Broody Hen Thread!

[aart]

I do too, and have scares to prove it!

Have never been scared.... or scarred... by a broody hen.

 

[casportpony]

Have never been scared.... or scarred... by a broody hen.

Luck you! I got two right now, one sweet as pie. The other, mean, crazy mean, flogged the heck out of me yesterday!

 

[Redhead Rae]

Have never been scared.... or scarred... by a broody hen.

I've actually gotten rid of girls that were too aggressive while broody. I can't have a broody hen flogging my kids.

Fortunately, most of my girls just screech when I mess with them.

 

[trudyg]

I've gotten rid of the late eggs, cracked them and didn't see anything developing. I know they were at least 2 weeks along, so I expected to see something. She's in with her 3 chicks now, had a dust bath. I haven't seen them at the water or food, but I expect she'll eat and they'll copy her. They're cute as can be. Will get pictures later. I managed to get her area secure, the big ones shouldn't be able to get in there now. Weight off my mind. Unless Houdini manages...... She didn't peck me, just spread out her wings and growled at me.

 

[trudyg]

Here is Bertha with her new babies. I dont know what kind of chicken mom is, but dad is a cuckoo marans.

 

[fisherlady]

Here is Bertha with her new babies. I dont know what kind of chicken mom is, but dad is a cuckoo marans. View attachment 1763505

Congrats on the new additions! Now for the chick watching.... you would be amazed how much lost time you can accumulate hanging out with a broody and chicks!

 

[trudyg]

I've spent today rigging mesh for the bottom 10" of my fence to stop chicks from running out of the chicken yard. Got about 1/3 of the way around, will get it done before they are big enough to come out of the coop. It's been warm today and those chicks are bouncing all over the place. Mom is in the dust bath box relaxing. Can I put in food other than all flock so that mom gets treats? I mashed up a hard boiled egg and put it in there and there is chick grit on the floor. The all flock is what I ferment for the entire flock and I put it in a pie plate (ceramic, so they can't tip it over), the fermented feed on one side and dry on the other. Of course they walk all thru it. I also put a water bucket with horizontal nipples in it on the floor along with a regular chick fount. I'm hoping mom will teach them to use the nipple one soon, their water gets nasty with bedding etc in it.

 

[fisherlady]

I am reposting this old post I did for stages of brooding since spring is in the air and broody hormones seem to be blooming. It (hopefully) can answer some questions if folks are researching....
.................
Someone had asked about grafting to a broody hen for foster purposes.... so initial paragraph may seem confusing since original context was lost when I brought it forward a couple years.....


STAGES OF A BROODY HEN... (in my experience)
.........
I agree with Lady of McCamley, it is very possible to do, but it totally hinges on the hen's mentality. Many hens are tricky about fostering... it isn't their fault, and it doesn't make them bad broodies, it is just a hormonal thing, this seems more pronounced when the hen is a newer broody (only one or two hatches). I have found my more experienced broodies seem much less phased by odd things

Remember that the natural progression of brooding is (from my observations)

a). Pre broody.... the hen's hormones are starting to act up, they tend to be vocal and grumpy, mine often walk around emitting a low 'clook, clook, clook' noise for a few days during this phase. This is also the time they start hogging a nest box during the day and gathering eggs when they can. They often still roost at night during this early phase, so it is easy to miss if you aren't around them for extended periods during this time. I have come to recognize these as an early warning sign.

b) Setting broody... the hen has committed to setting full time on the nest now, her hormones have fully kicked in and she wants eggs no matter what! She may still take in extras she can find so it is up to us to prevent that during the setting period. While setting she will instinctually turn the eggs multiple times a day and shuffle their position in the nest to what she feels is the best benefit to the eggs. During this time she will only leave the nest one or maybe two times a day (if even that often) during which time she will be the whirling dervish queen of speed scratching, dusting and drinking.

c) Hatching broody.... it seems that the last few days of a normal clutch the hen senses the increase in movement of the chicks in the egg and you will often hear her softly purring and clucking to the chicks. This period seems to help prepare her for the sudden appearance of the newly hatched chicks. Although a broody can't count the number of days she has been setting she does recognize the changes in the vibe from the eggs as hatch nears.

d) Mama broody.... usually this kicks in on day 2 after the hatch (give or take 24 hours) At this time the hen decides it is time to leave the nest and care for all of the little ones which are out and about. She will often give up on late eggs, sometimes even viable ones, because the instinct is to care for the already hatched, not hope for more. I re-purpose an old phrase to explain this..... 'a chick in the open is worth 2 in the shell' Some folks don't understand the importance to general survival that this is... and it is also the reason that staggered hatches are so dangerous to the hatching process.

