Broody Hen Thread!

[Lady of McCamley]

My Broody's eggs are hatching and she keeps getting up a little and moving them around. Is this normal, it's our first broody?

Without seeing the hen, it is hard to know what she is doing, but I strongly suspicion everything is fine. Most likely she knows what she is about, so you shouldn't worry.

Unless you actually see a hen threatening to kill a live and healthy chick, or abandon live chicks in the process of hatching to mother already hatched chicks (the curse of staggered setting dates for eggs), or ignore hungry babies to continue to sit on dud eggs, it is best to let momma and mother nature take their course.

Hens do move about a little during the process. I know they must as I have come back and seen various egg shells, and sometimes chicks who died in hatch (as evidenced by a malformed body), pulled away from the nest. I only witness mother stoically sitting as if fixed in stone upon the brood, but I know she must have done the tidying earlier on.

Mom does shuffle and shift a little while the little ones are hatching. They sit half hunched on their legs so that there is a nice little "cave" below them to make room for all the activity, and as stated do some tidying as needed throughout the process. Some first timers seem a bit unsettled by the process occurring below. One of my hens (the May Rhodebar hatch) had a perpetual perplexed look on her face as if to say "what on EARTH is going on down there!" She would occasionally shudder and jump a little at the unexpected commotion. However her instincts told her to sit still, and she indeed stayed the course albeit with apparent great personal trepidation at times.

Just check on them periodically without interfering to make sure all seems well. If a hen truly appears unsettled, there is usually something unsettling her. It can be that ants have gotten into the nest box, or, since its winter, the nest is sodden from rain leakage or frozen. I have intervened occasionally if I have seen the hatch in crisis, but only with great care attempting to disturb as little as possible while addressing the precipitating factor.

Occasionally you can get a hen who is willing to brood but seems to have no common sense that she is to calmly let the little ones hatch beneath her...those can be chick eaters if they get really distressed...but that would be rare.

Keep us posted, and good luck on this hatch. It sounds like you'll have some little fuzzy beaks soon.

Lady of McCamley

 

[mymilliefleur]

Without seeing the hen, it is hard to know what she is doing, but I strongly suspicion everything is fine. Most likely she knows what she is about, so you shouldn't worry.

Unless you actually see a hen threatening to kill a live and healthy chick, or abandon live chicks in the process of hatching to mother already hatched chicks (the curse of staggered setting dates for eggs), or ignore hungry babies to continue to sit on dud eggs, it is best to let momma and mother nature take their course.

Hens do move about a little during the process. I know they must as I have come back and seen various egg shells, and sometimes chicks who died in hatch (as evidenced by a malformed body), pulled away from the nest. I only witness mother stoically sitting as if fixed in stone upon the brood, but I know she must have done the tidying earlier on.

Mom does shuffle and shift a little while the little ones are hatching. They sit half hunched on their legs so that there is a nice little "cave" below them to make room for all the activity, and as stated do some tidying as needed throughout the process. Some first timers seem a bit unsettled by the process occurring below. One of my hens (the May Rhodebar hatch) had a perpetual perplexed look on her face as if to say "what on EARTH is going on down there!" She would occasionally shudder and jump a little at the unexpected commotion. However her instincts told her to sit still, and she indeed stayed the course albeit with apparent great personal trepidation at times.

Just check on them periodically without interfering to make sure all seems well. If a hen truly appears unsettled, there is usually something unsettling her. It can be that ants have gotten into the nest box, or, since its winter, the nest is sodden from rain leakage or frozen. I have intervened occasionally if I have seen the hatch in crisis, but only with great care attempting to disturb as little as possible while addressing the precipitating factor.

Occasionally you can get a hen who is willing to brood but seems to have no common sense that she is to calmly let the little ones hatch beneath her...those can be chick eaters if they get really distressed...but that would be rare.

Keep us posted, and good luck on this hatch. It sounds like you'll have some little fuzzy beaks soon.

Lady of McCamley

Good post lady of McCamley!

 

[JRL1438]

Without seeing the hen, it is hard to know what she is doing, but I strongly suspicion everything is fine. Most likely she knows what she is about, so you shouldn't worry.

Unless you actually see a hen threatening to kill a live and healthy chick, or abandon live chicks in the process of hatching to mother already hatched chicks (the curse of staggered setting dates for eggs), or ignore hungry babies to continue to sit on dud eggs, it is best to let momma and mother nature take their course.

Hens do move about a little during the process. I know they must as I have come back and seen various egg shells, and sometimes chicks who died in hatch (as evidenced by a malformed body), pulled away from the nest. I only witness mother stoically sitting as if fixed in stone upon the brood, but I know she must have done the tidying earlier on.

