Hens go broody when you don’t want them to… and won’t go broody when you do. One of my rhode island reds is broody. I discovered just now. She is sitting in a nest box all poofed out and she sort of growls at me for getting too close. I have always wanted one of my hens to go broody but now what do I do? I imagine the three week wait is going to kill me. I have a rooster. Will he hurt the new babies? I need any information I can get about what I need to do.
Hen Went Broody
- Thread starter Aylala88
- Start date
To confirm she is truly broody and worthy of eggs, she needs to spend two consecutive nights on the nest, not roosting in her normal spot. I’ve had hens act broody and even spend one night on the nest but not really be committed. So first make sure she is truly broody.
Read this. It’s mostly about using an incubator but the stuff about storing eggs works for a broody too. Don’t get too hung up on the details. These are guidelines and suggestions, not absolute laws of nature. For example, the article gives a perfect temperature for storing eggs. Most of us don’t follow that exactly because we don’t have a place the perfect temperature and we still do pretty well. Just do the best you reasonably can and you’ll do fine.
Texas A&M Incubation site
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/...e-Cartwright-Incubating-and-hatching-eggs.pdf
You have a few decisions to make. One is how many eggs. The hen needs to be able to cover all of them. Hens and eggs don’t come all the same size. A bantam may be limited to 4 regular sized eggs while a regular sized hen can cover a bunch. If the eggs are the size she normally lays, I suggest no more than 12. I’ve had hens handle more eggs and chicks than that but 12 is a good number.
Remember about half the chicks will be male. Have a plan for what you are going to do with them.
Start all eggs at the same time. That is real important. They all need to hatch together or you are going to feel real bad when some die in the shell.
You have two basic options, either let her hatch them with the flock or isolate her. People do it both ways, usually successfully. You can have problems either way.
If you let her hatch with the flock, mark all the eggs so you can tell which ones belong under her. I put a couple of circles on with a Sharpie, one the long way and one the short so I can tell at a glance which ones belong. You’ll need to check under her daily and remove any eggs that show up that don’t belong. As long as you remove them daily, those are still good to eat.
If you isolate her, fix up a predator-proof area where you can lock her in there and not let her out or any other chicken in. The area needs a nest, food and water, and enough room for her to get off the nest and go poop. It helps if the nest is kind of dark. That seems to soothe them. Move her at night with as little light and commotion as you can manage. Give her a couple of fake eggs like golf balls for the first couple of nights so you don’t risk the real eggs in case she breaks from being broody because of the move.
Some people feel real strong about moving her and others about not moving her. People do it both ways. You are dealing with living animals so sometimes things don’t work out the way you want, but they usually work out.
Don’t worry about your rooster. You are dealing with living animals so you never can tell what will actually happen, but a dominant rooster is much more likely to help a broody with her chicks than harm them. If you have any problems with any of them, I suspect it will be a hen, not the rooster. The only time I’ve ever had a problem with another hen was when she went broody a few days before the eggs were to hatch and she fought the original broody, trying to take over the nest. Some eggs were damaged. Boy was I mad!
I’ve never had a problem with a non-broody hen messing with a broody. When the hormones that cause broodiness get flowing in more than one female at the same time is when I’ve had problems.
Enough typing. Hopefully you’ll get something out of this to help you. Good luck!
Read this. It’s mostly about using an incubator but the stuff about storing eggs works for a broody too. Don’t get too hung up on the details. These are guidelines and suggestions, not absolute laws of nature. For example, the article gives a perfect temperature for storing eggs. Most of us don’t follow that exactly because we don’t have a place the perfect temperature and we still do pretty well. Just do the best you reasonably can and you’ll do fine.
Texas A&M Incubation site
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/...e-Cartwright-Incubating-and-hatching-eggs.pdf
You have a few decisions to make. One is how many eggs. The hen needs to be able to cover all of them. Hens and eggs don’t come all the same size. A bantam may be limited to 4 regular sized eggs while a regular sized hen can cover a bunch. If the eggs are the size she normally lays, I suggest no more than 12. I’ve had hens handle more eggs and chicks than that but 12 is a good number.
Remember about half the chicks will be male. Have a plan for what you are going to do with them.
Start all eggs at the same time. That is real important. They all need to hatch together or you are going to feel real bad when some die in the shell.
