Broody Hen Thread!

[fisherlady]

Thanks for the informative post fisherlady. I was worried how Aggie would handle reintroducing her two late hatching chicks but we dicided that for the sake of both the chicks and for ourselves, we would try to introduce them when it was late afternoon and still enough daylight that we could keep an eye on things. Aggie has been so singlbe minded with her desire to brood and is such a sweet natured hen that we really would have been surprised if she had been violent.

The smallest of the two and last hatched, was immediately accepted back. She carefully placed herself over the little chick and lowered herself down so it was lost in her fluff. The bigger of the two was almost as if it was getting chastized such as 'where have you been!' She gave his head a couple of nibbles, not pecks, more like she was pulling on down that was still sporting some egg goo, pushed him away with her beak and when he/she cried a little, she gathered the baby under her and that was the last of it.

I went out this morning and everyone was one big happy family.

I have to agree that the individual hen carries a lot of weight with fostering. If she doesn't want to do it she isn't going to do is so my best advice is, if you are going to attempt this, plan on sitting close by for a while to make sure nobody gets hurt or killed.

Hope it works out for you.

I am so glad it worked out for your two late hatchers!

 

[16 paws]

microchick,

I am so impressed with the way you handled everything!

You are a good chicken mama for sure. That was smart to have the bator on hand. You were really thinking ahead and you deserve some

Great job with everything. I was really wondering if those two late ones were going to hatch. Just goes to show you why I love keeping chickens. There is a surprise around every corner. I have had some sad things happen along the way but you always know that new life is just around the bend. We could all learn a lesson from these wonderful creatures. No matter what happens in life there is great hope for the future.

Thanks for taking the time to share your hatch story, I know a lot of people including myself really enjoyed following along. You are blessed.....

Marie

 

[CherriesBrood]

Thanks everyone! So the chicks came early. Today I went out with them and put two under her, she excepted them at first, but then she didn't, and then she kinda did. I stayed with her a bit out there, but I decided not to chance anything, all of the chicks are together. Oh well. :/ Hopefully I'll get another broody in the summer time to hatch some eggs for me.

 

[microchick]

16 paws you are so very kind to say that. I am truly humbled. Those two little chicks broke every rule in hatching and their determination to live played a big roll in their survival. Their humidity was bouncing all over the place, their temp was down. I had no ideal which way to position one of the eggs in the bator because the eggs was so dark (Welsummer) that I couldn't candle anything even in a dark closet. The egg I thought was a goner at least gave me a clue which direction to turn the egg thanks to the little beak being through the air chamber against the shell. The big problem was that we got up at 5:30 to check them and the bator was tipped over. OMG! I hit the panic button. Both eggs were laying on the counter, both were zipping, both chicks were screaming their little brains out. I got them back in the bator got the temp and humidity up for them and within a half an hour they were both out of their eggs and doing well. I have no idea how they tipped the little incubator unless 7 got things rocking as it zipped and tipped it over. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong yet we somehow muddled through and have two darling little chicks to show that determination to be born along with a little divine intervention paid off in the end.

Tonight we went out to hook up a brooder light for them (cold night )and DH took pictures that I'll get posted ASAP. 7 is making me wonder if it's mommy isn't our lone Speckled Sussex hen as it is marked differently than the Welsummer/Buff O crosses and little Rocky as I have named the smallest looks to be a pure Buff O. I named it Rocky as he or she got off to a Rocky start. They are all active, eating well and momma Aggie is being just the perfect mother.

The three big things that I have learned from this experience is:

Do not trust the other hens not to lay eggs in the boody's nest box. They are evil little sneaks when it comes to foisting their eggs off on some poor maternally possessed flock mate.

There is so much good advice in this thread, one sage suggestion being to make sure your broodies have a private area where there is no chance of any other hens laying eggs in the broody's nest. That's already been corrected. We now have a nursery. When the next broody pops up, she will immediately be moved to the nursery coop with her allotment of eggs

Get a better incubator for emergencies. Actually we are going to make an incubator to keep on hand for emergencies. We do not plan to brood chicks again unless a momma hen is doing the work nor do we plan to incubator our own. So having a turner, monitors, alarms bells and whistles isn't a priority. But having a safe place for late hatchers to be born in is imperative. My husband is very good at building such things so hopefully that will become his assignment.

The whole experience reminds me of the first time another nurse and I delivered a baby that decided it just HAD to get itself born before the doctor got there. Neither of us had ever delivered a baby before but hey, we gotterdun.

Thanks again for the wonderful post and compliments.

