Failed Broody Hen

[McChooky]

Guys, I watched a "conversation" between Strawberry and her chick today and MY HEART CANNOT TAKE IT. It is maybe the cutest thing I've ever seen.

(I think the conversation was:
CHICK: What is THAT?!?!?!
STRAWBERRY: That's the human.
CHICK: Too big! I would like to be back under you now!!!)

Good luck catching it when it gets older! lol

 

[BDutch]

Good luck catching it when it gets older! lol

Or… handle the chick like once every day. Give some water with electrolytes to start with. Stop if you see the chick is not comfortable with you.
Friendly handling and giving food is important if you don’t want it to become a chicken that will be afraid of you.
Fingers crossed it’s a girl.

 

[Anon112]

Or… handle the chick like once every day. Give some water with electrolytes to start with. Stop if you see the chick is not comfortable with you.
Friendly handling and giving food is important if you don’t want it to become a chicken that will be afraid of you.
Fingers crossed it’s a girl.

I'm doing a little handling each day. I think it helps that Strawberry is my friendliest chicken, and after two days of "NEW BABY DO NOT TOUCH" she is acting very calm and friendly when I come in. This morning the chick stayed out and was interested as I was giving them fresh water and food.

Yes, hoping very much it is a little hen!

 

[HappyHippyChick]

Maybe she was hungry?

 

[cherrysPolishchicks]

Last month we discovered that one of our hens had been leaving the flock (free range) and laying a clutch of eggs in the unused doghouse. She started with ten eggs. We immediately moved her into the shed with a fresh nest of hay in a box to protect her from the dogs. After candling a couple of the eggs the next day, I decided they were about ten days into development, and I didn’t candle the rest after reading that it wasn’t necessary. We mostly left her alone for a few days while we argued with a couple other hens about whether they wanted to be broody or not. When we next checked on her clutch, there were only eight eggs total, and one was cracked open, revealing the membrane. I candled all of them and decided they were at day sixteen or so. When I was about to get rid of the cracked egg and another that had a detached air cell, the cracked one started peeping and moving under the membrane. We figured that it had no chance, but we put it back under her anyways, letting nature take its course. When I checked on them the next day, the hen had eaten most of the chick. Today, at the point when I really expected there to be at least the beginnings of hatching, there were only four eggs. The other two had disappeared without a trace despite the fact that when I candled them last week, I felt that they were all okay. I candled them today and all had detached air cells. One was basically soup, so I cracked it open and the fetus was barely an inch long. The rest look more developed from the candling, but no different than they did on day ~16. I would love any insight as to what might have gone wrong. This hen is clearly not meant to be a mother despite her extreme devotion, but I’d still like to know why or what she was doing wrong, because this whole situation has caused me a lot of stress. Thanks!

Next time you have a broody, set fertile eggs under her. Separate her from other hens. Put food & water right close outside her nest box. Allow space for her to come out & poop. I would get rid of the hen who ate her chick. She now knows eggs are delicious high protein food source. She will continue to eat eggs.
She might have thrown rotten eggs out & rats have taken them or some other creature has been eating her eggs. We have lace monitors in australia who steel eggs from sitting hens, snakes do the same.

 

[Old farmer at bFADFarms]

A few things. Other hens will steal and eat the eggs/unhatched chicks until they are all gone.
Many broody hens will sense an egg is not incubating properly and will destroy the egg.
The eggs may not have been incubating at all - I've candled hundreds of eggs over the years and I judge incorrectly at least one egg per clutch.
My broody is sitting on 7. I candled them at day 14 and 20 and saw 5 with chicks in them. It's now day 23 and nothing is peeping, zipping or moving. She's been absolutely devoted and no other hens get to her.
The moral of the story is: Nature knows better than we do.