You have two basic options, either let her hatch them with the flock or isolate her. People do it both ways, usually successfully. You can have problems either way.
If you let her hatch with the flock, mark all the eggs so you can tell which ones belong under her. I put a couple of circles on with a Sharpie, one the long way and one the short so I can tell at a glance which ones belong. You’ll need to check under her daily and remove any eggs that show up that don’t belong. As long as you remove them daily, those are still good to eat.
If you isolate her, fix up a predator-proof area where you can lock her in there and not let her out or any other chicken in. The area needs a nest, food and water, and enough room for her to get off the nest and go poop. It helps if the nest is kind of dark. That seems to soothe them. Move her at night with as little light and commotion as you can manage. Give her a couple of fake eggs like golf balls for the first couple of nights so you don’t risk the real eggs in case she breaks from being broody because of the move.
Some people feel real strong about moving her and others about not moving her. People do it both ways. You are dealing with living animals so sometimes things don’t work out the way you want, but they usually work out.
Don’t worry about your rooster. You are dealing with living animals so you never can tell what will actually happen, but a dominant rooster is much more likely to help a broody with her chicks than harm them. If you have any problems with any of them, I suspect it will be a hen, not the rooster. The only time I’ve ever had a problem with another hen was when she went broody a few days before the eggs were to hatch and she fought the original broody, trying to take over the nest. Some eggs were damaged. Boy was I mad!
I’ve never had a problem with a non-broody hen messing with a broody. When the hormones that cause broodiness get flowing in more than one female at the same time is when I’ve had problems.
Enough typing. Hopefully you’ll get something out of this to help you. Good luck!
Ridgerunner,
Which way do you do it and why? Interested in your method and what problems you've had and how you addressed them. Much thanks,
Guppy
Last edited:
I generally let them incubate, hatch, and raise them with the flock. Why? That’s the way Dad did it and he never had problems. But he had a different situation, total full-time free range. He didn’t even lock them up at night. But I can’t do it that way. I lock them up and use electric netting to stop predators, basically people dropping dogs off out here in the country. I finally got tired of losing large amounts of chickens to dogs people abandoned. So your conditions make a difference.
I also find it less work for me to let the hen hatch them with the flock. The only extra work a broody causes is that I have to check under her once a day for new eggs.
If the hen stays with the flock, you don’t have to worry about integrating her back to the flock. If she raises the chicks with the flock, she integrates the chicks. They’ll still have to handle pecking order issues on their own as they mature, but basic integration is handled for you. Another broody just weaned her chicks at five weeks of age. Those chicks sleep in a group on the floor of the coop and roam with the flock during the day. They normally keep to a separate group, but they do mingle a bunch with the adults while they are roaming.
The only time I had a problem when letting a hen raise the chicks with the flock was when a one week old chick found its way into a grow-out pen of 8 week olds. Mama could not get in there to protect it and those 8 week olds killed it. There is an important lesson there. If you isolate the hen and chicks for her to raise them separately, make sure the chicks cannot get out of that pen and mix with the regular flock.
What kinds of problems have I had with hens incubating and hatching with the flock? As I mentioned, I had another hen go broody a couple of days before the eggs were to hatch. The hens fought over the eggs and several got broken. Many people have multiple broodies, either sharing the same nest or on separate nests without any problems, but you are dealing with living animals. Sometimes with those hormones raging, they do things that can harm chicks or eggs.
What I did in that case was lock the original broody in a nest with the remaining good eggs so she could hatch them safe from the other broody. I have a nest with an area attached I can put food and water so I was ready. I’ve used that area before. Usually when the chicks hatch I let the broody decide when to bring them off the nest and just let her go. In this case, when I knew the hatch was over and the chicks had all dried off, I put the broody and the chicks in a separate pen for three days, in with the other chcikens but separate. That gave the chicks time to learn to eat and drink without interference and gave the hen and chicks time to bond. In all that mess the other hen broke form being broody so that problem was solved. Anyway, this is a one-off thing that required extra effort and I lost some eggs. Just bad timing in that other broody and she turned out to be aggressive.
