Broody Hen Thread!

[nchls school]

Does anyone else have good/bad experience removing the chicks right away? Hatch is in about a week so we're trying to come up with our "game plan". I don't want to remove them right away if it means she might go broody again right away.

If the chicks are removed immediately upon hatching many hens will continue to brood. It would be better to let her have the chicks at least for a few days; then the hen will go back to egg laying in a few weeks. Having the chance to be a mother and then loosing the chicks will start the cycle over.

 

[JayJo]

Hi everyone,

I have an Easter Egger who has been broody for a week and seems fairly determined to stay that way. Every day I take her off the nest and move her to a separate fenced-in area with food and water so she'll eat and drink. She hisses at me but has never tried to peck me or anything. She's pretty gentle.

I'm thinking about putting some fertile eggs under her to see what happens. I've read through several pages of this thread, but can anyone point me to an article or a post or something that explains the basics? Mostly I'm worried about what to do if and when they hatch. This is what my coop looks like - it has an integrated coop and run. The coop and nesting boxes are raised and accessible via the ladder, so I don't think the chicks could get up and down for a while. So should I make a temporary nesting box on the floor of the run? Someone was mentioning a plastic crate on its side, maybe do that? Should I feed the whole flock starter feed while the babies are young?

Thanks!

 

[slordaz]

got another question, is this normal, I have a leghorn sitting on her eggs and 2 nests of eggs not being added to but when I check it's a different hen sitting on them.

 

[slordaz]

Hi everyone,

I have an Easter Egger who has been broody for a week and seems fairly determined to stay that way. Every day I take her off the nest and move her to a separate fenced-in area with food and water so she'll eat and drink. She hisses at me but has never tried to peck me or anything. She's pretty gentle.

I'm thinking about putting some fertile eggs under her to see what happens. I've read through several pages of this thread, but can anyone point me to an article or a post or something that explains the basics? Mostly I'm worried about what to do if and when they hatch. This is what my coop looks like - it has an integrated coop and run. The coop and nesting boxes are raised and accessible via the ladder, so I don't think the chicks could get up and down for a while. So should I make a temporary nesting box on the floor of the run? Someone was mentioning a plastic crate on its side, maybe do that? Should I feed the whole flock starter feed while the babies are young?

Thanks!

I have a nesting box set in between hay bales, then when they hatch move them to a secured insulated shed. the hens didn't like being away from the others while sitting. I don't set them on floor due to fear of predators and hen feels safer

but now have some sitting their own eggs and others more doing a community brood

 

[RubyNala97]

My broody problems continue....I have a first time broody that hatched chicks last Friday (I also hatched chicks the same day in my incubator). She and the babies are seperated in an indoor pen, about 4 feet by 4 feet. There are feeders and waters in there. She hatched 4 chicks. 1 died yesterday. The chicks with mom are very tiny and she is just sitting on them. She's never showing them food or water. I tried putting down some finch seed and hulled sunflower seeds, along with starter grit. She still won't get off of them to peck around. My indoor chicks I hatched are thriving. Should I take her 3 remaining scrawny chicks and bring them in? I don't want them to die too. If I take them away do I just put her back with the others?

 

[PD-Riverman]

the hens didn't like being away from the others while sitting.

I got a question------what do they do or what makes you feel the broodies do not like to be separated from the others?

 

[PD-Riverman]

got another question, is this normal, I have a leghorn sitting on her eggs and 2 nests of eggs not being added to but when I check it's a different hen sitting on them.

Are you saying there is a different leghorn on the same nest each time you look?? Also Explain the 2 nest of eggs-------do you not collect the eggs daily? Trying to figure out what you are saying is happening.

 

[PD-Riverman]

, our broody beat up the mean rooster even and draws blood if we try to get near her chicks,

Poor Rooster!! I just remove the chicks at night----without a light---I have no problems.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

got another question, is this normal, I have a leghorn sitting on her eggs and 2 nests of eggs not being added to but when I check it's a different hen sitting on them.

If I understand you correctly, you've got a Leghorn sitting on a nest of her eggs, then you have 2 other nests that have eggs left in them (hoping for a broody I presume), but there is always a different hen sitting on them?

Hens will instinctively want to lay where others have laid before, which comes from natural instinct to add to the flock's clutch. Once the clutch is big enough, the broody type will be triggered to begin to brood. (There is a pressure point on the breast that releases hormones to brood once enough pressure is applied...ie a certain size of clutch).

That's why leaving fake eggs in the nest can help hens lay where they are supposed to, and letting a clutch develop can entice broody types to sit.

If you don't want hens trying to lay on these 2 nests, take the eggs up.

If you are trying to entice a hen from your flock to brood, you may just have to wait and see if your flock is composed of breeds such as the Leghorn, If that is a commercial hatchery stock, you may have a very long wait. It is very, very, unusual for a hatchery quality Leghorn (or other commercial layer types such as Production Reds) to ever want to brood. They will very occasionally do it, but that is rare as you are fighting against years of genetic selection to obtain high egg production (ie not brooding).

If that is not what you are asking, please post again.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

My broody problems continue....I have a first time broody that hatched chicks last Friday (I also hatched chicks the same day in my incubator). She and the babies are seperated in an indoor pen, about 4 feet by 4 feet. There are feeders and waters in there. She hatched 4 chicks. 1 died yesterday. The chicks with mom are very tiny and she is just sitting on them. She's never showing them food or water. I tried putting down some finch seed and hulled sunflower seeds, along with starter grit. She still won't get off of them to peck around. My indoor chicks I hatched are thriving. Should I take her 3 remaining scrawny chicks and bring them in? I don't want them to die too. If I take them away do I just put her back with the others?

Do I understand you to mean that your hen is continuing to sit to hatch rather than rising to raise the chicks?

By, what, day 6 now? Yes, she should be up and leading the chicks to water and teaching them to scratch and be chickens.

She might be doing that when you are not looking, but it would concern me as well that these chicks are not thriving like the ones in the incubator/brooder.

I suspicion disease...either coccidiosis or bacterial. The coop is hardly sterile, and neither is your indoor brooder, but it would may be more so. Something may have taken hold in the chicks with momma if these are full siblings to the ones in the brooder. (If you've got different breeds/strains there may be other factors).

I would put the broody chicks on something like Sulmet which addresses both the major bacterial infections typical at hatch (eColi, Salmonella) as well as Coccidiosis.

If momma is hesitant to get up because they are unthrifty, this may address that. Otherwise, momma is not shifting into raising mode, and you may need to intervene by taking the chicks to brood them yourself.

Occasionally a hen will fail to shift into raising mode and not take care of the chicks. However, if you placed started fertile eggs under her before she had fully set (ie started them in the incubator then gave them to the hen), if you interrupted the time schedule, then the hen will frequently want to continue to sit as her time clock tells her she should be setting and not raising. Not too many foster broody mommas will finish a started clutch and respond properly if the time clock has been shifted by more than a few days.

My thoughts
LofMc