Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Wishapup]

Thank you to everyone who had positive experiences with the partition method and recommended it...my hen is now on Day 8 and it's working great!

 

[fisherlady]

Thank you to everyone who had positive experiences with the partition method and recommended it...my hen is now on Day 8 and it's working great!

 

[Faraday40]

DD's 4H experiment

Broody hatched 6/7 = 86%
Incubator hatched 19/22 = 86%

Because the broody could only fit a small number, her % could have gone either way. Her 7th egg looked clear, so perhaps not even fertile. Our incubator hatch rate is a little lower than usual. Some of the eggs were dirty, so perhaps that's why. When I set my own eggs, I only use the perfect ones. This time we bought the fertile eggs to hatch specific breeds.

DD is enjoying mothering the incubator chicks & the broody chicks run away from her. Also, the 1st trial group had to be canceled b/c our broody changed her mind at the last min. I personally like the brooder free care of the hen & chicks, but DD is showing a stronger preference toward the incubator. I'm hoping another hen will go broody, so we may do another trial. I've had a dozen eggs in a nest box for the last 4 days - no takers. Also, Cookie's chicks are in sight, so perhaps the peeping will push one over to the broody side. I've gotten a few grumpy noises from the hens while in the nest, but no one is staying in there for longer than needed.

Meanwhile I brought my kids with me to help teach a local preschool class about chickens. My preschool son shared his chick, and my daughter brought in our lavender orpington, Cuddles. Just as we were getting ready to leave yesterday (as if on cue) one of the eggs in the preschool incubator pipped. As of noon today, they have 2 chicks.

 

[HannahLB]

Hi all, I'm wondering if there is a maximum length of time a hen will brood. A week ago one of my Buff Orpingtons went broody and she has a wooden egg made by my father-in-law under her, but the fertilized eggs I ordered don't arrive for another week. Will she stay broody for the full three weeks required or will she give up after a week of sitting on the real eggs?

 

[sktlmt]

Hi all, I'm wondering if there is a maximum length of time a hen will brood. A week ago one of my Buff Orpingtons went broody and she has a wooden egg made by my father-in-law under her, but the fertilized eggs I ordered don't arrive for another week. Will she stay broody for the full three weeks required or will she give up after a week of sitting on the real eggs?

Mine have stayed broody several weeks before they had fertile eggs all they way thru hatch.

 

[Faraday40]

Hi all, I'm wondering if there is a maximum length of time a hen will brood. A week ago one of my Buff Orpingtons went broody and she has a wooden egg made by my father-in-law under her, but the fertilized eggs I ordered don't arrive for another week. Will she stay broody for the full three weeks required or will she give up after a week of sitting on the real eggs?

It probably depends on the broody. I had a broody a good week before adding fertile eggs. She stuck with it until they hatched. (4 full weeks!) I'm not sure if you'd want to push her much beyond that, though. They don't take good care of themselves while sitting on the eggs.

 

[Johnn]

Lacey and Penelope

 

[Faraday40]

Broody introduction suggestions:

Cookie & her chicks are doing well. It looks like they want to get out of the dog crate & go exploring. I opened the crate for a moment yesterday when only 2 other hens were in the middle run. A Legbar pecked gently at a chick & Cookie jumped on her head. Neither hen was backing down, so I put my boot between them to separate. This morning that Legbar was all ruffled & glaring at Cookie thru the cage door. This afternoon, I tried opening it again & nothing really happened. A few chicks ran about, Cookie looked as puffy as a balloon, some slight "keep away from me" pecks (not hard), & one poor hen was completely terrified of the little fluffballs scurrying around. My broody from last year looked very interested in the chicks but didn't do anything but watch. The Legbar was occupied with food, so she just didn't care. I pushed the little family back into the dog crate before I left.

Because of all the AI going thru the Mississippi Flyway, I've been keeping my flock penned rather than free range all over the yard. We just got rid of the roo 3 weeks ago, so he won't be there to break up any hen fights. So now I'm wondering what my next step is to introduce mama & chicks. Should I open the cage at night & allow them to sleep in the coop? Should I continue to open the cage for brief interactions while I'm present?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Broody introduction suggestions:

Cookie & her chicks are doing well. It looks like they want to get out of the dog crate & go exploring. I opened the crate for a moment yesterday when only 2 other hens were in the middle run. A Legbar pecked gently at a chick & Cookie jumped on her head. Neither hen was backing down, so I put my boot between them to separate. This morning that Legbar was all ruffled & glaring at Cookie thru the cage door. This afternoon, I tried opening it again & nothing really happened. A few chicks ran about, Cookie looked as puffy as a balloon, some slight "keep away from me" pecks (not hard), & one poor hen was completely terrified of the little fluffballs scurrying around. My broody from last year looked very interested in the chicks but didn't do anything but watch. The Legbar was occupied with food, so she just didn't care. I pushed the little family back into the dog crate before I left.

Because of all the AI going thru the Mississippi Flyway, I've been keeping my flock penned rather than free range all over the yard. We just got rid of the roo 3 weeks ago, so he won't be there to break up any hen fights. So now I'm wondering what my next step is to introduce mama & chicks. Should I open the cage at night & allow them to sleep in the coop? Should I continue to open the cage for brief interactions while I'm present?

It totally depends on the coop/run and momma hen and flock. I'm having a hard time visualizing if you've got the crate in the coop house or in the run...but the bottomline is the environment needs to be safe for broody and chicks. The Legbar may cause problems again, so it is good to be on hand for the next few days, but hopefully the worst is over. Once the broody has established boundaries, things settle pretty fast.

I would probably open it up and watch for the next couple of days before I simply leave the cage door open and let it all settle in.

My Silkie took the chicks out at 2 weeks (due to weather and the size of chicken wire in the run), and she and one of the Cochin bantams "duked" it out for about 2 minutes. (SERIOUSLY funny, folks...sort of like 2 clumsy dust mops trying to slap each other. I've never seen anything more heated and less deadly

)

This happened for a briefer period the next day, and then things were pretty settled. There is a lot of wing room in the broody run, so momma and chicks could stay in a nice area separate from the Cochins. If I through scratch inside, there was some scrambling between them, but nothing serious. The chicks learned to stay out of the way of the Cochins. Pecking order was established pretty quickly.

 

[rebrascora]

@ Faraday40

I had a problem reintegrating my bantam cochin/silkie x broody and chicks back into the flock as she is pretty much at the bottom of the pecking order. One of the young leghorns that she actually reared last year (they are little oiks and I hate to see children that are disrespectful to their parents!), started to give her a really hard time when I let her out of the brooder pen. I let it go for a while but it was getting nasty and even though the broody backed down and tried to get away, the leghorn kept at her, so I grabbed the leghorn and dangled her upside down in front of the broody for a few moments and then held her on the ground and encouraged the broody to come and have a go....(I hate little upstarts!!!). The broody stepped forward but wasn't aggressive. She saw the leghorn off though as soon as I let go of her and it certainly brought the leghorn down a few pegs and resolved the issue between the two of them in the broody's favour. It has all gone very, very smoothly since then. Maybe your legbar could do with a similar humiliation in front of your broody to resolve it, if she continues to cause aggravation.

Good luck with it.

Regards

Barbara