Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[mtmimi777]

A lady I spoke with recently said that she's discovered that the broody hen's chicks grow faster and larger than those "human-raised". She felt however that they're a little harder to domesticate.

 

[elliechooks]

A lady I spoke with recently said that she's discovered that the broody hen's chicks grow faster and larger than those "human-raised".  She felt however that they're a little harder to domesticate.

Interesting idea. I am sure I am not the only one who has done this but I had 16 eggs from the same source (one cockerel, many mixed breed hens) and I split them between broody hen and incubator. I put all the chicks under the hen when they had hatched and within a few days I couldn't tell any difference. I would say that the ones in the incubator started hatching a few hours earlier but broody had a higher percent hatch. Not sure about their rate of growth after that though because I didn't keep any in the brooder at the same time.
I agree though about them being less domesticated to begin with though as broody hen keeps her chicks well away from me for the first few weeks but in the brooder I can cuddle them whenever I like. Mine are now 9 weeks old and as friendly as my hand reared 12 week olds!

 

[dretd]

Quote:
Actually, I concur with mtmimi777's friend. Elliechooks, you put the chicks back under the hen to be raised by her.

I don't think its the hatching that makes the difference. It is perhaps the exercise and fresh air or extra protein from foraging bug, or some other unknown factor that will encourage those broody chicks to grow out faster--at least that's what I found last year with my sample set of one.

I suggest next time you are up for an experiment, split the eggs, yes, but home raise the batch from the incubator and then compare the hand-raised growth to the mama-raised--then there will be two sets of data

 

[elliechooks]

Sounds like a good excuse to experiment to me!!! Any excuse to raise more chicks. I have to admit I feel that the general happiness and wellbeing of the chicks is better with a broody hen than in a brooder, and definitely integrating them with the rest of the flock - basically mom has taught them how to be chickens.

 

[jyurina]

My two hen raised chicks are so much more vigorous and burly at 3 weeks than any of the ones we brooded ourselves. And since my daughter spends time every day in the chicken tractor with them they are pretty friendly. The funniest thing is that they fly EVERYWHERE! And chase mama down for a piggy back ride. And they are doing amazingly well in the recent heat wave that has hit highs of 111

 

[Jeniferl29]

I have an example of that here on our farm right now. 1 group of chicks from a hatchery raised in a brooder and 3 groups with broodies. The broodies chicks are almost the same size as the brooder raised chicks and there is a couple of weeks difference. It is amazing. Nature does it better every time.

 

[chickydee64]

I want to add to this something that is driving me crazy trying to figure out.
I have three hens that I divided shipped eggs between....All the same eggs..........
One hen has 5, one has three.but these are raising them together.
The third hen has 2............All have chick starter available at all times............
All chicks are with the flock and outside all day.
The two chicks are over double the size of the others and have much more feathering out...............
It's like " Riddle me that one Bat Man"

 

[Tomtommom]

I have a 27 week old white rock that's been broody for over 2 weeks. I've moved her out the nest box several times a day, I have taken the eggs away (they're not fertile) only to have her adopt egg-like objects.. so I got her some fertile eggs. Who would have thought my first broody would be a white rock? And a persistent one at that... *laugh*

I got her 6 beautiful blue eggs yesterday. Moved her off her nest and took away her 'kids' (a quartz egg, a plastic toy ball and a rock..

), she was quite mad, until I laid her new 'kids' out. She was instantly smitten. Now, she had not growled at me before, but now she is... She loves they babies! She's extra fluffy looking now and trying her hardest to keep them safe.

I'm slightly concerned, because I have only seen her out and about twice in two weeks time. I am worried she may get to be too weak to go another 21 days. I tried to hand her some food today, but she wasn't having any of it.

Also, do we candle at all with a broody? Or just hope nothing explodes?

 

[chickydee64]

I have a 27 week old white rock that's been broody for over 2 weeks. I've moved her out the nest box several times a day, I have taken the eggs away (they're not fertile) only to have her adopt egg-like objects.. so I got her some fertile eggs. Who would have thought my first broody would be a white rock? And a persistent one at that... *laugh*

I got her 6 beautiful blue eggs yesterday. Moved her off her nest and took away her 'kids' (a quartz egg, a plastic toy ball and a rock..

), she was quite mad, until I laid her new 'kids' out. She was instantly smitten. Now, she had not growled at me before, but now she is... She loves they babies! She's extra fluffy looking now and trying her hardest to keep them safe.

I'm slightly concerned, because I have only seen her out and about twice in two weeks time. I am worried she may get to be too weak to go another 21 days. I tried to hand her some food today, but she wasn't having any of it.

Also, do we candle at all with a broody? Or just hope nothing explodes?

Hi,
I can respond to part of it..................I never candle broodys eggs........If the eggs are fresh there should not be a problem with them and she will boot out bad eggs on her own,
I rarely see my broodys eat............but I know they do. I was really worried about one girl that had set almost 60 daysJust would not quit and the eggs she had did not hatch.
I took her grapes every day..she turned her nose up when I was there but when I would check later, they would be gone. I think they just get real sneaky and maybe fear
we will take or hurt their eggs if they get off the nest while we are looking.............funny little chickens..........

 

[Viollettt]

I want to add to this something that is driving me crazy trying to figure out.
I have three hens that I divided shipped eggs between....All the same eggs..........
One hen has 5, one has three.but these are raising them together.
The third hen has 2............All have chick starter available at all times............
All chicks are with the flock and outside all day.
The two chicks are over double the size of the others and have much more feathering out...............
It's like " Riddle me that one Bat Man"

I had almost the same thing happen with multiple hens raising different numbers of chicks and what I figured is that the hen with the least chicks doesn't have to work as hard to get them fed and herself fed. So since she only has 2 to feed they get more than if she had 5 to feed. Mine are now 8 weeks old and all the same size. One other thing is that the hen that had two had girls and the other one had mostly boys. The girls start out bigger but the boys catch up later.