Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[holm25]

I say let momma do her thing. I am anti take babies from mom though. The way I see it is she does all the work sitting for the 21 days and should be able to have the babies.

 

[mylittlehippie]

I have a buff brahma and a black australorp brooding together on a pile of eggs. The brahma starting setting about 2 weeks ago and the australorp joined her soon after. They are in one of the nesting boxes in the coop. They have diligently set and protected these eggs. The other hens and my roosters stay out in the run most of the day. So they have plenty of privacy. So far so good.
I am worried about the chicks being killed at hatch time or soon after. This is my first time with a broody. I have hatched chicks in my hovabator many times succesfully. A few times I lost young birds introducing them to the flock. They were pecked or stomped to death.
I have been reading advice. Some say let the hen do her thing, others say proactively move the chicks to a brooder.
I have no problem culling the flock or processing meat birds but something about loosing chicks tears me apart.
So my plan for now is to watch and prepare to move them at first sign of violence. I am candling the eggs to tonight, i think we are a week away from hatch. Advice?

You might be surerised at how protective the mamas will be. If you move them at all you may want to move them with their mom. But I expect that they will protect the chicks well. Watch and see and that will help you determine if they are good broodies too. If they sit but don't care for babies then they shouldn't be used for hatchings. I agree with the above poster too that it isn't fair to take their babies if they want to care for them.

 

[kilby]

I have a buff brahma and a black australorp brooding together on a pile of eggs. The brahma starting setting about 2 weeks ago and the australorp joined her soon after. They are in one of the nesting boxes in the coop. They have diligently set and protected these eggs. The other hens and my roosters stay out in the run most of the day. So they have plenty of privacy. So far so good.
I am worried about the chicks being killed at hatch time or soon after. This is my first time with a broody. I have hatched chicks in my hovabator many times succesfully. A few times I lost young birds introducing them to the flock. They were pecked or stomped to death.
I have been reading advice. Some say let the hen do her thing, others say proactively move the chicks to a brooder.
I have no problem culling the flock or processing meat birds but something about loosing chicks tears me apart.
So my plan for now is to watch and prepare to move them at first sign of violence. I am candling the eggs to tonight, i think we are a week away from hatch. Advice?

I can tell you from 2 chicks this year the Hen could break open the egg and devour the chick before they see light of day. I wont let that hen set up again ever and she is broody everyday still. It was horrible. I kept one alive for a week and a half before getting it gassed. This could happen at night when you sleep or in the day doing chores you just don't know until you know your broody. A third and fourth died because I did not have another broody after I kicked her off the nest. If your flock can kill for survival I would expect they would do it again too. they do it cause they can. Don't leave anything to doubt and you will have more chicks running around. I have had day pens for mine for weeks with Mama but not after she started pecking them. Had them out with the flock today for the first time, free to run but I watched like a hawk. The bigger chick roo only got pecked once by the top Hen and that was that. They have more to fear from themselves, 2 roos and a pullet, actually. The bigger roo going on six weeks, all the same age, is already trying to hump the pullet. She fought back and drew blood. I keep 'em sep-a-rat-ed now day and night. Never ending problems in this neck of the woods. When out and about together they started fighting again too. Don't know if it is just when I was there or what. Funny creatures eh.

 

[sktlmt]

I have a buff brahma and a black australorp brooding together on a pile of eggs. The brahma starting setting about 2 weeks ago and the australorp joined her soon after. They are in one of the nesting boxes in the coop. They have diligently set and protected these eggs. The other hens and my roosters stay out in the run most of the day. So they have plenty of privacy. So far so good.
I am worried about the chicks being killed at hatch time or soon after. This is my first time with a broody. I have hatched chicks in my hovabator many times succesfully. A few times I lost young birds introducing them to the flock. They were pecked or stomped to death.
I have been reading advice. Some say let the hen do her thing, others say proactively move the chicks to a brooder.
I have no problem culling the flock or processing meat birds but something about loosing chicks tears me apart.
So my plan for now is to watch and prepare to move them at first sign of violence. I am candling the eggs to tonight, i think we are a week away from hatch. Advice?

The first time I hatched eggs was under 2 broody hens. It was the best set up! 1 Mama would stay with the chicks and the other would do her business and then they would swap. The chicks were always with a Mama. I say let them do their job. I currently have 16 7 week chicks that I hatched and 2 6 week chicks that a broody hatched. the 2 have been with the flock all along and Mama protected them. the other 16 are still in a pen waiting to join the flock full time. It is so much easier to let the Mama do her job!!

 

[sssharon]

Holm25' I agree with that also. That is the most fun thing to watch I think. I have a question. I have a feeling that one of my red sex link chickens is broody or going to be. I saw her come out from underneath the nesting boxes and I looked under there after she had gone and there was one egg under there. So I thought that was a One time thing. I had raked under there after that to see if there were any more eggs under there and there weren't. ALittle while later I heard my all OE making a big ruckus like she always does after she lays an egg and I went out to get my prize and there was nothing there so anyway I started looking around under the boxes again and there were four eggs in a little group where I had taken The other one from. I know I hadn't missed any and I am just taking a guess that she got those eggs from another spot and moved them to that area. I haven't seen her sitting around in the egg boxes for any length of time like a broody does so I don't know what's going on. Can you give me any input?I need an opinion.

 

[sssharon]

Holm, in case I confused you I was talking about I agreed with you about not taking the chicks away from their mama. I have checks that are four weeks old and they're doing great. It's so much easier with the broodyand the introducing to the bigger chickens. My Broody had the baby chicks out there in a couple of days, and they do great

 

[holm25]

It sounds like she is starting to make a nest. There is a good chance she is going broody. But I have hens that lie and make nests and then do nothing. They pull out brest feathers and line the nest with them and still nothing. If shes going to sit I think she would start within the next 2 weeks. There is nothing I love more than watching a broody raising chicks. I have 6 broodys at the moment. 5 hens and a duck. Everyone even the duck have chicken eggs. I had no eggs saved for the duck so I just gave her 16 chicken eggs. Good luck and I hope she goes broody!!

 

[sssharon]

I have eggs in the incubator right now that are due to hatch in a week I wish she had gone Broody sooner. I have not had good luck with this hatch and I am almost thinking about not bothering to incubate anymore. This is the worst hatch I've ever had. Is the first time that I have ever gotten hatching eggs from someone else and haven't had anything but problems with them. I think I may only have three chicks if I'm lucky. It's broody all the way for me I think from now on. Thanks for the info.

 

[sssharon]

Holm, good luck to you too! I wish I had had a Broody two weeks ago. My last broody chicks are four weeks old or five and this hen likes to raise chicks a lot, this is two groups in three months. Her first batch where is March 1 and the next was June 1st. She is a great mother too. It's real funny they can be so loving to those chicks and protective and then about four weeks old she gives them the boot. Once they learn how to roost that's it. Haha

 

[ShinShien]

Broody ameraucana hatched four chicks.

These are cream legbar/white leghorn chicks. Two have mustard-colored spots on their heads. Could that possibly mean male?