I guess I’m the odd ball but have been raising chickens and yes peeps since I was nine or there abouts. I’m 73 now. Just two weeks ago under cover of night I moved my 4 clucking hens out of the nest boxes they had been in into detachable nesting boxes onto the floor so the other hens could lay eggs in peace. A week ago under the cover of night I moved my four hens into my nursery run. Two days ago one came off with a clutch of chick (8) and one came off with (3) a third hen has chicks but can’t count them because she won’t leave the nest. But I believe I’ve counted more than 12 in the run. Yes I did make a mistake by putting to many eggs under the hens so I am having to through a lot of half developed chicks away, what I’ll do is congregate all the chicks with two hens and if the other two refuse to leave I’ll start the two with two clutches of 12 eggs each making sure there is plenty of feed and water so on the really hot days the ladies will leave the nest and come out to eat and drink but return back to the nest. I have done this before with success. My hens are all first year hens if that makes a difference. Also they are buff orpingtons, austrolof, and a modern mixed breed. Also some of my buff Orpington roosters are breeding my Cornish cross and I’m going to put some of these eggs under my setters. Hope this helps.

 

[Old farmer at bFADFarms]

Next time you have a broody, set fertile eggs under her. Separate her from other hens. Put food & water right close outside her nest box. Allow space for her to come out & poop. I would get rid of the hen who ate her chick. She now knows eggs are delicious high protein food source. She will continue to eat eggs.
She might have thrown rotten eggs out & rats have taken them or some other creature has been eating her eggs. We have lace monitors in australia who steel eggs from sitting hens, snakes do the same.

I tend to disagreed about setting hens continuing to eat eggs after eating one. It is a way of nature for a hen to clean up around their nest to foil intruders. I have had hens drop eggs on the floor on the way into the nest and still get my daily quota of eggs and donot see signs of egg eating.

 

[Old farmer at bFADFarms]

The

How big of a dog crate? Physical measurements? You need room for a nest, food, water, and a small bit more. A broody hen should know by instinct to not poop in her nest but the food and water are fair game. That means you'll need access to clean the food and water.

I'd wait until the hen has spent two consecutive nights on the nest instead of sleeping in her regular spot to confirm she is serious about being broody. I've had hens show all kinds of signs of being broody but not stay on the nest long enough to hatch eggs a few times. If she is not a committed broody she could easily break from being broody if you move her too early. She might anyway.

I'd move her after dark with as little commotion as possible and lock her in the new pen. I'd leave her locked in there until the chicks hatch. Sometimes the hen wants to return to the old nest. I wouldn't give her that option.

I moved a couple of hens but now I let them hatch with the flock. There are risks no matter what you do, move her or leave her. Broody hens have been hatching with the flock for thousands of years, they have not gone extinct yet. If you decide to not move her let me know and I'll talk you through that.

Good luck!

only problem with the hens hatching with the flock is that other hens may lay along side of her and then you get eggs if differ ages and loose the later ones. I like to keep an incubator handy then any that don’t hatch go into the incubator for as long as the brooding hen has been taking new eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The

only problem with the hens hatching with the flock is that other hens may lay along side of her and then you get eggs if differ ages and loose the later ones. I like to keep an incubator handy then any that don’t hatch go into the incubator for as long as the brooding hen has been taking new eggs.

I mark the eggs with a Sharpie so I know which belong. I check under the hen every day after the others have laid and remove any that don't belong. They can still be used as long as you remove them every day.

 

[birdlady11]

Sometimes disappearing eggs are not the mystery you think they are and broken eggs may not be purposely damaged by the hen. You have to consider the culprit to the disappearing eggs may be a rat snake. I've had rat snakes sneak into a nest box at night and grab an egg from under a hen and eat it; wala! egg gone without a trace. At the same time a hen may feel the snake trying to get to the eggs under her and aggressively peck at the snake trying to defend her eggs and accidently peck an egg and damage or break it. If she stands up and moves around trying to get the snake out of her nest box she can accidently damage the eggs.

When I have a hen sitting on eggs and I know it's snake season I take a piece of 1/2 hardware cloth and attach it to the front of the next box at night so the snakes can't get in and then remove it first thing in the morning and that usually solves the problem.