First broody hen

[SaraJean0989]

Hey all! I still feel very new to chicken raising, as my flock is just over a year old now- will have had them a year the first part of June. And my sex link went broody on Mother’s Day ‍ I guess she’s ready for motherhood!

While i was going to try to get her out of it, my fiancé talked me into “seeing what happens”. I have one rooster in my flock and he is a very busy guy judging from my girls missing back feathers, so I’m almost positive all 10 (by guestimation of what I usually collect) eggs momma is hoarding are fertile.

Could anyone give me a run down on how this works? She’s top 2 or 3 (out of 9 hens) of the pecking order so I’m not worried about any of my other girls getting to the chicks. (Unless she’s a bad mom?) I’ve read they sit on their eggs for 21 days and then they hatch, is that 21 days of broodyness? Or 21 days since being laid? Because is it possible she robbed eggs from other girls after they laid and put them in her box? I was short eggs Sunday, Monday and Tuesday this week (part of why I think she’s sitting on so many) making hatch day different for some eggs.

Is it better to move her to a separate pen, away but still visible to rooster and other girls?

Do I buy starter feed when chicks hatch and feed that to the group again, I’d like to keep them with momma if at all possible but unsure my hens and rooster will be ok eating starter feed.

While I thought this might happen, I never expected less than a year after starting my flock I’d run into this! Please help me

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It doesn't matter where she stands on the totem pole. A broody hen will be a formidable protector of chicks.
It takes 21 days of being kept at incubation temperature to develop and hatch. It doesn't matter when they were laid except hatchability drops dramatically after 10 days of storage.
I prefer to house a setting hen in her own housing but not absolutely necessary.
She doesn't need to see the other birds because she is in a trance and doing a job that doesn't involve any other birds.
If keeping her with the rest of the flock, you need to mark all the first eggs under her so you can remove volunteers to prevent a disastrous staggered hatch.

 

[SaraJean0989]

It doesn't matter where she stands on the totem pole. A broody hen will be a formidable protector of chicks.
It takes 21 days of being kept at incubation temperature to develop and hatch. It doesn't matter when they were laid except hatchability drops dramatically after 10 days of storage.
I prefer to house a setting hen in her own housing but not absolutely necessary.
She doesn't need to see the other birds because she is in a trance and doing a job that doesn't involve any other birds.
If keeping her with the rest of the flock, you need to mark all the first eggs under her so you can remove volunteers to prevent a disastrous staggered hatch.

Ok thanks! If she took eggs from another box in those first few days they will hatch different days, but will the 2 or 3 days make a difference? I have no way of telling which were sat on first bc I was out of town when she went broody.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

When the first few hatch, she will eventually leave the nest to care for live chicks no matter how many eggs are left. I'd say 2 days tops.

 

[Cr8zy4Chicks]

I just went through this. I separated mine (I had two go broody at the same time) from my understanding, once an egg is kept above a certain temperature for over 24 hours the baby starts to develop. If u want her to hatch out babies we pulled the eggs she was on for a few days to make sure she was committed to the job, then after 5 days we put 12 eggs under her that we wanted hatched.

We moved them to a separate brooder box, but it was still in the run with the rest of the flock and that seemed to work out for us.

Both sets the babies hatched at day 20, so not sure what caused them to be early but thata what happened for us.

If u keep the mom n babies separate then of course you dont have to feed the whole flock started feed, but if your gonna let them out a fee days after hat hing then I would make sure everyone is on the same feed.

Word of advise, out of 12 babies between both hens, we are now down to 7 babies. Each loss has been extremely hard and it has been a very tough learning experiance. If you want to keep all of the babies, I wouldn't let them leave the brooder box with mom. Everytime I let them out of the box we think a hawk snatches a baby. So you will have to decide after they hatch if you gonna keep them with mom or if your gonna pull them and raise them inside.

Best of luck!!!! Hope all goes well

 

[50-45-1]

I have a couple rabbit hutches i use for broodie pens.
I always separate my broodies.
This way, All my eggs are started at the same time and hatch at the same time. It gives Mom and chicks time to establish (2 weeks) before i put them back with the flock. And i can make sure those first weks they get there starter as they should.
Also , I have had hens disapear only to show up 3 weeks later with a slew of chicks trailing behid her. I just switch my feed to chick starter for everyone and all is well.
Good luck with your broody!