Broody

[fowl farm]

I want to know everything about a broody hen. One of mine appears to have gone broody one at least one egg and I figured even if she hadn't I might as well learn now.

 

[HEChicken]

There really isn't that much to know - for me having a broody is a great experience. If she is sleeping in the nest and does so consistently for a couple of nights, and you never/rarely see her off the nest during the day then yes, chances are, she is broody. You might consider giving her a few more eggs to hatch in addition to the one, but don't add over multiple days - put them all under her at once. You might even have to take away the one she has been sitting on since you don't want it hatching several days before the others.

I try to segregate mine. If you can put a small piece of chicken wire in a corner of the coop to block it off, that is ideal. You don't want the other hens squashing in and adding eggs to her nest, or kicking her off to lay and then she can't find the nest again so ends up sitting somewhere else. Give her a feeder and waterer in her area and she'll be happy. You might not ever see her off the nest but I trust mine to take care of themselves and they always do. If I do see them off the nest, they usually scurry to get back on as soon as they see me.

The other advantage to having them cordoned off like that is that when the chicks start to hatch, they are safe from the rest of the flock. For food at that point, you can put out chick starter and its fine for Mama to eat that too. She doesn't need the extra calcium of the layer feed while she is brooding since she won't lay eggs then anyway.

Good luck and if you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[fowl farm]

Also, will the first few eggs a chicken lays hatch? And we if we want to hatch eggs, should we just leave them in the nesting boxes and let them sit when they are ready? Oh, and it ended up the chicken was just laying egg. Don't know why I didn't think of that.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

If you don't have a rooster, you can let her sit on fake eggs for 21 days and then pick up chicks from the feed store. I did that last week. Here's a photo of my broody BO and her 10 day old Blue Andalusian babies. The little blond one LOVES to hop up on mama's back and watch the world from up there.

 

[HEChicken]

Also, will the first few eggs a chicken lays hatch? And we if we want to hatch eggs, should we just leave them in the nesting boxes and let them sit when they are ready?

No, you need to wait for them to go broody and then start leaving eggs for them. Leaving eggs in the nestbox rarely encourages them to go broody. Depending on the breeds you have, you might have to wait awhile for a broody hen. I had been keeping chooks for years before I had my first broody hen. And then I had to wait almost a year after that before another went broody.

I would not incubate pullet eggs myself mainly because they are so small. If the genetics of both the hen and the rooster make a large chick but the pullet's egg is small, I would worry that the chick would grow too large to be able to turn in the egg to pip and zip, and would therefore die.

 

[fowl farm]

Hens go broody with out eggs? So what you are saying is let the hen go broody and THEN give her the eggs? And they when they go broody they just sit in the nest box a lot?

 

[HEChicken]

Hens go broody with out eggs? So what you are saying is let the hen go broody and THEN give her the eggs? And they when they go broody they just sit in the nest box a lot?

Exactly! Broodiness is determined by hormones and they will brood without eggs, or on fake eggs or infertile eggs or even any vaguely egg shaped object. I once heard of a hen that brooded walnuts!

You will know she is broody when she is in the nest box all day and you go in to check after dark and the others are on the roost and she is sleeping on the nest box. At that point, give her 2-3 days of consistently sleeping in the nest, in case she is not serious about it. If she seems serious, then you can put her on a clutch of eggs and let her do her thing. I would recommend segregating her when you get to that point though, to her own little area where she can have her own feeder and waterer and a place to stretch her legs and poop every day. If you let her brood in the nest boxes, the other hens will crowd in and add their eggs to her nest throughout incubation, putting the clutch at risk of being broken, or the hen being kicked out of the nest and forgetting which one to go and sit on afterward (yes, more than one hen has been kicked off so another hen can lay, so she goes and sits in an empty nest letting the fertile eggs go cold).

 

[fowl farm]

Okay, thanks! Though, all my stupid chickens sleep in a nest box or the floor, but not the roost. Stupid chickens.

 

[HEChicken]

If your nest boxes are higher than the roost, then they will want to sleep there, so perhaps try lowering your nest boxes or raising your roosts? You might also try blocking off the nest boxes at night to discourage them sleeping there. I tacked feed bags to the front of my nest boxes that I could roll up during the day, and fold back down over the front at night. I only did it for a night or two and by then they had decided the roosts were a better place to sleep anyway.

 

[fowl farm]

The roost is higher than the nest boxes. They usually lay before I get out there in the morning, so I think if I did cover the boxes they would just lay on the floor (they've done it before)..... I was thinking of putting a lower roost in, so I might try that. Thanks!