Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Fuffy]

Broody setup by FuffyKing, on Flickr[/img]

This is my broody nursery Mom and babies will be in here until they are around 6 weeks old.
After that they go into a sectioned off bit of the main run. This way the grown up flock can see the little ones, but not get to them and they can all meet through the fence. Momma will tell me when she wants to be a laying hen again, I hope

This is my momma hen taken last year when she was broody and grumpy

 

[vegaschick]

Quote:
Thanks for posting that. What a great source of information. I'm trying to figure out how to manage my first broody. She, of course, knows what to do as it's not her first time, but it is mine. That article gave me some really good ideas for setup.

 

[michaelinnc84]

Nice brooder. How long do you keep mommy and daddy together to endure another breed of rooster hasn't been with her? That way you won't end up with mixed chicks when your expecting pure breed.

 

[HHandbasket]

I tried to move my broody & her eggs, and she wasn't having none of that! So she's in the community nesting box, stealing everybody's eggs every day (I have to steal them back--my girls do not lay fertile eggs as we have no roo, but I did purchase fertile eggs and put them under Olga when she went broody. She's been setting on these eggs now for 8 days and doing a wonderful job!

I, too, am worried as to how the rest of the flock is going to be with the chicks. They're not Olga's chicks--most of the eggs she's setting on are porcelain Belgian d'uccles and bantam Easter eggers, with 4 "mystery eggs" (dunno who's the momma, dunno who's the daddy, just know that they're brown eggs from LF chickens from my friend's mixed flock). I think Olga will be a good mama hen & she's been a really good broody.

We had a hard freeze here the other night & I could not move her, so I covered the end of the coop where she is (the nesting boxes are in one end of the A-frame part of the coop) with a thick quilt from the dryer, built up extra hay around her, and brought her a dish of chick scratch as it's ground up smaller, figured it would be easier for her to eat and digest but would still give her warmth. I bring her a dish of water and a dish of food every day. She has gotten off the nest ONCE to eat, and it was so cute because Lola (my big EE and leader of my flock) needed to lay her egg for the day, so she sat on the eggs for Olga and "babysat" for her so she could get up and eat and go potty, etc. I think Olga was off the nest for all of 10 minutes, though, and as soon as Lola finished laying her egg, Olga was back on the nest. I did have to follow her in there and steal Lola's egg, though. Hehehe.

This is my first broody. She is not very old--7 months. She's been laying about a month and a half and has been a very reliable layer. I didn't expect her to lay so soon, but she's done well. She's a mixed breed chicken. Mother was a gorgeous golden Easter egger, and my Olga herself hatched from a pretty blue/green egg. Her father, though, was an American gamefowl, and Olga is a very small bird and lays small eggs, about the size of silkie eggs, maybe ever-so-slightly larger. Olga's eggs weigh an average of 1.6 to 1.7 ounces (we'll occasionally get a 1.4 or 1.5, but usually about 1.6), whereas Lola's eggs are the biggest in the flock and weigh in at an average of 2.3 ounces per egg. Everybody else's eggs are somewhere in between.

Once a hen goes broody, do they go broody a lot?

I like the OP's idea of using broody hens as a method for hatching out young chicks. I have an incubator, and I have a broody hen. Both were set with eggs at the same time and on the same date, and it's going to be interesting to see where the better hatch rate comes from.

I'm also hatching myself out some silkie babies this time and plan to keep the hens for broodies for next year. I like the idea of letting nature take its course and letting the hens do all the work.

 

[Myabcs3]

Today is "hatching day" for our blue orpington! This is our first time broody hatching, so I love that someone started this thread. We left our hen in the coop in a nesting box with the rest of the girls. Previously when she was broody, we moved her and she stopped sitting on the eggs. So this time, we just left her. So far so good. The rest of the girls seem to understand what is going on; a few try to lay eggs on top of her, but we have a rooster that patrols and keeps peace when the girls start squawking over nesting boxes. Also, with the cold weather in Kansas lately, when she gets off the eggs daily to tend to her business, one of her hen friends sits on the eggs and then leaves when she comes back. Our plan is to move her and the chicks once hatched to a more protected part of the coop where she is still apart of the coop, but access to her and the babies are restricted...I hope this all works out!

 

[RedReiner]

I left my momma hen and her chicks in the run, seperated for a couple days with 1 inch chicken wire. but new baby chicks can fit thru 1 inch chicken wire. I kept her on the other side for about a week then removed it. there is a ramp to the nest box, baby chicks went up and down the ramp no problem although I did have one that needed to be shown the way a time or two.
Other hens, most mommas will thrash any who get to close but sometimes they are looking the other way. I had a pullet who was intent on pecking the chicks even while they were under their mom. I removed her to chicken jail for a week. When I tossed her back in she was low on the pole and they all picked on her. ended the chick pecking problem.

 

[michaelinnc84]

I am excited for you! I hope all the hatching goes great for you today. If you have a chance to share some pictures with us and update us on the progress that would be awesome.

 

[Myabcs3]

We have babies!!! Mamma won't let us see them yet as there are still 3 unhatched eggs, but we can hear them and occasionally see a small foot and head.

What I noticed today is our broody hen was very puffed up and fluffy all day. She is raised more up on her haunches...which makes sense as I am assuming as the chicks are pipping and hatching and obviously after hatch, they need more room. So far so good! We have a slightly warmer set of weather coming, which will ease some of my concerns. But as HHandbasket mentioned, I think the broody hen knows better what to do than I!

Thanks Redreiner for the suggestions. DH is building them a little ramp.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

DD had problems last year with her cochin banties going crazy with brooding. She had three at once who were stealing each others eggs even after some were hatching!. I'd suggest if you have more than one broody to keep them out of sight of one another. We finally used covered cat carriers as nest boxes. The broodies had been in a separate dog house by themselves but they needed to be out of sight of one another too.
FWIW, she found the white cochin banties were more inclined to go broody.

The first time one of our EEs went broody, I had encouraged her with a nest full of golfballs. I replaced them with eggs after I was sure she was serious. She remained in the nest box but it was oversized and the others didn't bother her or try to lay in that nest. When hatching came, I covered the front with screening for about 24 hours and then moved the whole family to a 4x4 separate coop within the fenced run. Mama took care of the integration after that. Last year our Splash orp went broody on her own, but so far no one has bothered to try this year. I haven't done the golf ball thing yet either, although in a month or so, I might try.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:
Good question! The answer depends on the individual hen. I think each bird has her own component of broody skills & desire. Some of my hens have gone broody only once in their lives. Others go broody much more frequently. They tend to go broody more during the warmer lighter months, but I've had some hens that went broody in the winter (we're in Florida).

The best broodies I have are mixed-breed bantams. I have other large fowl hens, both pure breeds & mixed breeds. They very seldom go broody, the ones who have were Black Jersey Giant, White Jersey Giant, Black Sex-Link, Black Polish, and Mottled Houdan. Each of those only have gone broody once.

That article from the Modern Homesteader site was excellent, don't need to add much to all that great information!