 

[malkered]

Well, today I love my chickens a little bit less. Belle stayed the course on her 7 eggs and last night I heard chirping from under her. I couldn't see any chicks so I left well alone until this morning. When I opened the coop door this morning, no one came out straight away and when I went in to check Belle was on her eggs and the others were hanging around in the coop. I left them while I went to let the bachelors out and when I got back most of the girls were outside with the roo including Belle. Some of the others were fighting over something which turned out to be a mangled dead chick!!!! I have now removed the remaining eggs, two of which have pipped and they are now in the incubator inside. My dream of watching the chicks grow within the flock in the care of their mother hen is over! Gutted.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Well, today I love my chickens a little bit less.
My dream of watching the chicks grow within the flock in the care of their mother hen is over! Gutted.

I feel your pain!! I dealt with that some years back. Even seeing another hen peck one of the chicks when it was about 2 weeks old-----the chick fell over and started kicking----and died in my hand after I grabbed it up(hole in its skull). Finding chicks dead or just gone(probably eaten by the chickens). I put a stop to ALL that----private hatching pen for the setting hen, private pen for the hatched chicks and mother----then mother hen is removed when the chicks are old enough----chicks are not mixed with the older chickens. If I wanted to mix them I would wait till they chicks are about grown. This is Not what "we" would like to have seen, but it WORKS with little to no problems for the broody from setting to hatch and no problem for the chicks from hatch till they are grown and can protect themself!

 

[fisherlady]

Ethyl, one of my BO hens went broody last week and last night I put 6 Jubilee Orp eggs under her I got locally.  She took to them just fine. 
Since this is her first clutch I will put the other 6 eggs from the dozen in an incubator tonight (just borrowed from a friend today) and whatever from the collection hatches I will put under her once she demonstrates some semblance of taking care of the chicks.
The countdown is on!!!

Hoping all goes well with her brood, give us updates further on...

 

[fisherlady]

Well, today I love my chickens a little bit less. Belle stayed the course on her 7 eggs and last night I heard chirping from under her. I couldn't see any chicks so I left well alone until this morning. When I opened the coop door this morning, no one came out straight away and when I went in to check Belle was on her eggs and the others were hanging around in the coop. I left them while I went to let the bachelors out and when I got back most of the girls were outside with the roo including Belle. Some of the others were fighting over something which turned out to be a mangled dead chick!!!! I have now removed the remaining eggs, two of which have pipped and they are now in the incubator inside. My dream of watching the chicks grow within the flock in the care of their mother hen is over! Gutted.

I'm sorry you had that happen, some flocks are not chick friendly, others are and experience is going to show which camp yours falls into. Sometimes it is a matter of exposure to chicks in controlled situations. Sometimes it is one or two problem flock members who get the rest in an uproar.
With new broodies it often takes an area separated by fencing to allow them the lower stress environment to get adjusted to their new role without flock pressure.
You can still salvage something, possibly... if she goes back to the nest...set up a broody area which is private and try introducing a chick back to her in a (now) quiet environment. Cup the chick and slide it under her and stay there to intervene if needed. Once away from the flock she may be much different, if she is aggressive or not interested then take the chick back and plan for brood it yourself. If she goes back to the original nest then block the flock outside until you have one chick introduced and then move her to the quiet area. I have found hens are much more accepting of moves once they have a chick to care for.

I hate that your first broody experience has been so traumatic and hope you can get the chance to enjoy what it could be...that may not be with this hen,this time, but maybe another will be better.

 

[Greg88]

Thanks, will do!
so far so good. She has taken to the eggs well.
Just wish she would eat more.

 

[microchick]

Malkered I am so terribly sorry that happened to you. Sometimes we forget that chickens are unpredictable creatures that do things that make sense to the chicken but not to us as human beings including being cannibalistic. Try not to be too upset by them and look at this as being a learning experience for you. I would definitely band the hen that turned on her chicks and if she goes broody again, break her fast.I also agree with PD Riverman about separating brooding hens from the flock for the duration. Perhaps she was stressed by the other chickens being around her.

I have been very pleased with the brooding instinct of our Buff Orpingtons. Perhaps if you truly want to experience brooding and hatching you could add a few broody hens to your flock, like Silkies or Buff Os. Some of the bantams are highly broody also. Please don't give up. I don't know where you live, but what I've told myself is that we live on a farm and on a farm animals sometimes die. The Amish man who owned our farm before us used to say, if you have livestock you are gonna have deadstock on occasions. I don't want it to happen but it does and he was right. Look at this as being a chance to do some research and find out what you can do to prevent this from happening again. And forgive your birds. Chickens are going to act like chickens.