My chicken went broody! What do I do?

[HHandbasket]

The first time Olga went broody and we let her hatch out chicks, we put them in a separate coop (a little tikes plastic playhouse we bought off of Craigslist for $50 with hardware cloth over the windows). By the time the chicks were less than a week old, she had them out in the yard with the other chickens, though she and the babies did sleep in the playhouse coop at night. She was a really good mama and was very protective. No one else messed with her chicks. Only one other hen tried, and Olga is a feisty little mama (American game x EE) and didn't allow anybody near her chicks. She had them outside, on the ground, foraging with her at 6 days of age in 40-degree weather in February. I hatched out chicks in the incubator in the house at the same time, similar breeds, and they are healthy but are not as large or robust or hardy as the ones hatched/raised completely outdoors by the mother hen. BTW, none of the chicks were biologically hers, as we had no roosters at the time. It was when we lived in town.

Also, letting the hen do all the work makes for lower electric bills.

We now have silkies so that next hatching season, they'll be mature enough to do all the work for me. Brooders in the house make for a dust problem that's almost impossible to keep up with.

 

[Wildflower_VA]

Is this normal for a 7 month old to go broody? I thought they usually didn't start until about a year. This little pullet probably hasn't been laying for much more than a month.

 

[Anianna]

Quote:
A broody hen will usually continue to sit on her clutch even if you move them.

On a related note, one of our BYC members in VA recently suffered severe winds that destroyed her coop and blew her chickens all over. If I remember correctly, her broody hen had been in a cat carrier and when she finally found it, that broody hen was still in it sitting on her eggs. Even a tornado/tornado like winds couldn't get that broody off her clutch!

 

[HHandbasket]

Quote:
My Olga was hatched last year July 13th. She laid her first egg January 6th of this year and went broody 10 days later. I "broke her" at least five times between the middle of January and the end of February. Then, I had some fertile eggs for incubation and stuck a bunch of them under her and let her hatch them out. She hatched her first clutch of chicks end of February/early March. She has gone broody again and is sitting on her second clutch, due to hatch exactly one week from today. She won't be a year old until the middle of July. She's an American game cross, and I hear gamefowl make great broodies.

She's doing such a good job, I may just sell all my bators and brooders one of these days (yeah, right, like THAT'LL ever happen).

 

[rainierlass]

I am new to chickens as well as of Feb '10 - - my first broody was a Welsummer - 7 mo. old- broke her of it and now this Spring my BLRW Splash hen - 15 mo. old - has gone broody and I collected eggs from my other hens - BLRW's- and put 7 eggs under her on Saturday - she is still in the coop with the others with a board across from her nestbox over to the other side - the rest of the flock can still get into the other 2 nestboxes and up on the roost - - she seems happy enough - I check to make sure she is eating and drinking - - in the mornings I kick the rest of the flock out of the run for awhile so she can have a few minutes of peace to run around and stretch her legs - a few of the other hens are mean to her- really don't have room for any more chickens but figure I can sell them as they are purebred and breeder stock - -

First time doing this so am pretty excited!

Have always said - NO BATOR - but it seems from the general consensus that having a hen raise chicks is the way to go!

Good luck with yours and we will have to keep in touch!

 

[Wildflower_VA]

Quote:
My Olga was hatched last year July 13th. She laid her first egg January 6th of this year and went broody 10 days later. I "broke her" at least five times between the middle of January and the end of February. Then, I had some fertile eggs for incubation and stuck a bunch of them under her and let her hatch them out. She hatched her first clutch of chicks end of February/early March. She has gone broody again and is sitting on her second clutch, due to hatch exactly one week from today. She won't be a year old until the middle of July. She's an American game cross, and I hear gamefowl make great broodies.

She's doing such a good job, I may just sell all my bators and brooders one of these days (yeah, right, like THAT'LL ever happen).

Thanks for the info. Australorps mature early, so I need to be prepared sooner than I thought. Since I am doing sustainable homesteading, I don't intend to ever incubate eggs. I have some research to do because the books out there don't deal much with using broody hens to do what nature intended. I don't want my hens to be egg factories. It seems I have my work cut out for me, since hens have had broodiness bred out of them, even the heritage breeds. My goal is to live as naturally as possible, so I will be breeding back in broodiness and I can let my flock do their thing while I enjoy watching the broody raise her chicks.

To the OP: Sorry for the hi-jack!

 

[Wildflower_VA]

Quote:
That gives me hope! I am getting my first flock of Welsummers (LB lines) in a couple of weeks. I have been told they almost never go broody. Maybe I won't have to buy a Silkie to be a broody surrogate for the Wellies.

 

[katie197888]

Quote:
Fluffyface (The broody hen) and all of her other sisters have been laying for at least 2 months now!

 

[Iheartchicks<3:)]

let her raise them, its what she's meant for. And it will be pretty stinkin adorable to see them running behind her in the yard