I have encountered problems when messing with the normal progression of brooding, but the problems can be minimized and/or avoided when you understand that they are possible to begin with.

a) hens can't count days, but their hormone levels evidently do fluctuate and some hens just don't do well with being suddenly presented with chicks when they have only been in 'setting' mode for a short period. I had a hen who had been a great broody before when I gave her a group of eggs which were due to hatch only 10 days into her brood. She just didn't transit to hatch mode and the first two eggs which hatched she suffocated because she just was sitting too tight.... she just wasn't understanding that hatch time had kicked in. We removed the remaining eggs and gave them to another broody and we replaced them with fresh eggs to this hen. She happily sat on them for the 3 weeks and hatched 6/6 and was an awesome mama to them. Her failure to short hatch didn't mean she was a bad broody, her hormones just didn't adjust in time. I now normally wouldn't short hatch a hen with less than 2 weeks of brood time to avoid the possible problem.

b). some hens are great fosters but others can seem very confused when chicks suddenly appear without the 'hatch mode' preparation time. These hens aren't bad broodies, they just need a bit of time to transition to mama mode. These situations need very close monitoring to help lost chicks get back under the broody and also sometimes some chick protection, a confused hen may peck at a chick and hurt or scare it during introduction. Simply cupping the chick under your hand and sliding it under broody without her even seeing it or having the chance to peck at it can drastically reduce stress to both broody and chick. Broody will hopefully begin getting into the mama mode with just hearing the chick under her for the first 12-24 hours.

c) mixed foster method. This is my preferred and I have done well with it. A hen who has recently hatched (within past 2 days) will usually readily accept more chicks with very little fuss. Her natural hatchers have already helped her transition through the hatching mode to mama mode and hens can't count, so more chicks just appearing with her own seems to be pretty simply and acceptable to her. The only risk is if the new ones are a different color. Some hens do seem to show preference to their own if they are old enough that she was out of the nest with them. Some hens may reject an odd colored chick. So watch for that risk. If mama has 6 yellow fluff balls and you try sneaking in a black australorp chick she may object.

Now remember that these stages and situations are just some general observations in my coop, and their are exceptions to every rule... I have a hen who will have nothing to do with chicks which aren't hers (a rarity in our coop, but she is a character) and I have a couple of hens who will adopt anything that cheeps, even if it is a much older chick.... some hens will adopt chicks at the drop of a hat when they haven't even been broody or only broody for a short time. We are totally at the mercy of the hen's personality on this.

. Our faithful Janeway, with her own chicks (maybe a week old) and a group of almost 5 week olds she decided still needed a mama when their own broody went back up on the roost (see the little white head poking out from under her right side? that is one of the older group). Janeway kept that older group with her until her own were 6 weeks old, in fact, the older chicks abandoned her more so than the other way around, I think she would have kept them longer yet, even though they were nearly as big as her by the time they were 10 weeks old!

 

[trudyg]

So far Bertha is a great mom. She's been sleeping in the dust bath box with them under her, so I guess that's ok. She really wants out of the coop, tho, so I'm scrambling to get the fencing secured along the bottom so chicks can't get out. And now I'm thinking of bird netting the whole fence in an attempt to keep the cat out. She wanders around the big birds and they pay her no mind, but she's a cat...... My fence is goat wire but the gate is chain link, so I'll have to make it impossible for her to hop on the rail and into the yard. I usually take tomato stakes and weave them into the chain link, then thread bird netting onto the stakes to keep chickens from roosting on that top rail, so I'll just do that again. Need to hurry so she can get outside. Thursday the chicks will be a week old, is that too early or should I let Bertha do what she wants?

 

[PouleChick]

My Doris has a happy 3 or 4 day maybe now chick but they shouldn't have hatched yet so I think there has been a stuff up with my nieghbours eggs as she abanded them today. Full story here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/urgent-help-what-do-you-think.1308566/#post-21327835