move it a bit to allow cooler temp in the area (that is only if you see her allowing them under her for warmth) and if they want more heat they can always hang out closer to it. She will want to teach them to scratch so you may need to establish an area that she can easily do that, even if it is just adding a large, low sided pan with sand in it, or a floor area with sand. She will start to pace near the door of the area if she wants out. If she sticks it out and takes over full mama mode then you should be able to move her and the chicks to the mini-coop set up much sooner than normal, though watch that a change in location doesn't affect how she is behaving and be prepared to move them back (with or without her) if needed.
We have a hen right now with chicks who are 13 days old in the coop... I just spent over an hour in the coop cleaning and spoiling the adult birds and she had the chicks out scratching for goodies most of that time. It is 20 degrees in the coop this morning and they are running around having a good time... broody raised chicks just seem to ignore the temperature rules most people use for raising babies.

How do you deal with the water for the babies in this cold weather?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

~~ippeee....chicks will be coming soon. Perfect idea to put up the short board these first few hours until all have hatched and fluffed. As to water, you could put in a heated waterer...if you have metal one, you simply add a metal base heater. (There are home-made versions...I always worry about fires). Otherwise it would be a heat light directly over a waterer taking care a bird can't knock it down into shavings and start a fire. I did away with all heat lamps (burned a coop down), so when we have cold snaps I put out a large heated dog bowl ($20 from Amazon) for the main flock (figure low risk of burning anything down with that as it has auto shut off and it is not on pine shavings but the ground). But you can't have open deep water bowls around chicks as a chick could drown. You might try a heated bowl with marbles in it and shallow water, I think you can get different bowl sizes...but it might not work well for the chicks. Or, you haul warm water to chicks. For me (usually days in the 20's), a chick size waterer with very warm (not boiling) water lasts about half a day before it freezes too much...so I have two and take the first water out first thing in the morning (with babies you've got to be there early) and then swap out mid-day, and swap out again right at night when they bed down. It means a lot of hauling, but the chick quart size containers are light and easy...I wouldn't do that for the large flock. I don't have days and days of freezing temps though, so I'd probably figure out some heated water system for babies if that were the case. Lady of McCamley

So how did your coop burn down.... that must have been devastating. I don't blame you for being against heat lamps.

I have a heat lamp in the coop, but it is hanging from the ceiling... helps keep it above 20 on those really cold NH nights. SO I hope that is not a fire hazard.
And it figures... by babies are coming and it is going to be one of the coldest days tomorrow.

Going in early is easy for me... up and checking in on the girls everyday (works days) at 6:15. Is that early enough for them?

Hmmm, heated dog bowl.... the only ones I have seen have been really big. I will have to check. I am off on vacation ( I teach) this week, so the hauling can be easily done until Monday when I go back to work. So hopefully I will have something figured out by then. My god, what was I thinking. lol

At the coop door, I have a 8 inch board (to keep bedding in coop and out of barn). Do you think that is high enough to keep babies from getting in to the barn?
I think when I go back to work, I am going to let the girls (I have 10 and 1 boy) have run of a section of the barn during the day. I leave the door of the coop open (into the barn) when I am home (during winter) so they can chill on some hay bales and scratch around on the floor. During the week when I am at work, I have been leaving them in the coop until I get home about 4, then I let them out to roam a bit. But there are lots of nooks and crannies in there.... I checked the coop, and it is nook and cranny free. How old will they be before they can hop over the 8 inch board? Will they be old enough then to not get stuck in a nook? I know I need to get into the barn part to do some cleaning.

Well thanks for all the reassurance and answers to my questions!

Hmmmm....well it depends on the temperament of the chicks...each batch is different...some stick close with mom, and some just have that wanderlust.

An 8 inch board should keep the few day olds in, but I would put something taller up as soon as they get active as they can hop amazingly well as soon as they are steady on their little feet, but again it depends on how venturesome they become. But when they start flying, you'll definitely have to have something else up if you don't want the little darlings in the main barn as they get really good at flying over and then stranding themselves. (I usually have trouble with holes in the bottom first...squeezing into nooks and out into the main yard).

All sounds good. You'll figure out what to do with water. I'm watching to see what Fisherlady does as well...I am fortunate in rainy Oregon...I only have frigid weather for a few weeks each year, so I haven't invested a whole lot of time and money into a system.

As to how I burned a coop down...well, you start with a cold snap, (very unseasonable cold snap) and chicks that were heat lamped and just transitioned into the coop...so you know they won't handle that kind of cold well...so you add lots of hay, and put up a heat lamp, secured well...we thought... but not bolted into the ceiling...it was actually a flood lamp, and the fixture was new and outdoor rated, and the extension cord from the house was newer and outdoor rated...one of the birds must have knocked the flood lamp into the hay...which sparked, melted the extension cord about 1/3 of the way back towards the house (30 foot extension), blew the house fuse (porch off back of house)...the straw must have ignited and then gone up like a roman candle.

