Broody Hen Thread!

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16 paws said:
I did have a bad experience with two broodies once. The two bantam cochins were fine for the first 20 days together. Then when the eggs started to hatch they started fighting over the chicks. One baby got hurt pretty bad and I had to remove it to recover under a heat lamp in my garage. After that I will not let them hatch together. It is not worth taking the chance for me after that. Good luck.....
Marie
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Thank you! I am going to move my Cochin tonight ! I just have a gut feeling something along those lines will happen. My cochin is only on 2 eggs now and they are EE smaller but not bantam .im not to worried about loosing those eggs. I don't want to but if it comes down to it.... My mille is on 6 and due any minute. She's a tuff little gal! I don't want to loose her chicks ! She has one of her eggs and rest cochin. I really want hers. Plus she's getting I'll sitting strong for so long! My other brood's all eat , drink , dust bath ect... She's barely eating at all!
Yesterday, I pulled her off nest and was please to see a little brood poo
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and she are and drank a ton more then she has the last 19 days combined . I'm guessing she is prepping for her hatch.
Thank you !!!
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medic lynny said:
Help my hen going on 3 weeks only eats when we pull her out! Has attacked others bloody when they came in to lay...sitting on pine no eggs..
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You need to break her broody if you aren't going to give her hatching eggs or chicks... to just let her sit will cause her health to deteriorate and isn't fair to her.

Her attacking the other hens is a natural protective response for a broody hen and won't change until you do something to intervene in her brood to allow her hormones to get back to normal.

look up 'how to break a broody' in the search block in blue at the top part of the page.

if she is a broody prone breed you will be able to expect her to behave this way multiple times a year... if you don't want hens to hatch out chicks you need to attempt to get breeds with less tendencies toward broodiness.
 
She is a black australorp..i do not have roosters only four hens. I would love to give her fertile eggs or babies but i have been told the other three will kill them. No room for another coop our town will not allow it no roosters either..soo if eggs hatched and they are roosters i cant keep them..im frustrated i will read up thank you.
 
medic lynny said:
She is a black australorp..i do not have roosters only four hens. I would love to give her fertile eggs or babies but i have been told the other three will kill them. No room for another coop our town will not allow it no roosters either..soo if eggs hatched and they are roosters i cant keep them..im frustrated i will read up thank you.
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BAs are known for sometimes going broody, they aren't as prone as silkies, but still pretty regular seasonal brooders.... if you break her she may never go broody again or it may be a twice a year event. She probably wouldn't be as common as a silkie or cochin would, though.

The other three may not harm the chicks... we routinely have broodies hatch and raise chicks in our coop (33 broods worth last year) and although there is the rare accidental trampling accident the hens don't normally specifically go after the chicks to hurt them. Much of how they act depends on individual personalities and how they are introduced to the idea. If the hen is kept within the coop with a wire fence to separate her from the others for the first few days it allows the others to get used to the little ones noises and motions.... then you can try supervised free ranging in the run or yard. If you are there to watch you may find someone in the flock is a problem and you have to keep the separated longer or you may find that once the initial curiosity is over the hens go about their business and basically ignore the little ones.
This thread is full of examples and stories of different levels of integration and separation ideas for coop brooding and you may find you want to find some sex link day olds to graft to her or give her eggs to try.... do some research and figure out which option sounds like it will work best for you.
 
Ok I didn't separate my broody hen (as recommended....I know bad Charlie
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) and when I came home from work my hen had moved over one nesting box sometime today while I was at work. Not knowing how long she was off the nest (cold have been up to 12 hours but again not sure) should I assume she was off too long and start with new eggs or assume everything should be ok?

I'll wait for replies to come while I go out and build a small place to move her.

Thanks, Charlie
 
cbourbeau32 said:
Ok I didn't separate my broody hen (as recommended....I know bad Charlie
sad.png
) and when I came home from work my hen had moved over one nesting box sometime today while I was at work. Not knowing how long she was off the nest (cold have been up to 12 hours but again not sure) should I assume she was off too long and start with new eggs or assume everything should be ok?

I'll wait for replies to come while I go out and build a small place to move her.

Thanks, Charlie
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That happens sometimes. Don't give up on the eggs. Candle them and see if they are showing movement or growth before you dump them. You don't want to throw away viable chicks.

How far along are the eggs? My hen will sometimes be off the nest for an hour or so, and the same thing happened with her. I suspect another hen was in there part of the time because the eggs went on to hatch.

I go against the common knowledge and leave the broodies in the coop until the last few days. I have 2 of them due in a week, and I'll be moving them to the chick coop (I have a smaller, portable coop) over the weekend.

Good luck with the hatch.
 

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