My chick got broody and is having babies- help

[Bjwkarma]

Every time i look up hatching eggs i get incubators, its just my little bantam midnight and shes having her babies, no incubator. Ive left her in a box inside to have them, do i keep her with them for an amount of time? Do i still need a heat lamp or will the mother provide the heat???

 

[NatJ]

Every time i look up hatching eggs i get incubators, its just my little bantam midnight and shes having her babies, no incubator. Ive left her in a box inside to have them, do i keep her with them for an amount of time? Do i still need a heat lamp or will the mother provide the heat???

You do not need a heat lamp. The mother will provide the heat.

I would leave the hen with the chicks until they grow enough feathers that they don't need her warmth. You can leave the hen with the chicks for as long as she is happy with them. Some hens are tired of being a mother by the time the chicks are 4 weeks old, some other hens are happy to stay with the chicks for much longer than that.

If you want to have the chicks join the rest of the flock, many people find that it works well to put the hen & chicks back with the flock while the hen is still looking after the chicks. She protects them from the older chickens, and the older chickens get used to having chicks around but not picking on them. (Like anything else with chickens, results will vary. There will be some hens or some flocks where this does not work, but overall it works more often than it fails.)

 

[Australorpfamily]

Every time i look up hatching eggs i get incubators, its just my little bantam midnight and shes having her babies, no incubator. Ive left her in a box inside to have them, do i keep her with them for an amount of time? Do i still need a heat lamp or will the mother provide the heat???

Search Broody Hen Hatching, and that should pull up more searches.

For our Broody who hatched eggs(the first time, she's sitting again) we sort of just followed her. We blocked them off from flock for about a week due to weather with grate panels so the flock could see them, and then Mama took them out, kept them warm (in mid Dec/Jan in Indiana) and integrated them to flock.

Don't hesitate to ask more questions! Congrats and good luck!

 

[Bjwkarma]

She has not had them yet, this is my first time doing this... i hope im not hurting the eggs when i get her up from them to poo and eat... should i not be doing that? I do it two times a day- maybe three thats all, i just want her to eat and drink

 

[Bjwkarma]

 

[My15Ducks]

She has not had them yet, this is my first time doing this... i hope im not hurting the eggs when i get her up from them to poo and eat... should i not be doing that? I do it two times a day- maybe three thats all, i just want her to eat and drink

As long as she has access to food and water, I would never remove her from the nest. She can leave the nest when she needs to eat, and she will know when to return to her eggs. If she’s a good mom, she knows what to do!

Good luck!

 

[Australorpfamily]

She has not had them yet, this is my first time doing this... i hope im not hurting the eggs when i get her up from them to poo and eat... should i not be doing that? I do it two times a day- maybe three thats all, i just want her to eat and drink

I never move our broody, she does her own thing, gets off nest to eat, drink, potty and then goes back. I've had to move her from nest to nest due to another hen trying to lay on her nest but I've "messed" handled our girls since they were hackings and they don't mind me petting holding or gathering eggs as they sit.

Hope it's going well, don't hesitate to ask questions! I'm still learning myself!

Eta: I rarely witness Mama getting off nest to eat