This is all we had left in the morning....no one saw a thing as it must have happened sometime between midnight (which I went to bed) and 7 am (when hubby got up to go to work)...I came out at 8:30 am to this (you could still feel the heat radiating from the ground)...we are so blessed our wood pile didn't catch fire, nor the neighbors...nor the neighborhood (talk about Mrs. O'Leary's cow...it could have been my chickens!)....no more heat lamps/flood lights for us....


from this




to this....


I've had 2 friends say they've burned down coops, and know others who have burned down coops, heat lamps falling into the straw when they are knocked down.

Sadly, all hens lost...had to start all over again...went with Broodies and babies raised in the natural elements and haven't looked back

So as to end happy...I'm bigger and better than ever now...


Lady of McCamley

 

[Hannahs Hollow]

Its official! Harmony has gone broody again just 9 weeks after hatching a chick. I don't think she should do this yet and will try to keep tossing/coaxing her off the nest. She has plucked all her breast feathers out.....

 

[Hannahs Hollow]

Hmmmm....well it depends on the temperament of the chicks...each batch is different...some stick close with mom, and some just have that wanderlust. An 8 inch board should keep the few day olds in, but I would put something taller up as soon as they get active as they can hop amazingly well as soon as they are steady on their little feet, but again it depends on how venturesome they become. But when they start flying, you'll definitely have to have something else up if you don't want the little darlings in the main barn as they get really good at flying over and then stranding themselves. (I usually have trouble with holes in the bottom first...squeezing into nooks and out into the main yard). All sounds good. You'll figure out what to do with water. I'm watching to see what Fisherlady does as well...I am fortunate in rainy Oregon...I only have frigid weather for a few weeks each year, so I haven't invested a whole lot of time and money into a system. As to how I burned a coop down...well, you start with a cold snap, (very unseasonable cold snap) and chicks that were heat lamped and just transitioned into the coop...so you know they won't handle that kind of cold well...so you add lots of hay, and put up a heat lamp but not bolted into the ceiling...it was actually a flood lamp, and the fixture was new and outdoor rated, and the extension cord from the house was newer and outdoor rated...one of the birds must have knocked the flood lamp into the hay...which sparked, melted the extension cord about 1/3 of the way back towards the house (30 foot extension), blew the house fuse (porch off back of house)...the straw must have ignited and then gone up like a roman candle. This is all we had left in the morning....no one saw a thing as it must have happened sometime between midnight (which I went to bed) and 7 am (when hubby got up to go to work)...I came out at 8:30 am to this (you could still feel the heat radiating from the ground)...we are so blessed our wood pile didn't catch fire, nor the neighbors...nor the neighborhood (talk about Mrs. O'Leary's cow...it could have been my chickens!)....no more heat lamps/flood lights for us.... from this to this.... I've had 2 friends say they've burned down coops, and know others who have burned down coops, heat lamps falling into the straw when they are knocked down. Sadly, all hens lost...had to start all over again...went with Broodies and babies raised in the natural elements and haven't looked back Lady of McCamley

Oh my....

 

[mindylee]

I ALWAYS tie the brooder lamp with baling twin for extra reasurance.

I almost brunt a barn down due to a lamp in the past. Now I hook and tie!

 

[Hannahs Hollow]

I always hook and tie too.

Lady of McCamley, for some reason I thought you were more rural? Have you tried other means of heat. pop bottles filled with water heated by the sun or various types of insulation? Or using a packing blacket, emergency silver sheet or furnace wrap to cover the coop with on cold nights?

A place near me is giving away the coconut fibre sheets from recycled mattresses. They are good for weed control in the garden and pathways and soil erosion. I wonder if I could insulate with these.... All of my coop, green house and gardens are made from 100% recycled materials.

My coop is a walk in with a 6 ft ceiling. I haven't worried until now about the odd night with a heat lamp but both of my Brahma/icelandics have suddenly discovered they can fly. Altho the coop is tall, it's only 5x9ft. Not much room to fly and not hit something! We are looking to expand 3x the size. I'd show pics but for some reason my page on the PC will not give me that option. Hence the bad photos from my cell phone lol.

I live very rural and a neighbor had her sheep barn burn down a few years back with the new spring lambs.... Heat lamps and straw. It was very sad for our whole community. I would be devastated if I lost my feathered friends so harshly. I don't know if I could rebuild. Good for you!
Becky.

