Broody Hen Thread!

[WildHens]

I'm right with you.  So sad to only have one broody.  I'm hoping at least one of her offspring is a hen and that some of her broodiness passes on. 

Give it time..it's contagious

 

[WildHens]

LOL. I edited my other post while you were typing this one---Thinking you had YOUR Hubs (husband) in the barn-------LOL

Bwhahahaha.. I thought I just over looked that part.. but yes.. I keep the roosters with the hens if they're a pair or trio..
Otherwise separate. .
My human, well he's always complaining that I take better care of the animals than him..maybe if he moves to the barn....

 

[fisherlady]

A pair of older pictures that sum up why we like letting the broody integrate into the flock, and the value of a good rooster!

 

[Morrigan]

A pair of older pictures that sum up why we like letting the broody integrate into the flock, and the value of a good rooster!

That's priceless!

 

[WildHens]

My paint boy is the same way..when he's not feeding the chicks or watching over his family, he's pacing the fence making sure no one comes even close to their pen..

 

[Wildflower13]

Hi WIldflower13 and welcome to the forum. Poor babies. Sorry they are getting off to such a rocky start. You did right pulling them from their momma I just had a similar situation trying to introduce my BOs chicks to the flock. She stayed with her 8 chicks for 2 weeks then started laying again and wanted back with her flockmates so when the babies were 9 weeks, I tried giving them some time with the older flock. One little pullet wound up with the back of her neck scalped when one of the Welsummer hens nailed her. I cleaned the wound and applied blue kote to the wound to prevent the others from pecking at the wound. I also put a dab of blue kote on the other youngsters so everybody had matching decoration and nobody looked abnormal. The wound healed very rapidly. I keep blue kote on it and daily cut back dead and drying tissue till there was only a little skin tag left from the nasty flap wound. You are going to want to protect the wound from the other chicks if there is red tissue or blood showing. Thus using the blue kote. I also gave them a few days worth of Rooster Booster vitamins and probiotics in their water for stress and support. Keep the little ones warm, keep an eye on the wounds and please don't cry. You didn't know this was going to happen. I did the same thing with my broody, shoving two late hatchers under mom when I finished up their hatch in an incubator. I was lucky. No problems.More than likely your little ones will heal and do fine. Some times your best intentions just are not enough, especially when the hen has her own ideas. 

Thank you so much for the advice. But sadly I couldn't help this little one in time and he was already so weak

 

[ldashby]

I have 2 mille fleur d' uccle bantams that are broody and decided to do so in the SAME nest box!! None of my other hens will lay their eggs in any other nest box. My question is.. Will these two communally raise the chicks or am I going to have to seperate them once they start hatching??
Thanks!!!

 

[smleggshack]

I agree with fisherlady, a broody with one chick does very well. It is during transition back into the flock that the lonely only seems to be a bit lost....unless you transition broody and chick back into the flock while momma is still tending to chick. Then momma can really help with the transition.

That can be a bit of a tough call as you don't want to introduce the young chick too early into the other flock members as momma will be re-introducing herself too, and that can make for a few shuffles that can be dangerous to young chicks. I found around 2 to 3 weeks of age to be a good time. Most hens are still pampering their chicks then, and the chicks are large enough to endure some quick foot work if momma has to scuffle a bit with a nosey hen.  With older chicks, momma is close to fledging them (usually from 4 to 6 weeks), so they have to integrate on their own often with momma snipping at them as she wants them to be on their own. That can make for some hazing from the flock.

It all depends on how mellow your other girls are. Some flocks barely whisk a feather at the newcomer, others can be quite aggressive. (Having a rooster really helps with that, I've found out).

Getting another chick as company can help if you decide to  integrate the chicks together into the flock as older pullets...but getting that foster to graft with the hen can be a bit tricky as feed store chicks often don't immediately bond with the new hen, and having the competition from the other chick can make it even harder for the new chick to bond. Also, momma can view the new chick as an intruder and protect the hatchling. So then you end up buying 2 chicks in case they don't bond so that you can brood them together and you still have a lonely only with the broody.

All to say, I've had it work and I've had it not work (and got stuck heat brooding when I didn't want to).

If you've got a mellow flock, momma and baby may do very well integrating together.

My thoughts.
LofMc

Sorry I haven't updated but we did go get two 5 day EE. Mamma took them in and they are doing great! Mamma (little bit is her real name) has been fantastic! I really like how easy it is to have a hen do all the work! We are still enjoying all the fluffy butt cutness!

 

[PD-Riverman]

I have 2 mille fleur d' uccle bantams that are broody and decided to do so in the SAME nest box!! None of my other hens will lay their eggs in any other nest box. My question is.. Will these two communally raise the chicks or am I going to have to seperate them once they start hatching??
Thanks!!!

Who knows?? We can Guess!! But it Sounds like they need to be put in private pens now. Are you removing the fresh layed eggs from the other hens Every day??

 

[ldashby]

Should I be?? My husband and I are very new and we were worried that it would disturb them too much to have us removing eggs daily... We have been letting them keep them so far. We know that the silkie eggs that are being laid in there are fertilized but not sure on the rest..