The much more normal things that have happened. Sometimes when the hen takes her daily constitutional, another hen will hop on the broody’s nest to lay an egg. When the broody comes back, she hops on a different nest and stays there. This does not happen a lot or with every broody, but it is not that uncommon. When I see her on the wrong nest, I just move her to the right nest. More than once the eggs have been really cold to the touch yet I’ve had some 100% hatches with those eggs. They are a lot tougher than a lot of people imagine. It’s not a good thing to happen, but certainly not a total disaster each and every time.
I once had a broody switch nests. Probably because of a hen being on her nest when she returned, she hopped on a different nest and started returning to the wrong nest after her daily constitutional. This happened once but it did happen. I locked her in that prepared nest with the attached feeding area for a few days. When I let her out after that she went back to that nest.
I’ve had eggs get cracked or broken. This can happen whether the hen is isolated or not, but is more prone to happen when the hen is with the flock. When I find egg shells, they are always pretty thin ones and subject to damage. When the broody is turning the eggs or getting on or off or another hen is getting in with the broody to lay an egg, a thin-shelled egg might get punctured or cracked when they step on them. Most chickens will eat a broken egg. That does not mean they are egg-eaters. An egg-eater is one that purposely opens an egg to eat it. A broody will sometimes eat a broken egg to clean up her nest. This is another thing that does not happen often but it can happen.
I’ve had a snake eat the eggs out from under a broody. Again, it happened once and it could happen whether she is isolated or not, depending on how snake proof the area is.
I’ve probably made this sound as if bad things happen all the time. They don’t. Usually a broody hatching with the flock and raising her chicks with the flock is pretty uneventful. But when you deal with living animals, things sometimes happen.
So why do I let a hen incubate, hatch, and raise them with the flock? Less work for me, no integration issues, and usually it goes really smoothly.
I also find it less work for me to let the hen hatch them with the flock. The only extra work a broody causes is that I have to check under her once a day for new eggs.
If the hen stays with the flock, you don’t have to worry about integrating her back to the flock. If she raises the chicks with the flock, she integrates the chicks. They’ll still have to handle pecking order issues on their own as they mature, but basic integration is handled for you. Another broody just weaned her chicks at five weeks of age. Those chicks sleep in a group on the floor of the coop and roam with the flock during the day. They normally keep to a separate group, but they do mingle a bunch with the adults while they are roaming.
The only time I had a problem when letting a hen raise the chicks with the flock was when a one week old chick found its way into a grow-out pen of 8 week olds. Mama could not get in there to protect it and those 8 week olds killed it. There is an important lesson there. If you isolate the hen and chicks for her to raise them separately, make sure the chicks cannot get out of that pen and mix with the regular flock.
What kinds of problems have I had with hens incubating and hatching with the flock? As I mentioned, I had another hen go broody a couple of days before the eggs were to hatch. The hens fought over the eggs and several got broken. Many people have multiple broodies, either sharing the same nest or on separate nests without any problems, but you are dealing with living animals. Sometimes with those hormones raging, they do things that can harm chicks or eggs.
What I did in that case was lock the original broody in a nest with the remaining good eggs so she could hatch them safe from the other broody. I have a nest with an area attached I can put food and water so I was ready. I’ve used that area before. Usually when the chicks hatch I let the broody decide when to bring them off the nest and just let her go. In this case, when I knew the hatch was over and the chicks had all dried off, I put the broody and the chicks in a separate pen for three days, in with the other chcikens but separate. That gave the chicks time to learn to eat and drink without interference and gave the hen and chicks time to bond. In all that mess the other hen broke form being broody so that problem was solved. Anyway, this is a one-off thing that required extra effort and I lost some eggs. Just bad timing in that other broody and she turned out to be aggressive.
The much more normal things that have happened. Sometimes when the hen takes her daily constitutional, another hen will hop on the broody’s nest to lay an egg. When the broody comes back, she hops on a different nest and stays there. This does not happen a lot or with every broody, but it is not that uncommon. When I see her on the wrong nest, I just move her to the right nest. More than once the eggs have been really cold to the touch yet I’ve had some 100% hatches with those eggs. They are a lot tougher than a lot of people imagine. It’s not a good thing to happen, but certainly not a total disaster each and every time.
