Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[bobbieschicks]

I just heard that WV is declared a state of emergency. There has been several injuries not clear on what yet...as for me, have been through many hurricanes and this is the same..still have the generator but only so much more gas..will be fine, freezer is frozen...I was happy to see the large south facing window did not rain into the coop at all! Even though I made shutters I was short one hinge...so didn't put them up. I have several pop holes for the broodies on the west side, but have decided to add two more large windows with shutters, west side and east side, for some reason they are wanting to all roost at six...maybe because the auto door opens at dawn now, so they have their fill of roaming by then. But the roof is still radiating heat then...I need to get some tin on it. As for what I do with the broody, is keep them in a separate run and pen till the chicks are a week or two old at least. I enlarged their pen so there's plenty of hunting in there, broody will start getting bored with it and want out. The last time went alright,but she took them out too soon I think and caused massive scenes...since she's a dominent hen I wasn't too worried...if she wasn't I'd wait longer, as i wouldn't want any chicks getting injured. That's about all I do,I think the hens would naturally stay apart for awhile anyway, so that is what I try to do...she kinda tells me what she wants. Everyone has a different set up I think.

Virgina too. There are still lots of areas without power. Thankfully we have power now. We only lost power for about 17 hours. I have friends who still are without power.

I've let my broodies bring their babies out into the general flock by a week old. They manage them until the babies are about four to five weeks old, protecting them and warming them. Then the broodies abandon their mom job and the babies fend for themselves. Thankfully they are a part of the flock by that point and just start figuring out pecking order.

 

[bobbieschicks]

X2 With this heat I think they can probably stay off a little longer and get away with it, the most any of my broodies have stayed off the nest is 45 min. and thats long for them mostly it's around 30. And yes bobbie it cools down during the night. low 60's now. but we have never had air conditioning here [never needed it] may have to rethink this. It was 90 inside the coop today and I have fans blowing in all 3. 

I checked around 2pm and it was 107F in the coop with all doors and windows open. I soaked the ground under the coop and setup a fan to blow inside that helped lower the temps to 100F. I kept making the girls get out of the nest boxes after they would lay. Personally I wouldn't be laying in this heat!

 

[stonykill]

Question for you experts since this is my first hatch---------

I have two broody hens that hatched little guinea keets for me in the last few days. They each have a wire sectioned off area in the large chicken house and have plenty of room to get exercise.

When the mama's want to take the babies out of their sectioned off pen and into the run with all the other birds how do you all handle that?? Will the mama handle it and take care of anyone?? do you just let them out and leave the little sectioned off areas set up so they can come back in to where they hatched the babies?

Any advice??

mine are in with everyone from day 1. That is from the day they sit. They hatch and mama takes them out whenever she is ready. Usually after 2 days from the 1st one hatching. i have found no one messes with the mama. Just today my new mama named Mama took her chicks out for the 1st time. She hatched them yesterday. A rooster tried to get near her. Let's jut say he won't be trying that again! She let him have it!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Virgina too. There are still lots of areas without power. Thankfully we have power now. We only lost power for about 17 hours. I have friends who still are without power.
I've let my broodies bring their babies out into the general flock by a week old. They manage them until the babies are about four to five weeks old, protecting them and warming them. Then the broodies abandon their mom job and the babies fend for themselves. Thankfully they are a part of the flock by that point and just start figuring out pecking order.

Speaking of pecking order, Scarlett has left her not quite 4 week olds for Peppy our roo, they wanted so much to be with their mama tonight and she was being horrible to them. I think this will be her last time to sit. They are so tiny, it breaks my heart when they keep peeping for mama. And another note, my lil cochin bantam Little E, still has her 2, 12 weeks olds with her..

 

[bobbieschicks]

Question for you experts since this is my first hatch---------

I have two broody hens that hatched little guinea keets for me in the last few days.  They each have a wire sectioned off area in the large chicken house and have plenty of room to get exercise. 

When the mama's want to take the babies out of their sectioned off pen and into the run with all the other birds how do you all handle that??  Will the mama handle it and take care of anyone??  do you just let them out and leave the little sectioned off areas set up so they can come back in to where they hatched the babies?

 
Any advice?? 

When the broodies hatch the babies usually stick close to momma. She keeps them in the nest area for a couple of days scratching for food and water. Then by day five she wants out with the clutch. She will take them down the ramp, slip slide and flop, to the ground to look for food. I let the momma take care of protecting the babies because she will do a great job of it. Momma will keep them safe, warm and teach them how to be a chicken.

 

[stonykill]

Speaking of pecking order, Scarlett has left her not quite 4 week olds for Peppy our roo, they wanted so much to be with their mama tonight and she was being horrible to them. I think this will be her last time to sit. They are so tiny, it breaks my heart when they keep peeping for mama. And another note, my lil cochin bantam Little E, still has her 2, 12 weeks olds with her..

I've had that happen a few times at 4 weeks. Just seems way to soon. But the chicks did just fine.

 

[bobbieschicks]

Speaking of pecking order, Scarlett has left her not quite 4 week olds for Peppy our roo, they wanted so much to be with their mama tonight and she was being horrible to them. I think this will be her last time to sit. They are so tiny, it breaks my heart when they keep peeping for mama.  And another note, my lil cochin bantam Little E, still has her 2, 12 weeks olds with her..

Awh, that's an adorable sight I'm sure. and I know, why do they have to leave when the babies are still so small!

 

[jc12551]

My dom hen with the four chicks didn't come home tonight!

Today was their first day out in the run and the chicks went out of the run and so did mama. She toured them around the yard and was showing them how to forage. No big deal, she normally lives kind of wild. But I wasn't home at dusk so I have no idea where she is! I have to leave for a 10 day trip Tuesday so I guess I just have to trust her and pray that nothing eats them/her tonight or while I am gone. I thought having hens hatch eggs was less stressful than mail order or incubator. Nope. No. Nay. It is not!

 

[Kassaundra]

I confess I have not read 1100+ pages but I have a question, if it has already been addressed I'm sorry.

I have a hen that is a first time broody (for her and me) she just has 2 eggs (horrible heat here over 100) so have just let her keep the two. Anyway I have eggs in the incubator that will hatch before hers are ready (if they even make it w/ this heat) so how old can I introduce chicks to this broody and her raise them???

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Yes the length of time she's off the nest can matter because the eggs can cool if she isn't managing them. However, during the summer months she's likely to get off the nest a lot. And if it's warm where you are she will take breaks from sitting on the eggs so they can cool down too. If this is her first time being a broody she may be iffy when it comes to sitting put on those eggs. I'd keep the incubator warmed up just in case. But being off the eggs for 15 minutes isn't going to matter if you have temps like we've been having 90F to 105F.

Thank you! I think the lowest we have had in weeks is 93 degrees. I will keep an eye on her but we don't have an incubator to transfer to. We had never intended to hatch eggs, then she went broody and somehow managed to butter up DH. Not sure how this happened in a way; we have actually been talking about cutting down the numbers...

Chicken math strikes, I suppose.