Broody ? .... Yet another....

[sab]

I have my 1st broody hen. I have 13 hens & 2 ducks. 1st 1 in 3 yrs. She is in that nest faithfully sitting on nothing. I removed any eggs. She gets out on her own once day. Sometimes i toss her out and she takes a break but always comes back to the nest. Her 3 week gestation period for those invisible eggs is coming to an end soon. I am hoping she'll give it up then. She's not a year old until next Feb. I'm thinking she would make a dutiful mom. And I'm thinking I will slip some fertile eggs under her the next time she tries this. In fact, you can see her in the nest on the video cams embedded in the website in my signature.

My nest boxes are at waist height. If she goes broody again I will need to move her to the floor for hatched chicks. I have a separate storage/work area inside the coop and I could put her there.

My questions: 1 Should I leave her in the coop till chicks are born or separate her as soon as she goes broody?
2 Will the other hens/ducks hurt the chicks if I put them on the floor of the coop without separating them from the flock?
3 Are chicks born and raised naturally automatically integrated into the flock or is there the same slow introduction that I have had to do in the past when introducing young birds to older ones?

I think it would be fun to raise a few chicks naturally. I've only been in the chicken biz for 3 yrs and all my birds came from local feed stores. I need to find someone locally who has fertile eggs and have a plan in place for when she might do this again.

Any advice/experiences you have to offer will so be appreciated.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

A hen who isn't a year old doesn't mean their a bad broody. In fact, it only depends on how many times they've gone broody. Right now my 8 month old is beating my 2 year old (broody hens), on terms on how good their doing incubating.

Theres no gurrantees she will ever go broody again, so I'd suggets giving her eggs now, because 3 weeks of no chicks won't deture her, our hen whose incubating has been sitting for roughly 2 months. (took a while before we gave her eggs)

1) Depends. Our broody hen, she is great on protecting her nest, but she'll eventually get kicked off, and sometimes in the commotion a egg gets cracked open and eaten, if you can seperate part of the coop so she has room to stretch, poop, and drink and eat, but no one else can get in, is great
2) Usually not because they can hide under mama, but if you have a bully (sometimes hens just dont do well with chicks) watch out until the chicks are older
3) Depends. Have you grown them in the flock, or seperated them? Is the mama a good mama who will protect the chicks, or just let them wander? What;d I do is give them the afternoon to meet each other, and if everyone is OK, then you can let them sleep in the nest boxes and just keep an eye on them for the first few days. (depending on the age if they want to roost)


Always fun to help

 

[Bunnylady]

Quote: Good luck with this! I have a Silkie hen that had been brooding nothing since oh, about February, I think, when I finally gave her a couple of eggs to incubate in late July. She hatched one chick a few weeks ago, and holy cow, that bird still has feet, and she still knows how to use them!

A lot of people will tell you that getting the bird's bottom cooled off is key to "breaking" a broody, something about sitting all warm and cozy in a nest keeps the broody thing going.. Some use a wire-bottomed cage as a "broody buster." This determined Silkie of mine was in a rabbit cage, and had been all along (wire bottom) - but I guess she was just determined to show why Silkies are known as the uberbroodies!

Quote:
1 Should I leave her in the coop till chicks are born or separate her as soon as she goes broody?
I would separate her - some hens may abandon eggs if you try to move them, but most of my broody hens have kept right on going when I moved them. Often other hens will lay eggs in the nest of the broody, which can create confusion for you, and may even try to co-brood, which can result in broken eggs.

Quote: Some people manage to have chicks in with the rest of their flock, but my luck has been very poor with this. Oh the occasions where I have had a hen incubating eggs that is still with the rest of the flock, often the first sign I had that the eggs were hatching was finding a chick that had been pecked to death near the nest. My chickens are savages, and will kill anything smaller than them that isn't well defended. Better safe than sorry, IMO.

Quote: As I said, others may have had better luck, but I'm drawing on my own experience here. I have introduced a hen and her half-grown chicks back into the flock. The high ranking hen still held her rank, but her chicks got lots of grief if Momma wasn't there to defend them. By waiting until they were feathered out, I at least had birds that were big enough to run away. Baby chicks that got even a few feet from their mother could get fatally injured before the hen got there to defend them.

If you have secure space for a hen to raise a brood, I say, go for it. I love watching a hen tend her family!

 

[sab]

Holy Moly! 2 months!!?? You mean this can last longer than 3 weeks? Holy Cow! How does one find local fertile eggs?

 

[sab]

Bunnylady, I am inspired! I have a doggy playpen Ithats about 4 ft tall that I can put in the coop that will separate yet integrate my broody. Now to find local fertile eggs. No Roos here....
Thanks!! I think I can do this.....

 

[HEChicken]

Holy Moly! 2 months!!?? You mean this can last longer than 3 weeks? Holy Cow! How does one find local fertile eggs?

Yep. Generally a broody hen won't give up until she has hatched chicks. To find local fertile eggs, turn to CL. The first time I needed them, I perused CL until I saw someone selling "farm fresh eggs" and called asking if there was any chance they were fertile (they were and I bought some and my hen hatched out 7 chicks). The next time I just placed my own ad for fertile eggs and had several people contact me. I drove out to the first guy's house and he wouldn't even take any money for the eggs!

 

[sab]

Ugh! What I read just last night was that the hen will realize her eggs ( or non eggs) are duds after 3 weeks and give up!! Going to Craig's List now to take a looky.... FUN - we could have chicks by Thanksgiving..... Too cool.... Not that I was planning on having more birds. I like my 15 in a 13x8 coop....

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Lol, no, some broodies are persistant.

You dont have to get eggs, if you could get chicks, but if you want eggs, depending on whenever you want her broodyness to stop.

Oh, and can you have a rooster? You could get one and after a few days your hens would be laying fertile eggs (if he breeds them). But it looks like your in the city.

May I comment though your birds are beautiful! We have 2 BR's but their all plucked on some areas, along with some of the other hens, because we always buy from people who overcrowd their birds I guess.... But now their spoiled to death, LOL

 

[sab]

Spoiled? Did you say spoiled? Did you notice my coop has a chandelier?....

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

LOL!!

Our little hens live off the treats we give them it seems, and only eat chicken scratch Vs laying pellets