I Need Help!

[EmilyChickens]

Hello BYCers!!! I need some help, hopefully rather quickly. I've been trying to get a hen broody for about a week now, and I have chicks coming in a week! I have a nest set up with fluffy hay and bedding with some eggs. Is there a way to entice a hen even more to sit on the eggs? I really am hoping that there is because my father and I were thinking that if we have a hen broody we can give her the chicks when they arrive so we won't have to go through the troubles of introducing new chickens to our flock of 13. I have VERY sociable, and friendly chickens so if nothing works it shouldn't be too hard. If worse comes to worst and it doesn't work I'm hoping my sweet Buff Orp. hen, Esmralda, will take after them. When we got our two couple month old Australorps she tried to mother them and sit on them to keep the little ones warm.


Thanks so much!

~Emily

 

[forgetful]

There's no way to make a hen go broody. You can only encourage the behavior if it's already there. Sorry! But maybe she'll get the urge to sit before your chicks come in.

 

[EmilyChickens]

Thanks, I am aware that you can't make her go broody... but at this point I wish there was a way! Do you possibly know any other ways to make the nest more inviting to the hen? When we don't have chicks coming they'll go broody after you leave eggs in there for one day! They must know somehow just to make us go crazy!

 

[forgetful]

It certainly seems that way! It would be very nice to be able to induce broodiness. The only things to do you've already done, so it's a waiting game from now on. Hopefully she starts sitting!

 

[EmilyChickens]

Haha, I know right? I think my Momma Hen, Blacky, who was my Momma Hen last year is gonna sit on them! My dad and I went to check for eggs and there she was!

 

[forgetful]

That's great! I hope she stays broody for you. Do you know how to give the chicks to the broody?

 

[EmilyChickens]

Man! I jinxed myself... she was just laying an egg. Also I didn't know there was a certain way to give them to the broody. My dad and I were just going to put them under her in place of the eggs. Is there some other way to do it?

 

[forgetful]

Oh man! I has a bantam Cochin yesterday do the same thing to me.

Some hens will be a little less accepting of the chicks than others, so swapping eggs for chicks at night while she is sleeping is a good way to do it. They are less likely to reject them.

 

[EmilyChickens]

Oooohhhh Ok! That's a smart way to do it. But what would we do with the chicks in the mean time though? We're ordering from a poultry place online (I forget the name). But when we got our last chicks they came in a box the size of half a magazine, and there were 13 chicks.

 

[forgetful]

If you could find a slightly larger box, you could put them in there and give them food and water. They will still think the hen is their mother, even If you handle them