Maybe a broody hen... any tips?

[Hopethehen]

I have a year old Barred Plymouth Rock. She might be broody, she is sleeping on the eggs at night and is barely coming out of the nest box.

Any tips are helpful.
We might get her some fertile eggs!!
Any tips on broody hens or hatching eggs???
Any ideas on how to separate them from my dominant hen???
Thanks for reading this.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Yup. If she is sitting on eggs pretty much 24x7, puffying whenever anyone comes near, and cranky, she's brooding.

I would wait about 5 days to make sure a new hen is serious, then get fertile eggs.

You can set up a partition or move the hen to a new area with some dud eggs. That is done best at night during the trial period before you buy fertile eggs.

I do recommend isolating hens in a new situation especially if the flock is not conditioned for coop brooding.

If she is serious, and you've got her moved successfully, or blocked away from the other hen, then set fertile eggs at the same time marking the set date on the eggs.

At that point, it is letting momma do her thing in a nice, quiet, comfy nest, free from distraction. Momma will need access to food and water and a dusting area. She will take advantage of that for about 15 to 20 minutes once a day, almost always when you are not watching, so don't panic that she doesn't appear to be eating or drinking.

Also be aware that brooding hens do lose body weight and do have paler combs due to the process and hormones.

In 18 days, be sure things are "locked down" for no interruptions, meaning your hen likely will not get up and should not be disturbed. In coop brooding, I block the nesting hen for those crucial days and the first 3 days of chicks.

Really, really resist checking and looking too much or you can disturb the process. Hens when left to do their thing generally do really well raising babes.

After that, the babes will be up with momma about day 3. Be sure they have a safe place to roam so that they can't get stranded away from momma. The little dears can always find the hole in the fence out but never seem to find it back in.

Food for momma and chicks is simply the chick start or all flock. Avoid layer feed with the chicks until the hens are ready to lay.

And don't feel you need to interfere with momma as she clucks and calls chicks. You don't indicate your geographic location, but I've successfully broody hatched in all types of weather including the most frigid and the babes do fine with momma as long as they don't get stranded and are out of direct weather. No heat lights necessary. It is amazing....sort of like they were designed to do this

Have fun with your broody. Let us know how things are going. There is a great broody thread on BYC with LOTS of info (don't feel you need to read the 1,000 some pages).
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/broody-hen-thread.496101/

LofMc

 

[aart]

Everythgin LMc said!

But first think about....
You'll need to decide if you want her to hatch out some chicks, and how you will 'manage' it.
Do you have, or can you get, some fertile eggs?

Do you have the space needed? Both for more chickens and she may need to be separated by wire from the rest of the flock.

Do you have a plan on what to do with the inevitable males? Rehome, butcher, keep in separate 'bachelor pad'?

 

[Hopethehen]

Yup. If she is sitting on eggs pretty much 24x7, puffying whenever anyone comes near, and cranky, she's brooding.

I would wait about 5 days to make sure a new hen is serious, then get fertile eggs.

You can set up a partition or move the hen to a new area with some dud eggs. That is done best at night during the trial period before you buy fertile eggs.

I do recommend isolating hens in a new situation especially if the flock is not conditioned for coop brooding.

If she is serious, and you've got her moved successfully, or blocked away from the other hen, then set fertile eggs at the same time marking the set date on the eggs.

At that point, it is letting momma do her thing in a nice, quiet, comfy nest, free from distraction. Momma will need access to food and water and a dusting area. She will take advantage of that for about 15 to 20 minutes once a day, almost always when you are not watching, so don't panic that she doesn't appear to be eating or drinking.

Also be aware that brooding hens do lose body weight and do have paler combs due to the process and hormones.

In 18 days, be sure things are "locked down" for no interruptions, meaning your hen likely will not get up and should not be disturbed. In coop brooding, I block the nesting hen for those crucial days and the first 3 days of chicks.

Really, really resist checking and looking too much or you can disturb the process. Hens when left to do their thing generally do really well raising babes.

After that, the babes will be up with momma about day 3. Be sure they have a safe place to roam so that they can't get stranded away from momma. The little dears can always find the hole in the fence out but never seem to find it back in.

Food for momma and chicks is simply the chick start or all flock. Avoid layer feed with the chicks until the hens are ready to lay.

And don't feel you need to interfere with momma as she clucks and calls chicks. You don't indicate your geographic location, but I've successfully broody hatched in all types of weather including the most frigid and the babes do fine with momma as long as they don't get stranded and are out of direct weather. No heat lights necessary. It is amazing....sort of like they were designed to do this

Have fun with your broody. Let us know how things are going. There is a great broody thread on BYC with LOTS of info (don't feel you need to read the 1,000 some pages).
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/broody-hen-thread.496101/

LofMc

Thanks!! This really helped!!

 

[Hopethehen]

Everythgin LMc said!

But first think about....
You'll need to decide if you want her to hatch out some chicks, and how you will 'manage' it.
Do you have, or can you get, some fertile eggs?

Do you have the space needed? Both for more chickens and she may need to be separated by wire from the rest of the flock.

Do you have a plan on what to do with the inevitable males? Rehome, butcher, keep in separate 'bachelor pad'?

Yes, we really do want baby chicks. What do you mean by ‘manage’?
No we don’t have the fertile eggs yet, we are still looking for a place to get them. :/

Yes, we have space. Two hens in a coop that fits six! Also two hens in a second coop... we have space hehe. My dad said he would figure out a way to separate the mom and babies from the other flocks.
For if we get males, (highly likely), we can give one to my uncle, and the other ones we can just ask people of BYC or Facebook to take.

 

[aart]

Yes, we really do want baby chicks. What do you mean by ‘manage’?
No we don’t have the fertile eggs yet, we are still looking for a place to get them. :/

Yes, we have space. Two hens in a coop that fits six! Also two hens in a second coop... we have space hehe. My dad said he would figure out a way to separate the mom and babies from the other flocks.
For if we get males, (highly likely), we can give one to my uncle, and the other ones we can just ask people of BYC or Facebook to take.

'Manage' means whether you will separate from flock or keep with flock, each way has different things to 'manage'.


"fits 6".... according to whom?
Don't believe the manufacturers claims of capacity.


Can't always count on folks taking extra males, the 'market' is flooded.

 

[Hopethehen]

'Manage' means whether you will separate from flock or keep with flock, each way has different things to 'manage'.


"fits 6".... according to whom?
Don't believe the manufacturers claims of capacity.


Can't always count on folks taking extra males, the 'market' is flooded.

Well I know for sure we have room for more chickens. We have two bantam hens in one chicken coop, and two full grown in another. If we have to, we can switch it around and/or maybe add chicken wire to make it bigger.

But right now let’s focus on getting and hatching the eggs. We don’t know how much we are getting, or how much will survive. Or if they will be bantam or full.

The last time we got more babies, we got them their own coop to share within three (one being a rooster). My two dominant hens in the other coop, I was Hoping we could let one be a mom, and after the babies her older we could put them in the same coop as the most dominant one.

 

[aart]

But right now let’s focus on getting and hatching the eggs.

Usually best to accurately assess your space before getting more birds