How many chicks can one hen raise successfully?

[centrarchid]

Best I can recall was of 27 hatched, 23 survived through 5 weeks. A current brood that started as 24 is down to 20. I am one that likes to keep broody hens with broods separate from balance of flock and each other for a few days at least. About 12 is as high as I shoot for and 8 to 10 optimal. Most of my hens are either American Games or Missouri Dominiques (composite of American Game x American Dominique).

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I was a kid we had a hen hide a nest and come out with 18 chicks, which she raised. We never did find that nest so I don't know how many eggs she started with.

Here I've had a hen raise 16 chicks, another raise 15. They were a combination of some she hatched herself plus some I hatched in the incubator.

Hens and eggs come in different sizes and hens in different shapes. Some tiny bantams may only be able to cover 4 eggs laid by a full-sized hen, some hens can cover a lot of eggs. I normally set 12 eggs of the size the hen lays but I had one hen that could cover no more than 10 of those.

Chicks grow awfully fast. Just because a hen can cover all the eggs doesn't mean she will be able to cover that many chicks at two weeks. Time of year and weather play a part. If it is really cold she probably does need to cover them all at night for two or three weeks. In the heat of summer I've seen chicks just a few days old sleep next to or on top of Mama, not under her. In cold weather I set fewer eggs.

Just like everything else with chickens there is not one magic number that works for every chicken in the world. They are all unique and kept in unique conditions.

 

[centrarchid]

Best I can recall was of 27 hatched, 23 survived through 5 weeks. A current brood that started as 24 is down to 20. I am one that likes to keep broody hens with broods separate from balance of flock and each other for a few days at least. About 12 is as high as I shoot for and 8 to 10 optimal. Most of my hens are either American Games or Missouri Dominiques (composite of American Game x American Dominique).

Brood I crowed about above knocked down to 3 by fox in early AM. Only group out becuase pens not setup for that many.

 

[EveCh]

I set my broody hens and get 2-4 clutches a year. I have orpington/australorp type mixes, so large fluffy girls. I have no idea why but was ALWAYS told/taught by my grandmother to 1. never set a hen with an even number of eggs and 2. never set a hen when it's supposed to thunderstorm in the first week. So I tend to set 11, or 13. I have on occasion incubated eggs and given them to a hen to raise. I think the most chicks I gave was around the 30 mark BUT it was mid summer and the weather stayed warm at night. The group had a nice sheltered house and brood pen (8x8 enclosed yard). It was ok that they all didn't fit under her as they rotated sleeping positions from under to on-top etc. She taught them to eat and be chickens and I didn't need a heat source - win-win-win. Some suggestions though: A hen will not just accept anything you poke at her. You need to fool her into thinking these are hers and she hatched them. So set her with eggs and set the incubator at the same time. As they hatch from incubator and her 'own' eggs are hatching just poke them under her to finish drying etc. She can't count at this point. If you wait till she comes off the nest and starts feeding etc - She can count and will reject and even kill the 'foreign' chicks. Sometimes you can get lucky if you introduce them at night etc. but I've not had much luck this way. You can do the fooling thing and combine clutches, I've done this several times. Say you set two hens at the same time, one hatches 90% but the other only hatches 10%. Poke the 10% under the 90% or if the 90% is a bad mother give them all to the 10%. Then break or reset the other hen if you feel like it. Hens set for 21 days but they don't count so well nor can they tell the age of a chick very well. So say you have a hen with 10 babies and she gets killed. Another hen sets but the eggs are bad, or you haven't given her 'good' eggs yet. Sometimes you can fool her into taking the orphans but this depends on how good a mother she is. Some are really picky about being moved/disturbed etc. and others could care less. Hope this gives you some ideas.

 

[Liz uwu]

I’ve had a hen raise about 16 chicks and they all survived. I live in a place where there is no predators except for cats, or a chick getting lost. However, when my hen let all of her chicks go, most disappeared and the others we released them. (We don’t keep our chicks because we already had a lot of handicapped chickens, and they would get in the way.)

 

[ShannonR]

15 is the most I have seen one hen hatch. American gamefowl.