Hatching eggs with broody hen

[nparks]

I have a 1 yr old broody buff orphington hen. I do not have a rooster but am interested in trying to hatch some eggs. I dealt with broodiness last summer but did not want anymore chicks but now I'd love to try and hatch some.

Where would I find fertilized eggs to buy? I have a neighbor down the road who I've never met but know they have roosters and was thinking about asking them for a couple eggs.

How many should I place under her?

Should I separate her from the others while she's broody? I have a small dog kennel I could put her in with a tarp over it to keep her dry. If I were to separate her, the kennel wouldn't be nearly as warm as the coop. The over night lows are right around 40 degrees. Will that be ok for her? By the time the chicks would hatch the over night low should be around 50.

If I separate, How long after the chicks hatch should I wait before integrating them into the flock? I have 4 other buff orphingtons and one black sex linked. The bls can be pretty feisty at times.

What would you recommend doing if multiple chicks turn out to be roosters? I don't have one yet. I would consider keeping one but I've read that keeping multiple roosters could cause problems??

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm looking forward to trying this!!

 

[nparks]

By the way. She's been broody for about 2 days now. I'd like to try and get eggs asap for her but if it doesn't happen right away how long can she stay broody for before I get her eggs? I know they stop eating and stop drinking while they are broody.

 

[nparks]

Looking for some help on hatching some eggs!

 

[bobbi-j]

I have a 1 yr old broody buff orphington hen. I do not have a rooster but am interested in trying to hatch some eggs. I dealt with broodiness last summer but did not want anymore chicks but now I'd love to try and hatch some.

Where would I find fertilized eggs to buy? I have a neighbor down the road who I've never met but know they have roosters and was thinking about asking them for a couple eggs.

How many should I place under her?

Should I separate her from the others while she's broody? I have a small dog kennel I could put her in with a tarp over it to keep her dry. If I were to separate her, the kennel wouldn't be nearly as warm as the coop. The over night lows are right around 40 degrees. Will that be ok for her? By the time the chicks would hatch the over night low should be around 50.

If I separate, How long after the chicks hatch should I wait before integrating them into the flock? I have 4 other buff orphingtons and one black sex linked. The bls can be pretty feisty at times.

What would you recommend doing if multiple chicks turn out to be roosters? I don't have one yet. I would consider keeping one but I've read that keeping multiple roosters could cause problems??

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm looking forward to trying this!!

It's a lot of fun watching a broody raise her family.

Personally, I'd get eggs from the neighbor as you don't know what kind of condition shipped eggs will be in when they arrive, and are notorious for low hatch rates. I'd get more than two. Even though (in my opinion and experience) a broody can do a better job incubating and hatching out a brood than my little incubator can, they don't always have a 100% hatch rate either. One thing to take into consideration when deciding how many eggs to giver her is how many more chickens can you handle with your current setup?

Whether you separate her or not is your choice. If you do, it would be good to just have a fence between her and the flock so she's not a total stranger when it's time to integrate. I have done it that way in the past. Currently I have a broody in the coop with the flock. (She's pretty stubborn and wants to set where SHE chooses. I've tried moving her in the past and she had none of that business.) I used to separate broodies and their chicks until the chicks were about 8 weeks old, but read a few years ago that the chicks are accepted into the flock better when integrated younger. So I started when they were a week or two old. The mama still has her broody hormones going on and is quite protective of her babies at that point. If you wait until she's weaned them (at a month or more), the other hens are more apt to pick on them. The first year I integrated them that young, a raccoon killed the mama hen when the babies were about 5 weeks of old. Because they had already been with the flock for a few weeks, they were already established members and the older birds left them alone. If the BLS is problematic you could try separating her for a bit.

It's good that you're thinking ahead to what to do with extra males. We put ours in the freezer. I know that's not for everyone, but you are right that too many can wreak havoc in your flock. If you can't bear the thought of processing them yourself you can try to find them new homes, or find someone else who would appreciate some good, homegrown chicken.

Broodies don't quit eating and drinking entirely when they're setting. They generally get off the nest once a day for 20 minutes or so (mine will stay off longer sometimes when it's hot out) to eat, drink, dust bathe and poop. Mine prefers to do it when she thinks no one is looking, so if you aren't watching your broody 24/7, you may not see her leave the nest. Don't be alarmed. Enjoy the experience and don't overthink it. I'm pretty hands off with my broody. I pick her up once a day to look for extra eggs, but don't mess with her other wise. I also don't mess with the eggs. I figure my chicken knows far more about being a chicken than I do. I'll let her do her job, and let Nature take it's course.

Something I forgot to mention - if you let her set in the coop with the rest of the flock, be sure to mark the eggs you want her to hatch so you can remove any "donations" from her flock mates.

 

[MillersFarm]

Well first off before i'd get the eggs i'd wait a little longer to make sure shes fully broody. i had a friend who let their hen try hatching some eggs and the hen quite sitting on the eggs half way through the process.

A normal size Chicken can sit on 12 eggs comfortably and i'd at least let her hatch 3 eggs min.

If you do have roosters i'd either butcher em' or if theres a near by auction near by you i'd sell them off.

I would personally separate her from the others but at night if you dont want to break her broodiness. I'd put her in a dog crate if you have a big enough one. I have a broody hen right now i had in the main coop and when she got off her nest to eat another hen got into her nest and broke one of her eggs.

And if the chicken does hatch her eggs she will leave them when she thinks there are old enough to fend for themselves, so the hen pretty much does all the work.
Hope this was helpful and if you have any more questions then ask away!

 

[nparks]

Thank you for the input!

I was pretty sure she was full blown broody until this morning. When I went out to the coop she was nesting on the coop floor right in front of the nest box and then when I checked on her again she was in a different nest box from the one she originally started out in. I think she got booted when the others went to lay. So if she remains broody, I think I will definitely separate her so the others don't boot her off of her eggs.

I can handle about 4 more chickens in our current set up. Would 8 eggs be appropriate to give her? Plan for some not to hatch and plan for a couple roosters?

I will take your advice and butcher the roosters. At what age should I butcher?

 

[bobbi-j]

Thank you for the input!

I was pretty sure she was full blown broody until this morning. When I went out to the coop she was nesting on the coop floor right in front of the nest box and then when I checked on her again she was in a different nest box from the one she originally started out in. I think she got booted when the others went to lay. So if she remains broody, I think I will definitely separate her so the others don't boot her off of her eggs.

I can handle about 4 more chickens in our current set up. Would 8 eggs be appropriate to give her? Plan for some not to hatch and plan for a couple roosters?

I will take your advice and butcher the roosters. At what age should I butcher?

She will quite easily cover 8 eggs. If, by luck, you end up with 8 chicks, I'm sure you'll figure out what to do with all of them.

When to butcher your cockerels - that's a good question. Some butcher at 12 weeks, when they're still nice and tender for the grill, some wait a while longer. No Matt when you process them, you're going to find that they are not like your store-bought chickens. They may appear scrawnier, but the meat will have so much more texture and flavor. I'd you get an egg-laying breed, there will be very little meat, but you can cook the meat off the carcass, pick out what meat there is and freeze it, and can or freeze the broth.