One baby out! The other waiting to zip ◡̈
Congratulations to mum and you
! Hopefully the other chick hatches soon.She’d probably benefit from some alone bonding time with her chicks, which is quite understandable. They need to imprint on her, as does she
CONGRATS!! How cute! Look at those tiny little wing nubs
Thank you! I'll be resisting the urge to check on her the rest of the day although it's so hard to do!Congratulations to mum and you
She’d probably benefit from some alone bonding time with her chicks, which is quite understandable. They need to imprint on her, as does she
I let her have one of her own eggs, the only Ameraucana/Polish cross I plan hatch. Can't wait to see how that crested goober looks!
- Thread starter
- #275
Oops! Sorry, that was confusing.
Some background: I've only been hatching Ameraucanas this season, and my rooster was an Ameraucana. I decided to let my Polish hatch an Ameraucana egg and one of her own eggs, which is a cross between her and the Ameraucana rooster.
My question is about whether, when, and how to move a mama hen and her babies to a safer confinement area.
In short: my game hen (American Game, I think) made her nest near the house but outside our fenced chicken area. The spot is very sheltered and fairly safe, so I left her to brood there. The chicks are hatching/have hatched and I've got to figure out the next step.
In long: the game hen is a rescue & I don't know her background. She seems fairly tame to me (jumps onto my head when she's eager for food) but I don't have much experience with chickens. We got a rooster exactly 8 days before she went broody. There were 11 eggs in her nest; six of them hatched last night/today. I'm guessing at least 3-4 aren't fertilized since the hens don't lay more than one a day (right?). She has not been off the nest today, and I wonder whether that's because she is still trying to hatch the remaining eggs.
I have tried to leave her mostly alone, since I've heard game hens are good mamas and I really don't have much experience with this. Do I wait a day or two and then remove the unhatched eggs? Do I leave it to her to decide?
Also, do I try and move the whole family to an XL dog crate in a protected area within the chicken yard? I feel like it would be safer and more comfortable for them (the crate is lined with chicken wire to keep the small chicks from squeezing through). If so, how on earth do I manage that feat?
In short: my game hen (American Game, I think) made her nest near the house but outside our fenced chicken area. The spot is very sheltered and fairly safe, so I left her to brood there. The chicks are hatching/have hatched and I've got to figure out the next step.
In long: the game hen is a rescue & I don't know her background. She seems fairly tame to me (jumps onto my head when she's eager for food) but I don't have much experience with chickens. We got a rooster exactly 8 days before she went broody. There were 11 eggs in her nest; six of them hatched last night/today. I'm guessing at least 3-4 aren't fertilized since the hens don't lay more than one a day (right?). She has not been off the nest today, and I wonder whether that's because she is still trying to hatch the remaining eggs.
I have tried to leave her mostly alone, since I've heard game hens are good mamas and I really don't have much experience with this. Do I wait a day or two and then remove the unhatched eggs? Do I leave it to her to decide?
Also, do I try and move the whole family to an XL dog crate in a protected area within the chicken yard? I feel like it would be safer and more comfortable for them (the crate is lined with chicken wire to keep the small chicks from squeezing through). If so, how on earth do I manage that feat?
- Thread starter
- #278
Congratulations!
Many hens lay 1 egg in 2 days. And bc the rooster wasn’t around for a long time , there is a reasonable chance the remaining eggs are infertile.
Maybe. Or she wants to keep the chick safe and warm the first days. The chicks dont need food and water in the first 2 , max 3 days.
Your hen probably knows best when she should leave the nest. You can take away the remaining eggs after she leaves the best with her chicks.
And yes the chicks are more at risk if they start to run around. The broody probably tries to protect them but a closed coop with run is safer.
An XL dog crate is not very big if the family cant get out. Can they walk around in the chicken yard safely?
Move the family at night, bc the hen and chicks are sleepy at night (no lights) and easier to move.
To start with , you can put her in a sort of open or ½ box with no lid and one side open
on the spot where she is now. You can do this during the day and best several hours before the actual move.That way its easier to move the family in one go , or maybe 2.
Good luck !
Mostly I think the same way as @BDutch . On these specifics
I would leave it to her. Her instincts have been fine tuned over millions of years of evolution.
I would not. She is a game hen, you thought she chose a good spot to nest so left her there; I would trust her now to chose a good spot to take the brood when she leaves the nest. It will probably be close to your house again, with lots of escape routes for the little ones; quite the opposite of a cage in fact. You could really stress her out by suddenly imprisoning her and her chicks.
EmmaDonovan
Crossing the Road
Thank you for this thread! We have a one-year-old broody hen and I'm trying to decide between broody jail or getting her some hatching eggs. This is our first broody and I'm still working through the logistics and I have a lot of questions.
We have four nest boxes for twelve hens (no rooster) so her taking up residence in one box hasn't been a problem. Our nest boxes aren't in the coop. They're in the run. The run is temporary and isn't secure against nighttime predators so I've been putting her in the coop at night. She's very sweet and doesn't growl or peck at me or anything. In the morning she just goes back into the nest box. During the day she will come out to eat, drink, and get treats, then she goes back in, blorps out, and cluck-cluck-clucks.
If we give her some hatching eggs she'll obviously stay in the nest box over night. There's no room for the nest box in the coop. I could put the nest box inside a large dog crate in the run, and shut her inside the crate at night. It's a big crate (we have big dogs) with plenty of room for the nest box, food, water, and a dust bath pan. The down side is there's only one door and it would be very difficult to get into the crate to check on her and the eggs.
1) If we open the crate during the day after the chicks hatch is there any danger of them wandering into the run on their own or will she keep the chicks inside the crate with her?
2) Is having her in the confined space of the crate setting her up for confrontations with other flock members who might go inside to check out the new chicks?
Is there anything else I should be taking into consideration?
We have four nest boxes for twelve hens (no rooster) so her taking up residence in one box hasn't been a problem. Our nest boxes aren't in the coop. They're in the run. The run is temporary and isn't secure against nighttime predators so I've been putting her in the coop at night. She's very sweet and doesn't growl or peck at me or anything. In the morning she just goes back into the nest box. During the day she will come out to eat, drink, and get treats, then she goes back in, blorps out, and cluck-cluck-clucks.
If we give her some hatching eggs she'll obviously stay in the nest box over night. There's no room for the nest box in the coop. I could put the nest box inside a large dog crate in the run, and shut her inside the crate at night. It's a big crate (we have big dogs) with plenty of room for the nest box, food, water, and a dust bath pan. The down side is there's only one door and it would be very difficult to get into the crate to check on her and the eggs.
1) If we open the crate during the day after the chicks hatch is there any danger of them wandering into the run on their own or will she keep the chicks inside the crate with her?
2) Is having her in the confined space of the crate setting her up for confrontations with other flock members who might go inside to check out the new chicks?
Is there anything else I should be taking into consideration?
Last edited:
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
-
Ended Official BYC Poultry Caption Contest 05-23-25 Pic by AidKD- Started by TwoCrows
- Replies: 71
-
Open Contest Waterfowl & Water Photo Contest
- Started by Kiki
- Replies: 70
-
Solved Attach files picture uploading
- Started by Kiki
- Replies: 62
-
