In my excitement may have jumped the gun w/ Broody

[mulewagon]

I can see five chicks under my hen this morning! That's from a dozen eggs that were sitting on my counter for two weeks before I could get a broody. So don't worry about a mere two days

Now that she's setting, just leave her alone for three weeks. If there's no dirt on the floor, and you have room, she'd like a box of sand or dirt to roll in. But she won't be off the nest much - she'll sink into a zombie trance. When the eggs start to hatch, stay out of the way! She'll sit for about two more days to allow them all time to hatch. Then she'll come off the nest and call the chicks - have a low waterer and some chick food ready! Yay!

I have to go peek at my new babies again...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
I trust you have a rooster? Dumb question, maybe, but it is the only thing I can think of that might be wrong with those eggs. Other than the rooster question, they should be great.

I never vaccinate chicks and I never have had to medicate chicks at all, whether in a brooder or being raised with a broody. If they get sick, you will have to deal with that, but if a dog, cat, or person gets sick, you have to deal with that. They are living animals. Anything can happen, but that has never been an issue for me.

Will the chicks require extra work? That depends on you and your set-up. If you allow Mama Hen to do the work and have the room for her to do the work, there is extremely little extra work with chicks. If you insist on interfering with the hen and don't allow her to do her job, you can create additional work for yourself.

 

[Niss]

We have 2 roos for our 15 mature hens. I am feeling much more optimistic about this. I guess some people like to poopoo everything.
Mulewagon--congrats on the fluffy butts!

 

[zookeeper15133]

Mama will do all the work for the chicks. I had 1 hatch. I had to put a 'step' by the pop door and the nest box for the first few days. By 2 weeks she was on the roost at night with Mama. She is about 5 weeks old now. She is a beautiful healthy chick. Mama has gone broody again, but the roosters take care of her now. There are 2 roosters and 3 broody hens in her coop. Before they all decided to go broody, they all took care of her, but Mama was tops.

Eggs will be viable for up to 3 weeks or longer.

Where in Pa are you? I am about 15 mi. SE of Pittsburgh.

 

[galanie]

Yep, I'd say whoever told you it was a "dumb idea" because they would need all this care and medical attention were the uninformed ones in this scenario. Raising them without a hen is certainly a lot of work, and commercial chicken farms do get chicks that have been vaccinated, but the backyard person really doesn't need to worry about that unless there is a reason to think there has been a Merek's outbreak close by. I daresay commercial chicken people wouldn't make any money if they spent it on a lot of medical care for every chick. That goes for vet costs as well as employees time to administer it.

Just make sure they have food and water and let momma do her job. You'll want momma and babies both to just eat chick starter at first, then in a few weeks switch to "grower" - it has less protein than chick food and for the hen, have some crushed oyster shell handy for her in case she wants calcium. Just don't want the chicks eating layer food because the extra calcium in it will hurt them. They won't mess with the oyster shells though. Feeding everyone a "grower" or "finisher" is much easier because then you don't have to worry which feeder they are at, and you also don't have to buy two different feeds.

 

[chickchickgirls]

I have a hen that went broody a bit ago. We don't have any roosters (in town) so we got some fertile eggs from a friend. My question is... when introducing incubator chicks to my big hens, I have to go slow and keep them separated for a bit. Will the hens be nice to any hatchlings since they are "attached" to a hen that they already know?

 

[Niss]

I already feed a general purpose feed from a local farmer and give oyster shell on the side since we have 3 mo. pullets as well as the big gals. I did not enjoy having peeps in the house or the nearly an hour I spent cleaning their tubs everyday. So I was thrilled when after reading lots of threads about broodies I recognized the signs in one of my hens. The chicks will be mutts, but I am happy with that at this stage.
She has been up at least twice, but she found the nest just fine when her break time was up...no heading for the box she started in or any thing.

edit to tell Zpokeeper I'm about an hour NE of the city

 

[Niss]

She's almost half way through and going strong. When the time draws near I'll give her a chick waterer and lock the door. Should I biuld a 'ramp' around the edges of the box?

Here is a photo of mama at work. It shows my other addition--children's books!!!

Edit because of typo.