Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[Beekissed]

I have visited this issue more than once and it is where the old knowledge would come in handy instead of us using trial and error. To have a reliable broody subflock, that you knew would go broody within a specific time frame in the spring would be invaluable to me, heavy large fowl preferred. I have heard of some breeds that more or less go off as a group, one goes broody and then the rest seem to follow. For now, I am resigned to having a long drawn out hatch that lasts into the summer. Combined with how long it takes my BR to grow out, I have a less than efficient process for selecting and culling my birds. Oh well! I'm not giving up free range or my broodies.

Me neither. Both are so valuable that they pretty much make up half of my whole flock paradigm. I'll never have a penned group of chickens for any length of time so as to separate flocks or breeding flocks. At the most I'll pen roosters before breeding season and occasionally for spot breeding sessions. No more chicks in the fall, though....I've learned the lesson on that one. Spring and summer chicks only.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Original post by Bee:

That's what I would like to do...just test his methods and see if it all pans out. I like to try a little experiment this year also involving broodiness. These two pullets come from a broody line, so after I collect what I need for the bator, I'd like to leave them in the breeding pen and let the eggs build up in their nest and see if that will stimulate them to go broody. If they did, I'd be in high cotton, as I'd let them each raise their own chicks and I'd also try to slip some of the older chicks of theirs that I have hatched underneath them when they hatch their own clutch. Barring that, I'm going to let some eggs build up in the coop nests and see if a couple of my older broody hens will take the bait, so I can slip eggs or chicks under them.

I'd like to see if I can get these hens to start breeding, laying and hatching in a normal, natural cycle of production such as one would find in a more natural setting. In the spring of the year is when all the other birds are hatching their own and I'd like to see my own birds start developing the same cycle. That would be my ideal flock system wherein I could have better hatch rates, healthier offspring, and no work on my part to incubate .


Bee, I think this would be a mistake. There is one of two possible outcomes to this scenario. Either the older chicks will be afraid of your broody because they haven't had a living breathing and MOVING mother that touches them before or she will leave the younger chicks because the older ones keep toddling off.

I hate to discourage your experiment, I just think it will go poorly for one of the clutches of chicks... maybe if you wait until the new brood is out of the nest and moving around all over the place, you might be able to slip the older chicks underneath her at night. That way they can hear her talking to them and get used to that part of the process while they cannot see but I still think that they will likely be afraid of her.

I've managed to coax a single slightly older chick to trust the mama but not when there has been more than one. As you know, chickens are highly influenced by their coop mates.

 

[Beekissed]

Ideally they would only be 5-7 days in age difference and, yes, I'd be waiting until the other youngsters are up and out. Not my first rodeo.

I'll be careful..no worries!

 

[Fentress]

I tried to give chicks last year to a hen whose eggs did not hatch. Bought chicks from the Feed and Seed, but she would not accept them. I think part of the problem is that the chicks, although just received by the store, were too old. The hatcheries appear to be shipping older chicks. Do I have to put the chicks directly under neath the hen? It seems difficult to do and dangerous for the chick. I think it might work better if I could approach from behind the hen, so she can not see me. Thanks.

 

[Beekissed]

I tried to give chicks last year to a hen whose eggs did not hatch. Bought chicks from the Feed and Seed, but she would not accept them. I think part of the problem is that the chicks, although just received by the store, were too old. The hatcheries appear to be shipping older chicks. Do I have to put the chicks directly under neath the hen? It seems difficult to do and dangerous for the chick. I think it might work better if I could approach from behind the hen, so she can not see me. Thanks.

It has to be done at night and it helps if you darken her nest~I place a box over it with air holes poked, or drape a towel over the entrance~ until midday of the next day. This way she has sat on these chicks all night long and there has been a bond formed. And, yes, it can be that quick. Then I let her out of the nest and watch the interaction between hen and chicks. I've never had one reject foster chicks yet.

I don't put them in under her front but remove eggs out the back, replace it with a chick, take an egg, replace with a chick. Finally, I just place the remaining chicks to be fostered under her rear end. The hen will usually stand up a little each time I reach my hand under there. Doing it that way is way less dangerous than just plopping chicks down in front of her nest and hoping she takes them under her wing. It's a rare hen that will do that, though I've heard of them, it's not too common and, normally, a hen will just peck and possibly kill a strange chick in her area.

 

[Fentress]

And that is exactly what I did. I put the chick down in front of her and she pecked at it. If I do it the right way, do you think chicks that are more than a couple of days old would still work?

 

[Beekissed]

And that is exactly what I did. I put the chick down in front of her and she pecked at it. If I do it the right way, do you think chicks that are more than a couple of days old would still work?

All you can do is try it. I've put 3-4 day old chicks under a broody and no problems. I've even had one silly broody of mine that had an unsuccessful clutch and couldn't get over it, so she "adopted" some 3 mo. old juvies I had that were an independent flock of their own out on range. She chased them down and kept trying to mother then and they would run from her and it was getting pretty tragic there for awhile, but they finally accepted her into their flock and as their step mother and she was still finding them food when they were 5 mo. old.

 

[Lacy Blues]

All you can do is try it. I've put 3-4 day old chicks under a broody and no problems. I've even had one silly broody of mine that had an unsuccessful clutch and couldn't get over it, so she "adopted" some 3 mo. old juvies I had that were an independent flock of their own out on range. She chased them down and kept trying to mother then and they would run from her and it was getting pretty tragic there for awhile, but they finally accepted her into their flock and as their step mother and she was still finding them food when they were 5 mo. old.

That's pretty pathetic!

and endearing

I have one hen who is a fantastic broody. A couple of years ago she successfully hatched one chick. When it was a week or so (maybe 3 or 4) I took another orphan to her just to see if she would still take one. She did. She mothered them both and then when the oldest was about 6 weeks old and I could tell she was nearing the time when they make the chicks independent, I took a chance as I had another orphan. I showed her the chick (during the daylight) while I held it in my hand and she reached out to it like it was her own. This one was about 4 days old. I wanted to make sure it was eating before I put it out there. It was a little bit afraid of her and took some coaxing and she allowed me to do it. I put the chick underneath her and she clucked to it the whole time. I went out a couple times a day and made sure the baby was trusting the mama and that was all I needed to do. They adopted each other and the other chicks adopted the new "sibling" and all went extremely well. Mama only mothered it for an additional 3 weeks I think and then I took her out of the pen when she started driving the chicks away. The three babies all lived happily every after until the oldest sister started doing the same. Everything turned out very well.

 

[NanaKat]

I've been fortunate to have several hens who just want to be great mothers. They willingly adopt chick I give them or steal chicks from other hens when they tire of their responsibility.

Mandy chose to adopt chicks I gave her from the incubator when her clutch hatched and then stole chicks from a hen whose clutch hatched about the same time. She took them everywhere teaching them to forage...at one point she had 35 chicks including a few bantam chicks...

 

[Beekissed]

What a great bird!!! I hope you are breeding that one...hens like that are worth their weight in gold, even if they aren't good layers but even more so if they are. Thirty five chicks is just incredibly hard to keep track of, so she must be an amazing bird. What a great story she is living!