Hi, I am new here. I have 3 adult chickens. A Suffolk who became broody and a friend gave me 5 eggs for her to sit on. It is nine days and I am seeing veins and moving little chooks in 4 o 5 eggs, one is a green egg which is dark to candle through. I have never raised chickens so any advice will be appreciated. I also have an Iza Brown and an Australorpe adults in a large pen with a tin shed where nesting boxes and roosts are. They are friendly and follow me around. Unfortunately the Suffolk is not so attached to me but is a bit better since brooding. I have the Suffolk in a dog kennel cage in the shed sitting on the eggs in a small box with sugarcane mulch under them. There is a small bowl of water and a bit of food in the cage and I have the cage partially covered with a towel. She comes out twice a day to walk around, scratch and eat and returns after 5 mins to sit on her eggs again. I have been keeping her and the eggs separated from the other chooks and also to keep visiting mice and a Diamond Python snake who visits my pen and occasionally eats the mice and steals eggs away from them. I have a larger cage I can put the chickens in when they hatch. Should I keep the hen in with them. Any suggestions on food. I am on the south coast of NSW Australia...Tapitallee and it is springtime here. 12 degree nights and 18-20 daytime. Wedge-tail Eagles and Grey Goshawks are a problem for free ranging so my girls only get outside the large pen when I am home to watch them.
A good broody hen will take care of the chicks and you have to do is make sure they have food, water and shelter. Raising chicks this way is really wonderful! Feed-wise, it would be best to let her raise the chicks with the rest of the flock, so feed them all chick starter or grower and provide oystershell or crushed eggs shells on the side for the laying hens, so they can help themselves when they feel they need more calcium. Make sure you provide water in shallow dishes, to prevent accidental drowning of the chicks! Good luck with the hatch and keep us posted.
Three of the five eggs have hatched. Three little beauties. Day 2 and they are cuddling under a very protective mother hen.
x2! I just wanted to warn you - if you haven't seen any yet, your broody will probably have some scary, big, smelly poops. My Gold Laced Wyandotte went broody (to my surprise) earlier this year and hatched 3 chicks, too. She pooped less frequently than normal, but when she did - yikes! Looked like a pile of dog poop left by a small dog, just chicken poop-colored. She didn't go back to normal elimination until after she was away from her chicks. On the bright side, it's pretty easy to pick up a pile like that.
