Broody Hen Thread!

[rebrascora]

Hi

No fake eggs will not make a hen go broody.

Once a hen goes broody in my flock I move her to an old cupboard that I place in the hen house. I have holes drilled in the door to allow a little light into it. I dust it with DE and make a nest in an old drawer in it and put the eggs I want to hatch in the nest and when the broody has started sitting tight, I move her into the cupboard nest and close the door. The darkness and the nest of eggs will usually mean she settles onto the new eggs. Once a day I open the cupboard door and let her out with the flock to eat and dust bath etc, then when she is ready to go back to the eggs, I make sure she gets back onto the correct nest and close the door. The first few days, she will go back to her old nest site and needs placing back in the cupboard but after that she finds her own way back to the correct nest. I usually put food and water in the cupboard with her so that it's available if she needs it.
The advantage of this system is that the broody gets a dark, quiet place to brood without disturbance from the other hens and they can't lay into her nest. I know she is safely on her nest when I'm not there and can't wander off and climb back onto a different nest of eggs by mistake. She still remains part of the flock as she eats with them once a day, so no reintegration problems and she can then rear the chicks within the flock. When they are hatching, I normally keep her in the cupboard for a couple of days and then I let her decide when she is ready to bring the chicks out. I have a large mixed flock including roosters and they free range every day. I've never lost a chick due to injury from another flock member and my broody hens are quite low in the pecking order. My first broody hatched 14/14 eggs and raised all 14 chicks without incident or loss. My Tasha is a total star though!

Anyway, that's the way I do it and it works very well for me.

 

[Mbundrum]

I have 3 broody hens all in one box lol, one had a few hatch today! I'm not sure how many and I don't know how many she has left to hatch. I am VERY worried she will try to take them "out" because their coop is raised and the chicks will surly fall and get hurt. I was thinking of putting a pet carrier on the bottom with hay ect and moving her, eggs and chicks (at night) so when she goes to take them out they will be able to exit safely, they free range all day everyday. I don't want to mess with the other 2 hens and I don't want to tick her off and her leave the chicks on the bottom and go back up top to sit on another girls eggs. Also about how old will they be before they can go up and down? I usually put my chicks out at 8-12 weeks. HELP

 

[chickluvinfreak]

Anyone try to trick a broody hen with chicks that aren't hers? I have a EE who went broody a month or so ago and I blocked off her favorite nesting space. She eventually quit going broody then a week ago started again! I couldn't believe that she could barely go a month without being broody. I broke her of her broodyness again, but at this rate it's only a matter of time before she starts again. Is it normal to go broody so often? And is being broody bad for her, does she have to hatch eggs to stop? I have chicks coming in june and my mom wants to give her a couple to raise. The idea scares me but now I'm wondering. Suggestions?

 

[rooboo]

Well compared to my brooded chicks they seem to spend MOST of the time under mom. She's just sitting on them. My brooder chicks do sleep a lot but also spend lots of time eating, drinking and playing. I assumed this was normal for broody chicks. I will get some finch mix and hulled sunflower seeds. Think this will encourage mom to get up? Half the floor is just newspaper, so they do have room to move around without being in the bedding but I've never seen them explore!

