How long will a hen "mother" her brood?

[dogkahuna]

We have a BR who was allowed to set clutches two years in a row. She looked after the first brood for 12 weeks and the second 5 weeks. (Maybe she was thinking 'been there, done that'.)

 

[song of joy]

I'm sure she is laying again. I've seen here getting in and out of the nestbox. She usually has a gaggle of chicks watching her and climbing in the box on top of her. Plus her comb is red. It was pink when she was setting on eggs and for the first 5-6 weeks. I think she might be staying with them because of the cooler weather. They could need her more.

Thanks for clarifying. I was assuming she wasn't laying, based on the small, pinkish comb in the photo that shows her with the 7-week old chicks. It sounds like she's a fantastic mom! A good broody is worth her weight in gold!.

 

[song of joy]

I can't imagine the chicks being independent at five or six weeks like some have said - they would be way too small to defend themselves from the other chickens!

That's what I was concerned about when one of my hens stopped mothering her chicks when they were only 3 weeks old. But she had already integrated them into the flock, so they did fine on their own. They just kind of hung out together in their own little clan within the larger flock.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Thanks for clarifying. I was assuming she wasn't laying, based on the small, pinkish comb in the photo that shows her with the 7-week old chicks. It sounds like she's a fantastic mom! A good broody is worth her weight in gold!.

I think it was the light that made her comb look like that, it was early evening and the sun had gone behind the hills.

 

[ScottKelly1974]

My BO hen went broody this summer. Today was her first egg since then. As for the chicks. I bought some hatching eggs for her to sit on since I did not have a rooster. They hatched the first weekend of August. About three month a cat got in and lost the fight with the mother hen. About a month ago, some of the chicks began sleeping on the perch. I started moving the rest there, and now I only have one that wants to sleep on the next boxes. The rest have been going to the sleeping perches on their own since about 14 - 16 weeks old. Three are roosters and one tried to mate with the BO hen last week. The rest are hens and I expect they will begin laying eggs sometime this month.

 

[gimmie birdies]

This little hen hatched out a few batches of chicks in the summer, she seemed to enjoy the sitting on the eggs more than the raising of the chicks.

 

[chuckachucka]

Is the the same mama that started screaming in the middle of the night? It sounds like she is a really good mama.

Yep. She's so good at protecting the babies, but that also means she is vicious to my other chickens until the babies grow up! You should see my rooster running scared when she's mad.

 

[Rubysword]

Awwww! So many cute chcken pics! I'm noping Dove, our chocolate orpington, will go broody, but(don't tell her I said this) she's kind of... Special . She kinda marches to the beat of her own drum. Don't get me wrong, I love the little stinker, but she sometimes is hilariously wierd. E.g: Laying her egg wherever she happens to be instead of in the nesting box.

 

[chuckachucka]

View attachment 1203761 This little hen hatched out a few batches of chicks in the summer, she seemed to enjoy the sitting on the eggs more than the raising of the chicks.

That's funny because my favourite broody always seems like she is sitting on the nest under sufferance and can't wait for the babies to hatch out already. This summer/autumn Treacle the Asil sat for seven weeks after two batches of eggs from ebay didn't develop and she would look at me like 'Don't ask me what I'm doing here. Ask my hormones.'

 

[chuckachucka]

This is Treacle with her first, second, and now third brood of chicks: