My broody hens

[domromer]

I bought 3 new Orphingtons last week. The guy at the feed shop said they are very broody in general. I like the idea of a hen raising the next bunch of chicks, but I don't have a rooster. So after thinking of it for ahwile I had 2 ideas of of to get a hen to raise chciks for me. Leaving me free to not worrry about the brooder temp and all the other stuff that goes along with rasing chicks.


1. Order fertalised eggs and put them under her. Is this a good way to do it. How do you make sure she takes to them.

2. Get a bunch of day old chicks and give them to her. This idea is based on her mothering instincts taking over.

This are just guesses at how it is done. Could someone with more poultry knlowlege fill me in.

 

[speckledhen]

She has to go broody first. There is no guarantee that just because you have a breed that tends toward that, she will. I have two Buff Orps; one has gone broody twice, one never. They are over a year and a half old. You can't just put fertile eggs under her and hope she'll go broody, but you can put fakes under and hope she will. You have to see the signs first before you can put fertile eggs under her.
If you give day old chicks to a hen who is not broody, she will probably kill them, Buff Orps included.

 

[domromer]

so is having a rooster the easiest way to get a hen to take care of her own babies?

 

[siouxbee]

I've been thinking about this as well, because we'd like to try to raise a small batch of chicks. As it turns out, I think one of our Blue Laced Red Wyandotte chicks is a roo, but they're still young yet so I'm not sure. If it doesn't work out, is it possible to borrow a rooster from someone else for a few weeks, or it's not worth that whole introducing chickens to each other and messing up the pecking order thing just to get fertile eggs?

Maybe you can see if there's anyone in your area that has fertile eggs that they could save for you once you see your girl going broody...? that way you can get them under her quickly.