Hatching chics 'au natural' with a momma hen

[Wildsky]

Quote:
Never heard of getting THOSE, unless you did it yourself..

You can't start incubation and then stop at any point, the little chick embry's would die.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

It sounds as if Henny Penny is committed to setting these eggs until they hatch. She should know what to do, how long she can leave the nest to take her breaks to eat, drink & poop, how often to turn the eggs, etc. All you need do is provide food & water, but you don't have to coax her off the nest or bring food to her in the nest.

You might want to sprinkle a little 5% Sevin dust around the nest box if fire ants are a problem there.

She should accept the chicks as hers, I don't think they care what color they are, as long as they hatch out under them then they think they're their own. Most of my broody hens end up hatching out other hens' eggs, by the time I notice they're broody I've collected all their own eggs days ago. I have a mixed flock & just pick out the eggs from the birds I want to make more of.

It usually takes most of the day for all the chicks to hatch out, the hen will probably stay on the nest all that first day with the chicks. The next day is when she'll probably want to take them for their first outing.

It's a delightful experience to watch a mama hen tending her chicks. I keep my chicken families separated primarily so they can eat the chick starter themselves. I give them unmedicated chick starter, it's all right for the mama hen to eat it too, and the chicks usually pick up immunity to the cocci by being around the mama's poop. Chicks shouldn't eat layer feed, and if I don't keep them separate, the other hens will eat up the chick food, they love it like candy. And, perversely, the chicks seem attracted to eating the layer feed when they can get to it.

I wish you & Henny Penny great success on the hatch! I just set a third broody hen of my own tonight, a tiny little bantam we call Finch, putting 4 full-sized eggs under her. It's going to be funny to see her with 4 big chicks who will grow bigger than their adopted Mom in just a few weeks.

 

[olddairyfarm]

I have a hen that has been sitting on about 15 eggs. 3 hatched yesterday, and it was a tough decision whether or not to take the baby chicks away from her. She even started to shift her tail to hide one as I began reaching in to gather them up.

The hen's nest is about 6' above the ground. If I put the chicks on the floor, she would probably leave her warm eggs. If I left the chicks in the nest, they would fall out.

I'm hoping that the rest of the eggs will hatch in the coming days. After we see whether or not the remaining eggs hatch (all are good...candled them) I would like to reunite the chicks with their mom in a smaller pen in the henhouse.

Do you think the mama hen will take them back?

 

[MooseHillFarm]

This thread is perfect timing for me...I've got a broody buff orp hen on day 4 of setting. She made a nest in the shavings on the floor of the coop in the back right corner. I'm leaving her there since she chose the spot, and the other chickens are letting her be.

Yesterday I got worried because she hadn't left the nest for 3 days, or at least as far as I know. She didn't seem to be eating or drinking either. I posted about it under chicken behaviors, and laralou kindly gave me an answer. Look for the broody poop!

There was no big broody poop so just now we took her off the nest and put her outside. She immediately made up for lost time with an enormous poop, ran around a bit, ate a little, and kept fluffing up her feathers. There are only 4 eggs, and thankfully they're nice and clean. I can hardly wait for chicks!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

In my experience the hen will stay on the nest with her hatching chicks for about 24-32 hours while all the eggs hatch before taking them for their first outing. I think that's why new chicks have that ability to go for a couple of days without food, so they can hang out in the nest waiting for their siblings to hatch. After that, the hen usually abandons the remaining eggs -- that is, she leaves them to go cold, even if there are live unhatched chicks in them, choosing to tend the chicks already hatched, taking them out for their first food & drink.

If your hen is nesting 6' above the ground you could wait until she seems ready to take her chicks out & help them down, or just watch to see what they do. I've heard others say the chicks can take the plunge unharmed. The hen will probably set up house somewhere on the ground afterwards.

I would not take chicks away from the hen to care for them, she will be a good judge of when they need to eat & drink & how to keep them warm & dry. But if you need to keep them all in a safer location you should be able to move them all together & the hen won't abandon them. Though she may have a different opinion on where she wants their nest to be.