I once had a broody switch nests. Probably because of a hen being on her nest when she returned, she hopped on a different nest and started returning to the wrong nest after her daily constitutional. This happened once but it did happen. I locked her in that prepared nest with the attached feeding area for a few days. When I let her out after that she went back to that nest.
I’ve had eggs get cracked or broken. This can happen whether the hen is isolated or not, but is more prone to happen when the hen is with the flock. When I find egg shells, they are always pretty thin ones and subject to damage. When the broody is turning the eggs or getting on or off or another hen is getting in with the broody to lay an egg, a thin-shelled egg might get punctured or cracked when they step on them. Most chickens will eat a broken egg. That does not mean they are egg-eaters. An egg-eater is one that purposely opens an egg to eat it. A broody will sometimes eat a broken egg to clean up her nest. This is another thing that does not happen often but it can happen.
I’ve had a snake eat the eggs out from under a broody. Again, it happened once and it could happen whether she is isolated or not, depending on how snake proof the area is.
I’ve probably made this sound as if bad things happen all the time. They don’t. Usually a broody hatching with the flock and raising her chicks with the flock is pretty uneventful. But when you deal with living animals, things sometimes happen.
So why do I let a hen incubate, hatch, and raise them with the flock? Less work for me, no integration issues, and usually it goes really smoothly.
- Thread starter
- #5
So if I move her to check for new eggs and mark the ones she can sit on will I make her upset and stop sitting? I don't want to discourage her from sitting.
In my experience, if you wait until she's well broody, you can move her off the nest once a day to check and make sure no eggs have been added and it won't disturb her. She won't like it, and you might want to wear gloves and long sleeves
but it won't break her brooding. You can either set her back on the nest or let her get back herself.
I let my hens brood in the flock whenever possible, so I always have the possibility of an egg being added. I check every 2-3 days and remove any unmarked eggs, these go to the dogs just in case they started developing
. I've not had anyone mess with the momma hen once the babies hatch, and any rooster who looked to kill chicks would be dinner, but I've never had that happen. The roosters help protect the chicks and keep an eye out for momma. This makes things SO much easier, you don't have to try to reintroduce momma, or integrate chicks later, they just grow up in the flock and everyone learns their place from the start. Just be sure you have lots of space, and the feeder and waterer are accessible to baby chicks.
I let my hens brood in the flock whenever possible, so I always have the possibility of an egg being added. I check every 2-3 days and remove any unmarked eggs, these go to the dogs just in case they started developing
That’s why I do the two night thing before giving them eggs, to confirm they are broody enough to be worthy of eggs. If you disturb a hen that is thinking about going broody, I think you can discourage her. But once one is committed, I’ve never broken one from being broody by checking under her.
- Thread starter
- #8
Well she has 14 eggs. I couldn't make myself remove any. I will if she lays anymore though. She is fatty and covered them well. They were all warm. I lifted her off and she took off after some other hens quite angrily. She didn't get back on her next right away when I was done... I will check later.
A broody hen does not lay eggs. She doesn’t eat much so she can’t afford to waste her energy and nutrients laying eggs when they would not hatch anyway because of timing. Other hens will lay with a broody though. Mark the eggs and check under her daily.
I’ve hatched 15 under a broody before. When a kid on the farm, a hen hid a nest and came out with 18 chicks. As long as they are the same size as she normally lays she will do fine with 14.
Sometimes when you take a hen off a nest, she’ll just set where you put her for a while, sometimes she’ll go eat, drink, and maybe poop, and sometimes they immediately head for the nest. Certainly check on her, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but don’t over worry. There is a small possibility she will head back to the wrong nest.
Hens have been doing this for thousands of years on instinct alone. It’s remarkable how many get it right.
I’ve hatched 15 under a broody before. When a kid on the farm, a hen hid a nest and came out with 18 chicks. As long as they are the same size as she normally lays she will do fine with 14.
Sometimes when you take a hen off a nest, she’ll just set where you put her for a while, sometimes she’ll go eat, drink, and maybe poop, and sometimes they immediately head for the nest. Certainly check on her, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but don’t over worry. There is a small possibility she will head back to the wrong nest.
Hens have been doing this for thousands of years on instinct alone. It’s remarkable how many get it right.
- Thread starter
- #10
Well she is still there so I guess she is in it for the long haul... I cannot even express how excited I am!
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