How long will a broody take care of her chicks?

[GoWithItchicken]

We are planning on hatching chicks but if a broody hen hatches the chicks how long will they care for them? Also when will I be able to introduce the chicks to the rest of the flock and will the rest of the birds attack them? All answers apreciated

 

[QueenMisha]

Broody hens typically care for their chicks for about 3 weeks. Some may care for them as long as 4 or as few as 2.

I usually keep my broody hens with my flock during the process of raising their chicks - as long as the mama is not an extremely small or picked on bird, it should be fine. However, I can also do this because I keep my flock on a non-medicated chick feed/flock raiser all times of the year. This would not work in a flock which was kept on laying feed, since chicks need a different feed - typically around 20% protein, and with way less calcium than a laying feed. Usually, these feeds should be medicated, but it's not a necessity, and if fed to laying hens the medication will render their eggs inedible for a period of several weeks.

If you do choose to keep your momma and chicks with your flock, you will need to switch the entire flock to a Non-medicated chick starter, and buy a bag of oyster shell to supplement the hens calcium requirements. This feed change will not hurt your hens as long as they have the oyster shell available. You should feed this for around 8 weeks, then move to a (non-med) grower. Once the chicks are around 16-18 weeks you can put them all back on a laying ration.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You are dealing with living animals. They don’t come with guarantees. No one can give you an answer for sure but we can tell you some of our experiences. We all do it differently for our own reasons. There is no right way or wrong way, just the way we do it.

I had a broody hen wean her chicks at three weeks. By wean I mean she just left them on their own to make their way with the flock. All my broody hens raise their chicks with the flock. I had a broody hen wean her chicks at 9 weeks. I’ve had several in between. I’ve had hens leave their chicks alone during the day but round them up and stay with them at night. I’ve had hens stay with the chicks during the day but leave them alone at night. Some people post that their broodies have waited much longer than 9 weeks to wean her chicks. There are all kinds of variations in this.

My hens normally hatch the eggs with the flock and raise the chicks with the flock from day 1. Occasionally I’ll move a hen and her chicks to a coop out in the run when I feel the need. I recently had to be gone for a week and my wife was taking care of them. Some chicks hatched just before I left so I put the hen and chicks out there so it was easier on my wife to care for them. As soon as I got home I let them out.

I’ve never had a dominant rooster even come close to threaten the chicks. As long as they are introduced to the flock while the chicks are young he seems to accept that they are his and will help protect them. If you wait until they are so old he considers them rivals or a rival’s chicks he might act differently.

I have never lost a chick to an adult hen. Most of the time the other hens pretty much ignore the chicks unless they invade their personal space. Then they might or might not peck the chick to teach it some manners. The chick runs back to Mama and life is good. If that hen starts to follow the chick back to Mama, Mama politely whips butt. No one threatens her babies!!!

Other people have trouble when they try this. Some people totally isolate the hen and her chicks for a long time and go through an integration when introducing the chicks. Sometimes that goes well and sometimes it does not. I do believe that the more room you have for any method the better off you are.

As I said, the chicks are left on their own with the flock when Mama weans them. Mama has spent whatever time she had with her chicks teaching the rest of the flock to leave her babies alone. She has handled integration. The chicks still have to handle their own pecking order issues by themselves. As long as they are immature they are at the bottom of the pecking order and generally form a separate flock, not intermingling that much with the main flock. But once they mature they join with the rest of the flock.

Good luck!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

You are dealing with living animals. They don’t come with guarantees. No one can give you an answer for sure but we can tell you some of our experiences. We all do it differently for our own reasons. There is no right way or wrong way, just the way we do it.

I had a broody hen wean her chicks at three weeks. By wean I mean she just left them on their own to make their way with the flock. All my broody hens raise their chicks with the flock. I had a broody hen wean her chicks at 9 weeks. I’ve had several in between. I’ve had hens leave their chicks alone during the day but round them up and stay with them at night. I’ve had hens stay with the chicks during the day but leave them alone at night. Some people post that their broodies have waited much longer than 9 weeks to wean her chicks. There are all kinds of variations in this.

My hens normally hatch the eggs with the flock and raise the chicks with the flock from day 1. Occasionally I’ll move a hen and her chicks to a coop out in the run when I feel the need. I recently had to be gone for a week and my wife was taking care of them. Some chicks hatched just before I left so I put the hen and chicks out there so it was easier on my wife to care for them. As soon as I got home I let them out.

I’ve never had a dominant rooster even come close to threaten the chicks. As long as they are introduced to the flock while the chicks are young he seems to accept that they are his and will help protect them. If you wait until they are so old he considers them rivals or a rival’s chicks he might act differently.

I have never lost a chick to an adult hen. Most of the time the other hens pretty much ignore the chicks unless they invade their personal space. Then they might or might not peck the chick to teach it some manners. The chick runs back to Mama and life is good. If that hen starts to follow the chick back to Mama, Mama politely whips butt. No one threatens her babies!!!

Other people have trouble when they try this. Some people totally isolate the hen and her chicks for a long time and go through an integration when introducing the chicks. Sometimes that goes well and sometimes it does not. I do believe that the more room you have for any method the better off you are.

As I said, the chicks are left on their own with the flock when Mama weans them. Mama has spent whatever time she had with her chicks teaching the rest of the flock to leave her babies alone. She has handled integration. The chicks still have to handle their own pecking order issues by themselves. As long as they are immature they are at the bottom of the pecking order and generally form a separate flock, not intermingling that much with the main flock. But once they mature they join with the rest of the flock.

Good luck!

X 2 to all the above.
I, too, hatch in the flock and have never had an issue in doing so *and* have the benefit of not having to deal with re-integration issues. Another benefit is that the chicks learn about how to be good members of chicken society from the very first day. There are lots of different normal "time ranges" that can be quoted as far as the time a broody will mother her chicks, but the chickens rarely read the rule books and each hen has her own take on motherhood (even varying that from one brood to the next with the same mother hen). Most of the broodies I have had wean their chicks at 4-5 weeks of age -- but there have been broods where the hen was done at 2 weeks and some hens who happily mothered along well beyond 6 weeks (quite amusing to see a hen try to get those giant chicks under her).

 

[The White Lily]

The Polish on the left and the Wyandotte on the right are both 15 weeks old now. Mama Araucana still likes to keep them under her wings.
We let her raise them in with the flock from about day 3, and it worked very well.