sagehound
Songster
Thank you for the thorough answer. I have raised two sets of chicks with my broody hen and I thought it was the best thing ever. Especially compared to the amount of work I had to do to raise my initial chicks. However, I have a friend that wants some chicks so I had my broody hen sit on eggs and hatch them. I was concerned that I would really hurt her if I took the chicks before she was done raising them.You certainly can take the chicks away and brood them yourself. I let my broody hens raise the chicks with the flock but others do what you are talking about or do other totally different things. We all have our own goals, set-ups, and reasons for doing what we do.
I personally would wait until the hen brings the chicks off the nest. Before they eggs even external pip but after internal pip, the unhatched chick starts talking to the hen, letting her know another chick is on the way. The hen knows when the hatch is over much better than I do. I’ve had broody hens bring the chicks off the nest within 24 hours of the first one hatching, I’ve had hens wait three days to bring them off. Since she is talking to her unhatched chicks I figure she knows more about what she is doing than I do.
But some people like to remove the chicks as they dry off. To be honest I don’t understand that logic, but people do a lot of things I don’t understand. There is no one set way to do any of this. There is nothing right or wrong about how we do it, they can all work. They are just different management techniques.
If you take the chicks away from her before she brings them off the nest she may or may not just stay on the nest and not break from being broody. You may need to put her through a broody buster. If you wait until she brings them off the nest it is highly probably she will break from being broody without the broody buster.
Whether you put her in a broody buster or she breaks without it when you take the chicks away, she will be upset. If you put a broody in a broody buster without her hatching or ever giving her eggs she will be upset. If you take a hen out of your flock and lock her up, she will be upset. We do that stuff all the time. She’ll get over it, probably in two to three days. Chickens are prey animals, in the wild it’s not that unusual for a broody hen to lose her chicks to a predator. When that happens it’s instinctive for her to break from being broody and go back to laying eggs so she can hatch some more. That’s just nature’s way.
She has used up a lot of her internal reserves while she was broody since she was not eating and drinking a lot while on the nest. She has to replace those reserves before she will start to lay again. She also has to change hormones and make some changes to her internal egg making factory to get ready to lay again. The sooner she breaks from being broody the sooner she will start to lay again.
Good luck!