My experiences have made me completely abandon the use of pine shavings in my brooder pens. A while back I was brooding a batch of bielfelder chicks in a small box with a paper table cloth on the floor, the chicks were doing great without any problems. I decided to move them to a larger pen, so I cleaned and prepped the pen and put a nice layer of pine shavings on the floor. When I put the chicks in the pen they immediately started scratching and picking through the nice new shavings, unfortunately what I apparently didn't know was that they were eating the shavings. Within 2 days I had chicks with pasty butt, and after a week I had no chicks. I always had concerns about the very small pieces of shavings, so I always tried to get the larger chips with less fines in them, but they always had a certain amount. I know you can screen them to get rid of the small stuff, but I figured, why screen them and have to throw half of them away. My solution was to just not put anything in the pen that could be harmful to the chicks. Since then, I use disposable banquet table cloths that are made of paper that's a little thicker than tissue paper and has a plastic backing. I usually leave that in there for about 2 weeks or until they have it shredded up pretty good. I use a shop vac to clean up a little bit in between. Once I remove what's left after a couple weeks I'll add dirt or sand and some DE,and even a little barn lime to keep the smell down and neutralize the soil. If they're not to crowded it usually stays pretty dry. I'll vacuum it out as needed when it gets to be more poop than soil. As long as it's dry they scratch and dust bathe till their little hearts are content. In the past I've had several cases of pasty butt and several losses, since I said no to pine shavings, I've had 1 and only 1 case of PB which cleared up after I cleaned it. I've only lost two chicks since then, and they were just not meant to be, they never made it out of the hatcher. How many chicks did I hatch, you ask. Almost 200!
So, to make a long story even longer, I believe that introducing the chicks to pine shavings after 2 weeks with the one batch was probably not a good idea, my bad. I know that many places and people recommend pine shavings, but my experience has me looking for alternatives. My suggestion to anyone using them would be to screen the chips so that there is nothing small enough for them to eat. Just my opinion and observations. I would be interested to hear of any other types of litter people have used with success.

 

[JaeG]

My broodies are on straw with their babies. I've had no problems. It just ends up everywhere - in the food, in the waterer, all over my floor (they are bantams and currently indoors). I also bought some 2 week old chicks that I put on straw and they have been fine.

My latest babies that hatched, a week old, spend a lot of time cuddling with their Mum but all magically appear each time I give them fresh mash. My older chicks go crazy (i have feathered missiles leaping at me before I even open the door) for greens because their mums have taught them they are yum, but my motherless chicks won't even try them.

 

[Kimberly09]

I have a broody australorp (well three actually lol). But I was thinking about using one of them to hatch out some of my guinea fowl eggs. But I had a few questions

How many guinea eggs should I put under an australorp? She is a big girl

Is it cruel if I don't let her keep any of the keets? Right now I am just hatching to sell. Mainly because I don't really have the extra space for more birds right now, the coop is pretty much at it's max with guinea and chickens. I want to get a larger coop in the future but it probably wont be until next spring.

 

[Mbundrum]

ok thank you, I guess I will move her tonight and hope she stays on them.

 

[fisherlady]

I have a broody australorp (well three actually lol). But I was thinking about using one of them to hatch out some of my guinea fowl eggs. But I had a few questions

How many guinea eggs should I put under an australorp? She is a big girl

Is it cruel if I don't let her keep any of the keets? Right now I am just hatching to sell. Mainly because I don't really have the extra space for more birds right now, the coop is pretty much at it's max with guinea and chickens. I want to get a larger coop in the future but it probably wont be until next spring.

My personal opinion is that after weeks of setting it would be cruel to not let her have two or three to raise. You can sell them when she is done with them. We do it that way so the broody is happy, the chicks get an awesome education from the hen and we get to enjoy them also.

 

[fisherlady]

I have 3 broody hens all in one box lol, one had a few hatch today! I'm not sure how many and I don't know how many she has left to hatch. I am VERY worried she will try to take them "out" because their coop is raised and the chicks will surly fall and get hurt. I was thinking of putting a pet carrier on the bottom with hay ect and moving her, eggs and chicks (at night) so when she goes to take them out they will be able to exit safely, they free range all day everyday. I don't want to mess with the other 2 hens and I don't want to tick her off and her leave the chicks on the bottom and go back up top to sit on another girls eggs. Also about how old will they be before they can go up and down? I usually put my chicks out at 8-12 weeks. HELP 

She should be easy to move since she has chicks already, give her a safe and comfortable nest at ground level and she will teach them the ramp in a couple of weeks. Check them frequently the first couple of days to make sure all are keeping up and watch in evening that she doesn't try to get back up stairs too soon and leave the little ones down below.

 

[Klay]

I was wondering. If I have a broody and she has chicks under her how long would you wait to let her and the chicks outside. I don't want any. To get hurt or die so I'm keeping them inside in a large cardboard box. I plan to wait until they are about 2 weeks old and have some feathers.