Can a broody hen be tricked to raise introduced chicks?

[ChikNLovr]

StrikeFalcon,
I'm not sure about relocating your broody hen. Mine was not happy to move, and the other hens just sat on her head and layed their eggs in there with her (we have 5 next boxes, but this was their favorite). I marked 3 of the eggs and left those for her to think she was hatching. I would have to prod and nudge her to get any fresh eggs out from under her.
In the past I discouraged her broody behavior, but this time I brought feed and water to the nest box and she stayed on the eggs for 3 weeks.
It has been so rewarding to see my broody Ethel get to be a mom! She has been my least favorite hen because of her aggressive, anti-social behavior, but this is her time to shine!
I hope your broody hen does likewise.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you can free range your layers during the day, you don't need to separate your broody and chicks, and if she raises them up, the pecking order is naturally established and you don't have to have a separate quarters or all those icky issues of introduction. You do need space, so they can spread out. A small run, where they had to be confined might not work.

I have had 4 broody hens, each time they raised them within the flock, I would lock the layers out one night till all were hatched, it was warm and they roosted in the run, my broody would come out of the coop a little later, tended to stay nearer the coop, until her chicks got stronger, but free ranged with the flock, always between the layers and the chicks. The chicks might get a peck of two, but mama would come to the rescue, and they soon learned to stay away from the bigger girls.

Once, I lost a broody when the chicks were between 3-4 weeks old, pretty young, but the flock had already accepted them, and there was no problem.

Broody hens rock, I am hoping daily to get one!

MrsK

 

[remuda1]

I went about this all wrong, lol! My brown leghorn went broody for the first time (my first time with a broody hen as well). I had read long ago that you could slip chicks in so I let her sit on the eggs for two days and happily went and purchased 6 Ameraucana chicks. I also had to move her...... So AFTER I have the chicks into a temporary brooder (thinking it was for just that afternoon), I started reading and refreshing my memory about the process. What I found was that you must let them sit on the eggs for at least two weeks. OH NO, I don't want chicks in my bathroom for two weeks! Besides, by that time they may be too old for it to work!

I ended up moving her during the night that first night..... She did fine the next day and I had found in my reading that it helps if you can let them hear the chicks for a couple of hours without them being able to see them AT ALL. So I did that in the late afternoon. That night I slipped in two of the chicks just in case she decided they were aliens I wouldn't lose them all. The next morning, they were still under her and she was fine if they stuck thier heads out but didn't seem to recognize them if they came all the way out then tried to get back under her. They sorted this out pretty quickly though and so the rest of the chicks went under her the next night. I really did go about this in all of the wrong ways, but thankfully God loves fools and children (I'm no child ). I am so relieved and thankful that this worked out, while I think chicks are adorable, for me they are much cuter when someone else is their mama, LOL! Good luck with it!

 

[FireTigeris]

As far as I know chickens are lousy at counting days, feeling something moving under them triggers the next part of broody- rearing chicks,

However sometimes a hen just doesn't have enough broody hormone in her and she will abandon the chicks early or hurt them.

 

[Chemguy]

My BO broody sat in an empty box for a week until we bought some bantam chicks at TSC. Two hours after dark, we slipped the chicks under the hen, and now they're a tight-knit family. I did not try to relocate the hen, instead leaving her with the flock. The chicks are accepted by all. I'll be interested to see what happens once they begin to enter the pecking order.

 

[mjarr]

this pic is so cute! you should sell it to National Geographic or make into a poster or something....

Mjarr

 

[emmapeel]

After reading this thread I decided to embrace my chicken's broodiness and try this out, I gave her two chicks last night and I could hear some weird noises coming from the coop after I did. I was worried, all night was a Schrodinger's chicken nightmare. I woke up early to check and was pleasantly surprised to see she adopted them. I have three hens including the momma now, one of the others laid in the same box she is rearing the babies in, it's their favorite box. Finally the last one came in to lay, and she didn't seem to be warming up to it... until I realized it was the opposite; she has now become broody. Be careful what you wish for. Yeeeeessshhh, happy mother's day!

 

[gpeppers]

I put a "privacy curtain" in front of the most popular laying box and my black australorp went broody immediately. Whodathunk that would work?!

 

[jondee]

I had to move my broody hen last year before I gave her some chicks (I had neither a rooster nor access to fertile eggs at the time), because my coop is small and high above the ground---not terribly safe for tiny chicks. The broody hen and her nest box went into a nearby shed with a small fenced yard attached to it, and she raised up 3 chicks there. When I started assimilating the little family with the rest of the flock (who could see, but not come into contact with, the hen and chicks), I did it when they were all out in the pasture, with lots of space. My mama hen, who is the most mellow, easy-going BO (even when broody or raising chicks), became Monster Mama towards the other hens. She did a superb job of protecting them while they all worked out their new pecking order. Within a couple of days, they were hanging out together, with very few skirmishes.

It was so cool watching her raise chicks that this year, now that we have a rooster, I put 6 eggs under her when she went broody. She's now setting, with that transfixed look on her face, lol, on her little clutch of eggs, and we are waiting with bated breath .

Joni

 

[song of joy]

I tried this last night, putting day-old hatchery chicks under a broody buff orpington that had been sitting on infertile eggs for 2 weeks. When I checked first thing this morning, she had pecked 2 chicks almost to death (I had to put them down). The other 3 were huddling together on the far side of the coop. She treated the chicks like intruders in her nest, and viciously attacked them. What a terrible outcome! The 3 survivors are now safe in a brooder.