Is 7 months too young for broody?

[ChickChick16]

i have an 8 month old Black Orpington that i noticed had NO feathers on her underside when my husband picked her up yesterday - she's not sittign in a box ever but she is picking on 2 of my other hens relentlessly - im new to chickens....only owned them a week.. could the 8 mo old be starting to get broody and that is why she is attacking my other hens?

 

[Shezadandy]

i have an 8 month old Black Orpington that i noticed had NO feathers on her underside when my husband picked her up yesterday - she's not sittign in a box ever but she is picking on 2 of my other hens relentlessly - im new to chickens....only owned them a week.. could the 8 mo old be starting to get broody and that is why she is attacking my other hens?

I'd say that's a distinct possibility. Has she started making noises you hadn't heard her make? For a week or two before she started sitting on the nest, I kept hearing someone a 'coookoooooo, cooooookooooo' soft noise that I hadn't previously heard from the flock.

But it could also be stress related - changing homes... but I will defer to others with more experience for other causes. If you don't get any other answers here, I'd start a new thread under 'chicken behaviors and egg laying' under the Forum so it pops to the top for others to see.

 

[Shezadandy]

Yesterday's activity was "THE DAY"- the chick's first outdoor excursion.

The flock has accepted the chicks. The lowest adult is usually the one that goes for a 'peck the baby' for no reason other to try and surpass it in the pecking order, but not in a damaging way. Everyone else gives them appropriate 'mind your manners' pokes. The other Barred Rock seems to attract the chicks, whether its the similarity in color or?? but sometimes they seem to forget she's not momma and try to eat food off her beak, but she's very gentle in her 'beat it, kid' message.

In her efforts to get the chicks to leave the coop, Betty kept running up and down the ramp, beak swiping and saying something like "Com'mon you guys I can't stand another second in the coop!" Eventually they all stepped through the doorway. I can only imagine how everything looks to a baby chick, with Mom demanding they climb down Mt. Everest into an unknown world. I eventually provided mealworms so she used them as bribery to get them down. The two in front were the brave ones. Chipmunk followed mom down the ramp, plain yellow saw them and jumped off from the top.


With the chicks split up things got a little hairy. Chicks who wouldn't come down were screaming 'where are you mommy'- so she'd jump up, look in, then come back down to the brave chicks on the ground who were sending out eardrum shattering SOS calls when she'd leave. Part of the problem was she was jumping on and off the ramp, so the brave chicks had no idea how to get back in and follow her-can't jump that high yet. Not sure how many times this happened but it went on for a long while.

1st: the 'chicken' chicks, 2nd, 'brave' chicks loud SOS in unison, wide open beaks




Finally I caught one of the brave chicks (first time ever touching one of them) and the other followed me closely as that left it totally alone to foot of the ramp. Momma hen saw all this, got the the bottom of the ramp, and the chicks understood and followed her back up. I get the sense she was a little peeved at them all for their disobedience in not following her- she sat in a spot where they couldn't gather under her and nudged them off if they tried. Eventually they did a chick pile and napped while Betty took what looked like a mental sanity break.



The good news is later in the day, I came back out and found Momma and all 5 chicks happily exploring the run... witnessing their first real dust bath ... and later that evening she'd gotten them all back in the coop and tucked in for the night.

 

[ambergds]

This has been my favorite thread! Thank you for sharing! I have my first broody hen. She is a 6 month old black australorpe. The chicks are set to hatch in a few days and this has given me a idea of what to expect. I hope my hen is a good mommy also! I'm prepared to intervene if necessary.

 

[Shezadandy]

This has been my favorite three! Thank you for sharing! I have my first broody hen. She is a 6 month old black australorpe. The chicks are set to hatch in a few days and this has given me a idea of what to expect. I hope my hen is a good mommy also! I'm prepared to intervene if necessary.

Thank you! It is so much fun to watch the process and let the chicks have a much freer existence than I was able to offer the first batch of chicks, and that included the broody hen herself. Wednesday was cool and windy but they were out most the day because mom's the insta-heater wherever they go. With the exception of yesterday's 20 second scoop the chick up rescue (and only because the she couldn't reunite them after at least 20 minutes of trying) we've left the chicks completely to their mother's care. She lets them come very close and as another broody bonus she didn't freak out and attack me for having a chick in my hand.


Probably the worst moment was looking in on day 20 after hearing those first little chirps ... looking in and finding Betty with blood on her beak and fearing the worst.

Thankfully the blood was from eating all but one half shell after they hatched (there are small amounts of blood in the shell) .. but of course thoughts of chick after chick getting struck down by a chick killing momma ran through my head! We started with 12 eggs, 2 disappeared, one got moved to another box by one of the hens, collected by an inexperienced DH, refrigerated and then opened =(( ... And then the biggest of our green eggs got broken on day 16, probably from Betty's BFF, a black Australorp, coming and going- yolk got over all the eggs and had dried on and the nest material was a sticky mess to clean up. It's possible only 5 of the 8 left hatched because of that, but even if only one hatched it would have been great, and 5 is even better.

I look forward to hearing how things go for you with the upcoming hatch! Waiting for that first chirp is like being 5yrs old waiting for Christmas, lol!

