Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[gladahmae]

Day 3 or 4. She will get up and start moving around at that point, so she can just stay with the other hens if they aren't horrible to the chicks.

Day 3 or 4 from the first chick hatching, or the last? First chick popped on Friday morning, last one on Sunday afternoon. She's moved over next to the door of the kennel, but not a whole lot of 'roaming' going on yet.

Ugh. Just realized the chicks technically should be on starter, and I just bought 100# of layer. Maybe I should just move them into the brooder in the basement with the other chicks.....

 

[BCMaraniac]

I am so glad to have this thread, since this is my first attempt with a broody hen. My FBCM was acting strange the last days of April. She laid an egg on May 1 in the morning, and that same evening she was in one of the nesting boxes. So I took her egg and two other FBCM eggs from that day that were still on the counter, and put them under her, thinking that if she stayed on them overnight I would know that she was broody, and if she moved to the roost for the night, then I would just retrieve them. Well, she stayed on them overnight, and the next morning would not get out of the box despite harrassment by the other layers. Her being there stressed the other hens since I only have 3 nesting boxes, rather than them stressing her.

I free range my layers, and they are so good about laying in the nesting boxes, even though there are 13 layers who share 3 boxes. However, after she began her set, they began laying outside somewhere, because I only got 4 eggs yesterday, when I normally get 10-12 per day. Today it is raining, so I am keeping them up all day, and I have already gotten 7 eggs.

Because they were so stressed, and because of the nesting boxes being off the ground, I opted to try to move her. Night before last, we took her and her eggs(the number of which had increased by two) to a private area. She seemed to settle onto the eggs, but when we got back to her the next morning, she had moved and the eggs were cold. She obviously did not like the place in the new location that we had chosen for her. The unfortunately thing was that there were good blood webs and embryos inside the original 3 eggs that I put under her.

So, I put more eggs under her, and she stayed there all day yesterday, last night, and this morning. This morning I picked her up, and carried her out of the pen and sat her down, and finally coaxed her to get up and move around with some scratch feed. She ate, drank, and did the big broody poop. Boy, was she stiff! Her toes were even curled under, but she got everything stretched. As soon as she was done, she began looking for her nest. So I took her back to her pen, and she found her eggs, and oh so carefully sat back down on them after getting them situated. Her total time out was approximately 15 minutes.

I know that some folks leave them alone, but whether she feels better or not, my knowing that she has had a bit of food, water, and stretch makes ME feel better. So we are only on day 2 which put a hatch date of 5/25 to 5/26.

I am going to be interested to see(if they hatch) what the cross between the FBCM and my lavender Orpington rooster looks like. Should be fluffy things.....even if they are mutts.

 

[bumpercarr]

Day 3 or 4 from the first chick hatching, or the last? First chick popped on Friday morning, last one on Sunday afternoon. She's moved over next to the door of the kennel, but not a whole lot of 'roaming' going on yet.

Ugh. Just realized the chicks technically should be on starter, and I just bought 100# of layer. Maybe I should just move them into the brooder in the basement with the other chicks.....

I just let my broody decide when to take them all out. I opened the door on day 3 after the last chick hatched, she took them all out on day 5. No problems with the rest of the flock. At first they went after momma, trying to reassert their dominance (they hadn't seen her much for over a month). But that settled down pretty quickly and now they leave everyone alone. Every now and then the chicks will get underfoot, but they are quick enough to get out of the way once they start getting stepped on.

 

[uphilljill]

Congrats on your broody mama, Johnn!

 

[Johnn]

Congrats on your broody mama, Johnn!

Thankyou!

 

[lanajc]

I have a broody hen that i used to set 6 turkey eggs under one egg hatched but the poult died and here it is 3 days later and none of the others have hatched how long do i wait for.the others to hatch before removing them from the nest i have never had this happen before so im clueless

 

[bobbieschicks]

I'm sure this was covered somewhere already, but I really don't have time to look through 1700+ pages.   My broody (1st timer) finished hatching out her eggs yesterday.  I have her in a dog kennel in the coop to keep the chicks in, and the other hens out.  At what point can I remove her and the chicks from the crate and get it out of the coop?  She let me pick her up to look at chicks and never once pecked at me, so I'm not so sure she's going to fight off other hens if they get snotty.

Open it and leave her alone. She will leave with the chicks as soon as she is ready. Maybe today.

 

[bobbieschicks]

With my 1st broody hatching experience I tried to control most of it...it ended with the broody hatching chicks to raise.

With my last hatching experience with Topsy I left her alone to do whatever with her own eggs in the nest box. She hatched 4 out of 5 silky chicks.

So since the hands off worked great with Topsy a Silky I tried it with Bunny the Splash Copper Maran. Results were her eggs didn't hatch, and she kept getting broken eggs in the nest box. I finally gave her some day old chicks to mother and she's happy.

My point is there's no right or wrong way to have a broody hatch, your flock dynamic is different from mine, and every broody pullet is different. So try one thing, if it works, great, if not change it.

 

[bumpercarr]

Well, momma didn't keep a close enough eye on her chicks. One is missing, I suspect a local cat although it could also have been a hawk.

 

[OHfarmerswife]

Well, momma didn't keep a close enough eye on her chicks.  One is missing, I suspect a local cat although it could also have been a hawk. 

Are you letting the chicks out UNsuper ised? How old?