I would not take a broody hen off her nest, but trust her to schedule her breaks for herself and her eggs' sakes. They take shorter & less frequent breaks when the weather is colder. I wouldn't want to override her instincts. The hens won't starve or dehydrate themselves, nor explode from poop buildup.

It always impresses me how these bird-brained hens know how to regulate the temperature & humidity of their developing eggs. I've seen them clamp down flat during cool months, even incubate eggs during one of our rare Florida freezes. The kids think they look funny then, "Look Mom, a bird pancake!" they laugh. I've also seen a hen standing up over her eggs during a hot summer afternoon. She must have known it would be too hot for her to sit on them, and was standing to let some air circulate over them.

I have 3 broody hens, all bantams, incubating full-sized eggs at this time. One of them is a tiny little hen we named Finch. It's going to be funny to see her mothering chicks that will be almost as big as her! She and the other 2 hens seem completely devoted to doing their jobs.

Don't mess with Mother Nature ... or Mother Hen!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

An additional caution for those with hens brooding in an area where other hens can access -- you may want to either move the hen & her nest (after dark) to a private place or block off her nest area so others can't come in. Often other hens will see the broody & want to lay their eggs there too. The problem is that when they kick broody off her nest she may get misdirected after taking a break & go to incubate eggs in another nest. Meanwhile, the other hen will leave the incubating nest after leaving her new egg there, and they all go cold.

 

[olddairyfarm]

Thanks for the advice SunnySideUp. You made a great point about being bird-brained...

My chickens are SO stupid. I don't even close the gate behind me when I go in the yard b/c they don't even realize it has been left open. Yet, these amazing creatures manage to turn their eggs and hatch chicks with greater success than some homemade incubators--and they take care of their chicks without a thermometer and heat lamp that must be adjusted a degree each day!

We've taken the chicks away from the broody. She is happily sitting way up in the air, sitting on the remaining 16 good eggs (we've thrown out the unferts.) Since she went broody, the other hens have been laying their eggs in her nest, but she has managed to get back to her spot every time. We now have 4 chicks from her, and the others all look viable when candled. They will probably all hatch on different days though, because the other hens have deposited theirs throughout the last few weeks.

If we weren't desperate for chicks, we'd just put her on the ground with the 4 chicks and let the rest go cold. It's either take the babies and see what else hatches, or give her the 4 chicks and pay for 12 more from the hatchery.

We're going for CHEAP CHEEPS this time around!

 

[MooseHillFarm]

We wouldn't want to lose sight of all these expectant broodies, going 'au natural'. I'm dying to hear about any hatching stories, with momma hen doing the incubating.

In the meantime, DH is at a bluegrass festival in NY, while I play nervous grandma here. I've stopped moving broody momma off her enchanted nest though, and decided to trust her instincts.

Plus that works in much better to my schedule.....

 

[olddairyfarm]

MooseHill,
I hope days 4 and 5 will soon turn into a successful hatch. I loved seeing the new chicks peeking at me from under their mama hen's tail feathers. I got so excited when we heard the cheeping before we even opened the door to the nest box. I wish my hen had started her nest on the ground like yours! It would have saved us from a tough decision, and a lot of extra work!
Keep us posted!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I just set a FOURTH banty hen with eggs tonight. As long as I can fix private quarters for them I'll keep accomodating these girls when they go broody. I used to put them in a wire parrot cage I found, we called it The Broody Buster and would put the broody hens in there for a few days to break their mood. But then I realized I was missing out on a good thing.

I have a lot of standard & mixed-breed chickens. If I set my biggest & nicest eggs I'll get nice laying hens or good meaty roos. I'm going to try to sell the hens to folks wanting layers, and raise the roos for our table.

These banties can't cover a lot of eggs at once, I think I'm pushing it to put more than 4-5 under each one. Tonight I checked the eggs under 2 of the hens and did see some development. Good girls! If all goes well we should have 18 new chicks with 4 mama hens at the end of this month.