Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[fisherlady]

Ok, we have chicks!!!! Cloudy has done great so far!!! out of 4 eggs 3 are out and I put one in the bator as it should hatch saturday (was a couple days behind...) this is a pic of her first out my 6 year old named it "blackie" lol. this morning blackie had two little siblings hatch, another little black and a splash!!! holy cats these are SOOOO cute with a mama vs. a incubator!!!

Congrats!! The youngster is adorable and I am looking forward to more pictures.....and welcome to the wonderful and addictive world of hatching with a broody!

I love using the hens instead of an incubator.... I totally understand that for many people a broody leaves too many uncontrolled variables and they don't feel as involved with the chicks like they do when brooder raising them, also many feel too limited in the number they can hatch because they either lack broody hens or the broody hens can't cover enough at a time to meet their needs.....
But in our back yard, sustainable flock set up I think broodies just rule! We have had 28 broody hatches this year I think, though honestly I quit trying to keep track of numbers about 10 broodies ago! I can't imagine for our flock purposes that we would need an incubator and we don't even own one, so it is broody or nothing which suits us fine. My DH is enthralled with the broodies and chicks also. When I am at work I get a call about every two hours if a hen is hatching, along with frequent cutesy pics...

 

[poodlechicks]

Fisherlady, I've had just one broody and I'm already hooked When broody, my hens are very persistent, so now I have requests from other chicken keepers to use my broodies to hatch their chicks. I feel great, as I will be able to witness them being good mommas and won't have to worry about space to keep the chicks after momma is done raising them. When my big coop is ready, I might keep a few

 

[poodlechicks]

Oops, I meant one hatch under a broody.

 

[KV Silkies]

ok question to anyone.... we have 3 cute little fluffy chicks under Cloudy right now, when should she bring them to the food and water? the last chick was still damp this morning and the first one hatched yesterday.... she's a first time and so am I so of course I am just paranoid, and she hasn't gotten up yet either that I can tell since they started hatching... my last egg is in the incubator as it hadn't pipped yet and might be the one that fell out of the nest at one point anyhow, it's hatch date is saturday....

thanks in advance!!!

 

[fisherlady]

ok question to anyone.... we have 3 cute little fluffy chicks under Cloudy right now, when should she bring them to the food and water? the last chick was still damp this morning and the first one hatched yesterday.... she's a first time and so am I so of course I am just paranoid, and she hasn't gotten up yet either that I can tell since they started hatching... my last egg is in the incubator as it hadn't pipped yet and might be the one that fell out of the nest at one point anyhow, it's hatch date is saturday....

thanks in advance!!!

I did a timeline post a long time ago, but can't find it right away.... in simple terms the broodies will usually start letting the chicks out and about around the nest about 24 hours after they hatch. Actually, the hens are not allowing it as much as busy little chicks just don't tend to want to stay under mama when there is a whole neat world to check out. Now they will stay within a couple of feet of mama though, they just buzz around a lot. Mama usually waits till day 2 or maybe 3 to actually get up and out to scratch or move around for anything more than a momentary snack, drink or poo. After mama brings them out you will see her out a lot, but she will be frequently stopping and settling down and all the chicks run under for a 10 minute warm up, then they are off again.

Main thing I watch for after hatch day is that if the broody poos in the nest I get it cleaned up right away. It is ok to move her off of the nest for a few moments to do this, but remember she will be freaking out to get back to babies, so be careful in handling her so no one gets hurt. After the first day I usually get the mama out onto the sand floor with a little bit of peep seeds or meal worms for her to show the little ones how to scratch. She will do this for a few minutes and then usually have a broody poo, so if I time it right I can often avoid them having a mess in the nest to clean.

 

[KV Silkies]

I did a timeline post a long time ago, but can't find it right away.... in simple terms the broodies will usually start letting the chicks out and about around the nest about 24 hours after they hatch. Actually, the hens are not allowing it as much as busy little chicks just don't tend to want to stay under mama when there is a whole neat world to check out. Now they will stay within a couple of feet of mama though, they just buzz around a lot. Mama usually waits till day 2 or maybe 3 to actually get up and out to scratch or move around for anything more than a momentary snack, drink or poo. After mama brings them out you will see her out a lot, but she will be frequently stopping and settling down and all the chicks run under for a 10 minute warm up, then they are off again.

Main thing I watch for after hatch day is that if the broody poos in the nest I get it cleaned up right away. It is ok to move her off of the nest for a few moments to do this, but remember she will be freaking out to get back to babies, so be careful in handling her so no one gets hurt. After the first day I usually get the mama out onto the sand floor with a little bit of peep seeds or meal worms for her to show the little ones how to scratch. She will do this for a few minutes and then usually have a broody poo, so if I time it right I can often avoid them having a mess in the nest to clean.

Thank you!!! she did poo yesterday in the nest box she's in, I scooped it out right away cuz it just reeked.... I have curtains on my nest boxes so took her curtain down and have her nest box enclosed now with some wire so no one can disturb them for a bit, plus the temp just dropped here too, so turned my heat lamp on in the coop too hoping will help coax her out, I can tell the oldest is ready to explore, when I pick her up to see who's under there he runs out and scampers around now while the hatches from today stay put. just nervous with our first time and hers.... I moved the food and water a little closer, but she will have to get up and move to get to them still.... if she has poo out by the food I will take that as a good sign then as I don't get to sit out there all the time and watch... although I'd like to.

 

[newone]

Wh

80 batches of broodies a year? ChickyChickens, how do you do that?

What do you do with all the chickens and eggs?

 

[Eviebella]

Hi guys. I have a kind of silly question about hatching eggs. I haven't done this yet, broody hen, incubator or otherwise.

I have two BBR Old English game bantams who have decided to sit on eggs now. They're a little over a year old. I also have a young Orpington,and one of the bantams is also sitting on a couple of her eggs.

Can bantam hens hatch Orpington eggs, or will they be too small to keep them warm enough? Roughly how many eggs should each hen try to sit on at one time?

Thanks!

 

[Manningjw]

Hi guys. I have a kind of silly question about hatching eggs. I haven't done this yet, broody hen, incubator or otherwise.

I have two BBR Old English game bantams who have decided to sit on eggs now. They're a little over a year old. I also have a young Orpington,and one of the bantams is also sitting on a couple of her eggs.

Can bantam hens hatch Orpington eggs, or will they be too small to keep them warm enough? Roughly how many eggs should each hen try to sit on at one time?

Thanks!

They can sit on standard sized chicken eggs and several people here bantams for hatching standard eggs. I am guessing between 5 and 7 eggs will be the max for a smaller/bantam hen sitting on standard sized eggs. A standard large fowl hen covering standard sized eggs should be able to cover 8-12 depending on her size.

 

[KV Silkies]

hi everyone, I may have asked this earlier... but now that I actually have chicks am more concerned... my 3 are doing great, is hatch day for my 4th who is in the bator, mom and the other 3 are moving around in their little enclosure,

here's the QUESTION! our regular sized rooster who is fairly new to the coop is just watching all the time inside the little broody pen and i'm just worried due to his size that he might hurt one of the chicks or our little broody cloudy once I let her out (which will probably be next weekend as we just got a really cold spell here). I have friends that will take the roo and keep him for us, any thoughts? I'd rather error on the side of caution as these little guys won't get a second chance if they get stepped on or anything either by this big guy....