Curiosity about videos depicting broody hens given chicks on YouTube

[SaltyOldDog]

Hi folks,

This being my first flock of chickens I check out darn near every chicken raising related video, read all sorts of "How-To" blog posts and basically use every source of info I can find to expand my knowledge of all things chicken.

My flock of six Midnight Blue Marans chickens is now 16 weeks old and growing up nicely. Each with their own personality ranging from Nugget (who has gold in her neck feathers) my "marches to her own drummer" girl to Margaret Hatcher who is clearly boss hen.

One thing I've seen a few video on is broody hens being introduced day old chicks. Does this really work?

The one issue these videos did not address is usually you feed Grower/Starter feed to chicks and Layer Feed to laying hens. How do you manage keeping chicks out of the Layer Feed and the "momma hen" out of the Grower/Starter? Will the mother hen actually keep the chicks safe around the older hens?

 

[DobieLover]

One thing I've seen a few video on is broody hens being introduced day old chicks. Does this really work?

The one issue these videos did not address is usually you feed Grower/Starter feed to chicks and Layer Feed to laying hens. How do you manage keeping chicks out of the Layer Feed and the "momma hen" out of the Grower/Starter? Will the mother hen actually keep the chicks safe around the older hens?

Yes, it can with with the right hen.
I had a hen willing adopt and raise 3 week old chicks that I took from a terrible broody. She watched these chicks through hardware cloth while she sat on her own nest and when her loan chick hatched, she marched into the brooder with her and took over raising all 7 of them.

I feed my flock Flock Raiser crumbles with oyster shell in separate containers for active layers to eat free choice. I have always and will always feed this way.
With lots of space, I've never seen aggression to chicks from any flock member. Ever.

 

[MomJones]

Midnight Blue Marans sounds really elegant. Happy chicken raising!

 

[Xouie]

Hi folks,

This being my first flock of chickens I check out darn near every chicken raising related video, read all sorts of "How-To" blog posts and basically use every source of info I can find to expand my knowledge of all things chicken.

My flock of six Midnight Blue Marans chickens is now 16 weeks old and growing up nicely. Each with their own personality ranging from Nugget (who has gold in her neck feathers) my "marches to her own drummer" girl to Margaret Hatcher who is clearly boss hen.

One thing I've seen a few video on is broody hens being introduced day old chicks. Does this really work?

The one issue these videos did not address is usually you feed Grower/Starter feed to chicks and Layer Feed to laying hens. How do you manage keeping chicks out of the Layer Feed and the "momma hen" out of the Grower/Starter? Will the mother hen actually keep the chicks safe around the older hens?

It works with some hens better than others. I think there is a lot of info on BYC about how to do it properly. (I got lucky with one of those broody girls who would adopt a brick if you put googly eyes on it and said “cheep”.)

For feed, I put the lay pellets up high so only the big birds can get it, but everybirdy has access to the starter crumble.

Mama hens are usually good at protecting the chicks from grown birds. But right now I have a similar situation to @DobieLover with different ages of chicks. The problem is that mama won’t protect the week old chicks from the older ones.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I also have given a broody hen chicks....several times actually.

The temperament of the hen and how long she has been broody is important.

If there's chicks everyone gets the starter or flock raiser feed.