Mom does shuffle and shift a little while the little ones are hatching. They sit half hunched on their legs so that there is a nice little "cave" below them to make room for all the activity, and as stated do some tidying as needed throughout the process. Some first timers seem a bit unsettled by the process occurring below. One of my hens (the May Rhodebar hatch) had a perpetual perplexed look on her face as if to say "what on EARTH is going on down there!" She would occasionally shudder and jump a little at the unexpected commotion. However her instincts told her to sit still, and she indeed stayed the course albeit with apparent great personal trepidation at times.

Just check on them periodically without interfering to make sure all seems well. If a hen truly appears unsettled, there is usually something unsettling her. It can be that ants have gotten into the nest box, or, since its winter, the nest is sodden from rain leakage or frozen. I have intervened occasionally if I have seen the hatch in crisis, but only with great care attempting to disturb as little as possible while addressing the precipitating factor.

Occasionally you can get a hen who is willing to brood but seems to have no common sense that she is to calmly let the little ones hatch beneath her...those can be chick eaters if they get really distressed...but that would be rare.

Keep us posted, and good luck on this hatch. It sounds like you'll have some little fuzzy beaks soon. 

Lady of McCamley

Thank you so much for the relief. She now has 2 babies hatched and 9 more to go. I am so happy that she loves her chicks.

She gets up just enough to turn around sit back down and then shoves all the eggs way under her. She does this about every hour. Everything seems to be going alright.

 

[mymilliefleur]

Thank you so much for the relief. She now has 2 babies hatched and 9 more to go. I am so happy that she loves her chicks.

She gets up just enough to turn around sit back down and then shoves all the eggs way under her. She does this about every hour. Everything seems to be going alright.

Excellent news! please keep us posted.

 

[Gingersnap722]

I can't wait to see pics of cute little ones peeking out from under her!

 

[JRL1438]

I can only get a picture of chick #1 chick #2 wont stay out long enough.

 

[Jynuine]

My black cochin Bantam, 'Jade' went broody a few weeks ago. I was unfamiliar with the in's and out's of fertilized eggs and ended up killing 3 babies before I was wise enough to leave our last one alone- which will be a mix of our Silver Seabright and Sumatran Bantam/White Frizzle bantam (not sure which!). So, needless to say, we are so so so excited! We really kind of want it to be a seabright Sumatran mix hahaha! That... would be AMAZING! The only other rooster we have is a huge cornish, so not sure he was able to mate tiny 'Roofy'!



This is 'Roofy'. She is a Silver Seabright and about the size of a mourning dove. It's her egg that is fertilized and ready to hatch!
Another bantam is the foster mama.



This is 'Bruce Norris'- he is one of our 2 Sumatran roos. 'Chuck Lee' is darker, but still cute.
When they do their thing around the chickens we always do our little voices of, "Hay- Baybeeee" haha!
They're little charmers and dance really well.



This is 'Farley', our White Frizzled bantam rooster- he could be papa too!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Without seeing the hen, it is hard to know what she is doing,.... Unless you actually see a hen threatening to kill a live and healthy chick, or abandon live chicks in the process of hatching to mother already hatched chicks (the curse of staggered setting dates for eggs)....

The above is why I have repeatedly warned about staggered hatching dates. A hen is genetically programed to get on with raising her babies after a short time hovering them to let them warm up, dry off, and recover their strength after self-birthing themselves.

Staggered hatching and a chicken keeper who can't keep their nose, eyes, and hands off the peeps is the number one and two reasons hens go insane and kill their brood with collateral damage by trying to protect them from prying human hands and eyes. This in my humble opinion is not the fault of the hen but rather the fault of her keeper. This is the second meaning of "DON'T COUNT YOUR CHICKS BEFORE THEY HATCH. It should be, "Don't count your chicks before they FINISH hatching.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

My black cochin Bantam, 'Jade' went broody a few weeks ago..... The only other rooster we have is a huge cornish, so not sure he was able to mate tiny 'Roofy'!



This is 'Bruce Norris'- he is one of our 2 Sumatran roos. 'Chuck Lee' is darker, but still cute.
When they do their thing around the chickens we always do our little voices of, "Hay- Baybeeee" haha!
They're little charmers and dance really well.



This is 'Farley', our White Frizzled bantam rooster- he could be papa too!

As they said on Jurassic Park, life will find a way.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Thank you so much for the relief. She now has 2 babies hatched and 9 more to go. I am so happy that she loves her chicks.

She gets up just enough to turn around sit back down and then shoves all the eggs way under her. She does this about every hour. Everything seems to be going alright.

I'm so glad you've got 2 little ones....It sounds like momma is encouraging the others in the shell and settling them as they hatch.

Post photos of the final brood when you can.

Lady of McCamley