 

[Chickenkeepr]

I have an EE hen (she was a year old in May) that was laying pretty steady until about a week and a half ago. She now doesn't get off the eggs (she steals the others) until I get very close to her and she cusses me the whole time. She's never been friendly. I did put 3 fertilized eggs under her but she will occasionally get up and go out to free range for a bit. Is this normal? I was going to try and candle them tonight to see if there is any development. Also, at some point she broke an egg under her and there is some yolk on 2 of the fertilized eggs. I obviously didn't want to wash them. Should I just chuck them and start fresh?

 

[ambergds]

Thanks! I am so very excited! It was not the best timing since she went broody right after I just got chicks but I have always wanted to experience a broody hen so I got her some fertilized eggs. She is in day 17 and I'm trying to decide if I should candle? I candles on day 10 with a flashlight and toilet paper roll. I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing. There was definitely something going on in all 7 eggs but I'm not sure if it's the right something? Should I candle today or leave them be? I have her set up in my main run in her own enclosure. I plan to leave her there for the first week so the other hens can get used to chicks. Then I'll open the cage but leave her box. What do you think?

 

[ambergds]

This is our set up. It's 4x2 enclosed with a homemade nest box

 

[Shezadandy]

I have an EE hen (she was a year old in May) that was laying pretty steady until about a week and a half ago. She now doesn't get off the eggs (she steals the others) until I get very close to her and she cusses me the whole time. She's never been friendly. I did put 3 fertilized eggs under her but she will occasionally get up and go out to free range for a bit. Is this normal? I was going to try and candle them tonight to see if there is any development. Also, at some point she broke an egg under her and there is some yolk on 2 of the fertilized eggs. I obviously didn't want to wash them. Should I just chuck them and start fresh?

Mine left the nest once or twice a day for a max of 15 minutes for most of the three weeks. If she's sleeping on the nest at night, and she's pulled belly feathers out, those are great signs. If the temperatures are warm, she may leave a little longer on her breaks. I've heard up to an hour in some threads.

I'd have to defer to others on the yolk part- the feedback I got was clean them up as well as possible using dry items, but they were on day 16 so it wasn't feasible to start over. I also don't know how much of a part that played in the 3 that never hatched. If she's only been on them for a couple days you should be fine starting over if you've got a steady supply of fertilized eggs. That's just my opinion, others may have different advice. I will say ours was sitting on the nest for 3 nights before I gave her eggs- and the eggs weren't head-start in an incubator either, they were starting from day one, so the extra couple days shouldn't much matter.

 

[Shezadandy]

Thanks! I am so very excited! It was not the best timing since she went broody right after I just got chicks but I have always wanted to experience a broody hen so I got her some fertilized eggs. She is in day 17 and I'm trying to decide if I should candle? I candles on day 10 with a flashlight and toilet paper roll. I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing. There was definitely something going on in all 7 eggs but I'm not sure if it's the right something? Should I candle today or leave them be? I have her set up in my main run in her own enclosure. I plan to leave her there for the first week so the other hens can get used to chicks. Then I'll open the cage but leave her box. What do you think?

That's really really funny- we also got a batch of chicks and low and behold a hen went broody- I need to make their grow out coop outside on the other side of the coop run which might become the bachelor pad for however many male chicks I got out of the hatch, but for now the tweenager chicks are separate.

If she gets up for a break and you can do it without disturbing her, I'd say take a look, but do it one by one and put them back on the same side/position you found them. There are some great candling threads- what I was able to see using one of those little 9 light LED flashlights was a nice dark mass (the chick) and the air sac on day 16 or whatever it was. At this point if nothing smells and she's not up off the nest, just leave them.

Set up wise, the little babies may be able to walk through your chicken wire, and they may also be able to slip out through the garden fence on your perimeter- it is AMAZING what they can fit through. If one pops out of the brooding box and momma is trapped inside, she can't protect it from the other hens who may lick their lips and have themselves a little snack (or a cat, dog, whatever). I'd put hardware cloth (2 foot) around the whole thing down to the ground if you're able. Your broody probably won't get up from day 20-22, so keeping the babies who might wander while their siblings are still hatching contained is very important. Mine did a good job of shoving them back under her, but ya never know.

Every flock is different- my goal was for her to raise the chicks with the flock. Mine had 2 days of seeing babies through the hardware cloth before they met without a barrier. 1st hatched on Wednesday, rest hatched on Thursday, Friday she got up off the remaining eggs. Hen and chicks were barricaded the whole time, but Broody didn't let them leave her nest until she did on Friday evening. If you can have the flock somewhere else while she explores the territory with them for a couple hours by themselves for a couple days (my Fri, Sat, Sun) -- it will help her have confidence and learn how to walk around with a bunch of babies without conflict from others. Monday I removed the barrier while then hens were out busy doing their daily stuff, and when they came into the coop the flock block was there to draw attention from the chicks. I locked them up one night after that, and ever since it's been fine with all together. Just observe and be prepared. Don't break up fights unless someone's getting hurt.

From reading lots of threads, you don't want to wait too long because it's the hormones that give the broody liquid courage to attack all threats to the chicks and put hens who are otherwise above her in the pecking order on notice to leave them alone. Without a good defender, the hens could do some damage. And of course watch and be prepared!

Here are great candling pictures:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation