Broody hen.........

[The Chickeneer]

Fist of all, I don't mind my hens going broody, but in this summer? I don't think so , I read a few posts of hens dying from heat stroke from just laying an egg

, so being a broody in there 24/7 is a million times worse. But then again, I'm kinda wrong, since I checked on her today, the other chickens were outside panting, as chickens do, and she in the nestbox wasn't

. The weird thing is that there is only one egg in the nest box, and its the dummy egg!

I have no idea then, why she decided to be broody. But I have 7 incubator chicks that hatched 2 weeks ago, so they're still small, should I give them to her? When? Thanks

 

[TGreenhut]

Yes you can probably give them to her. What I do, is I wait to late evening, when the mama hen is sleepy and I just lift mama up and bop the chicks underneath her. Don't worry if she doesnt take them right away, sometimes it takes a couple tries. You might want to consider separating mama and chicks so they are safer from the other chickens. It is also a good idea to make sure the nest box is on the ground so the babies can get out for food and water. I normally feed mama and chicks, chick grower or flock raiser.