 

[fisherlady]

Quote:
We use a 90 watt ceramic 'lizard bulb' over the waterer. It is tied up, and uses a small reflector housing like a miniature of the regular heat lamps. Since it is a solid ceramic fixture, rather than a glass bulb it is less prone to breaking. At 90 watt it doesn't throw a lot of heat, just enough to keep the water from freezing for 8 or so hours. We usually have to swap out for fresh water a couple times a day, but at least it is good for when we are at work and then overnight.
Another thing we did, and it works till temps are below 20*.... we take the heated dog dish and turn it over (ours are plastic), we put sand around between the central bowl and outer edge and just set the plastic waterer on the flat surface created. The heating element of the dog bowl is in it's base, which is now in contact with the bottom of the waterer, The sand we used to fill around the dish helps to weigh it down. The chicks can easily jump the 4 or 5 inches to were the waterer sits and since the waterer is so much smaller in diameter than the dog dish it creates a little standing edge for the chicks.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I always hook and tie too.

Lady of McCamley, for some reason I thought you were more rural? Have you tried other means of heat. pop bottles filled with water heated by the sun or various types of insulation? Or using a packing blacket, emergency silver sheet or furnace wrap to cover the coop with on cold nights?

A place near me is giving away the coconut fibre sheets from recycled mattresses. They are good for weed control in the garden and pathways and soil erosion. I wonder if I could insulate with these.... All of my coop, green house and gardens are made from 100% recycled materials.

My coop is a walk in with a 6 ft ceiling. I haven't worried until now about the odd night with a heat lamp but both of my Brahma/icelandics have suddenly discovered they can fly. Altho the coop is tall, it's only 5x9ft. Not much room to fly and not hit something! We are looking to expand 3x the size. I'd show pics but for some reason my page on the PC will not give me that option. Hence the bad photos from my cell phone lol.

I live very rural and a neighbor had her sheep barn burn down a few years back with the new spring lambs.... Heat lamps and straw. It was very sad for our whole community. I would be devastated if I lost my feathered friends so harshly. I don't know if I could rebuild. Good for you!
Becky.

I am sort of "in between"....McCamley was the old farmer who owned a big farm here and slowly sold off some of his property for retirement back in the 1950's (he lived until he was 102...what a kick he was! He was still living when we moved into our home)....all of these old houses he built on his farmland have large country lots. I have 1/3 to 1/2 of an acre...most of which the backyard is chickens. We are still unincorporated county, so I could keep pretty much any livestock I wanted, but with the land we are on chickens work best (most of the neighbors on this old farm have chickens too). But to the back of us, subdivisions have come in, and over the last 20 years the city has encroached terribly.

There are times I threaten to pull up and move...but we are sort of used to living here, and the location was handy with all the stuff the kids did....we have the advantages of both farm/country and city from one spot.

Haven't tried pop bottles and such. Thanks for your thoughts.

I haven't put too much thought into long term cold weather treatments as we don't get enough cold for it to be a real bother. The chickens do fine in the coops as built (I have 2 main coops now, large runs, and a separate brooder and run on the other side of the property...you don't see much of my property in those photos...just the back fence line with the subdivision behind)...we've expanded a lot over the years from that first coop that burned down....And broodies do just fine for chicks for me without heating...so much easier and safer...so I've moved beyond heat lamps or any lighting...it was just easier to go natural....and so much funner! So once I moved to that route, I haven't looked back...I've got a regular cycle now with my broodies for the chicks I need, and I have a friend on a farm who takes my older hens...so it is constant brooding and raising here to keep an optimum flock for the eggs we need and some to sell.

Lady of McCamley

 

[Lady of McCamley]

We use a 90 watt ceramic 'lizard bulb' over the waterer. It is tied up, and uses a small reflector housing like a miniature of the regular heat lamps. Since it is a solid ceramic fixture, rather than a glass bulb it is less prone to breaking. At 90 watt it doesn't throw a lot of heat, just enough to keep the water from freezing for 8 or so hours. We usually have to swap out for fresh water a couple times a day, but at least it is good for when we are at work and then overnight.
Another thing we did, and it works till temps are below 20*.... we take the heated dog dish and turn it over (ours are plastic), we put sand around between the central bowl and outer edge and just set the plastic waterer on the flat surface created. The heating element of the dog bowl is in it's base, which is now in contact with the bottom of the waterer, The sand we used to fill around the dish helps to weigh it down. The chicks can easily jump the 4 or 5 inches to were the waterer sits and since the waterer is so much smaller in diameter than the dog dish it creates a little standing edge for the chicks.

Fisherlady...that is brilliant...turning the dog bowl OVER and using its base to set the chick waterer on....just brilliant. I'll have to look into that the next time I have a cold snap for the brooding pen.

Lady of McCamley