hen setting, anyone get lucky w/o brooders- all natural?

yes my bantams are good moms

 

Got a silkie mom with 4 chicks and a bantam cochin that took in 2 turkins. I let them be moms. My daughter finds it cool to watch how the hens tuck their babes in at night. I don't have an incubator just hens

 

Oh yes. When I was a kid we had a few bantys that would disappear each spring and come back a few weeks later with 6-10 chicks. I would let my cochin 4-H bantys hatch out chicks each year as well. Had much better luck with the real thing than when I used an incubator.

 

I wish I could convince my hens- or even one of them to go broody. So far no luck. That's the only way I'm going to get chicks, I think, since SO doesn't really want chicks in the house.

 

I have bad luck with mine. Sometimes they're so broody that they try to hatch golf balls, but it seems like they never are when I receive hatching eggs. Last time I put some Marans eggs under a broody, she changed her mind and got off them after about a week.

 

Yep, I 've had good luck with my broodies (Buff Orp and Australorp). I wish there was a way to tell them when you need then to go broody - it's so much easier than using an incubator!!!!

 

Yep,
I've got silkies and they are all wonderful mothers. I just bring the mom and the babies inside at night for a while until the babies are big enough not to git through chicken wire. My roo "Romeo" also loves to care for the babies.
Good Luck.

 

Bantam cochins and light brahmas gave me my first chicks. Once they got started they didn't want to quit. They even hatched out chicks in the dead of winter. WHY I had to have a bator I just can't understand. I have a barn full of ma nature bators, and they do a much better job than the man made ones.

Some percautions do need to be taken to ensure the safety of newly hatched chicks. The moms are very protective of their new little charges but things can happen. If ma hen is agreeable, she and her clutch should be moved to a safe place where other hens can't lay new eggs in her nest and possibly break or dirty the original eggs. The hen and her chicks should be protected from other hens and roosters for a few weeks until the little ones can get around pretty good and they understand what ma hen is saying when she makes certain sounds, like "RUN FOR COVER". A special feeding and watering place needs to be set up for the chicks so they can be fed their chick food and have a waterer that they can't drown in and the other chickens won't eat all their food. Chick food is like a treat to hens and roosters. I think everyone should experience little chicks that are hatched and cared for by their mom at least once. Watching them is better than most shows on TV.
Don't give up, it is early in the season and your hens have plenty of time to hatch out another batch of the cutest little fur butts ever.

 

We have a bantam cochin hen who hatched 6 chicks and raised them - SO much easier than an incubator!!! We have a small chicken tractor that broody moms go into and they stay in there until the hen has had enough of the chicks. If it is cold we still have a heat lamp for the chicks but most of the time they snuggle under momma if it is too chilly.