Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[BarnGoddess01]

Please help!

I have group of 7 broody Serama hens who are all bunched up together in a pen in the garage. They have been persistently broody for going on three months now. A few weeks ago I discovered two chicks that had almost hatched but had died. I suspect they were inadvertently killed by the broody hens fighting over them.

Tonight I candled more eggs and two of them have internally pipped. I hear them chirping inside the eggs, and the eggs are rolling around with the chicks inside them. I made a new nesting area, placed the eggs in there and tried without success to get any of the hens to stay in there on the eggs. None of them would have any part of it. They each went back to their original nesting/brooding area with all the other hens. My question is, how can I get just one hen to sit on the eggs so they can hatch without getting tossed around and killed like the others? I don't have a hatcher, so I have to rely solely on the hens to hatch their chicks out.

Thanks for any replies.

Deanne

Since they won't stay willingly, you are probably going to have to lock one of them up. Use a dog crate or even a cardboard box with an oven rack on top or something. It's pretty late on in the process, however, so if the hen really doesn't like her confinement, the chicks may not hatch or survive anyway. Good luck!

 

[Niss]

upcdayz --I like the idea of locking all but one OUT of the nesting area.

Stony--it doesn't seem to matter what the chicks look like, I'd base the choice on egg color so you can maintain purity of your flock...and go with an egg machine that won't be broody everytime you turn around!

 

[stonykill]

upcdayz --I like the idea of locking all but one OUT of the nesting area.

Stony--it doesn't seem to matter what the chicks look like, I'd base the choice on egg color so you can maintain purity of your flock...and go with an egg machine that won't be broody everytime you turn around!

I've got plenty of egg layers. 12 dozen eggs in the fridge to go out this weekend. Not counting our eggs, or the ones for my parents. I love barred rocks, and I lost the only one I had. That is part of the decision. That, and no males of another breed, unless they are confined to a pen. Besides I LOVE BROODY'S ....lol

 

[Niss]

I do have one BR and I just love her. She is a friendly, curious bird...and she plays with the dog--I use to think the dog picked on her, then I thought she was picking on the dog, but I really think they are playing together!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Besides I LOVE BROODY'S ....lol

Really ??????? I never would have guessed ....

(Good thing too! You sure have enough of them.

)

 

[Miss Lydia]

Really ??????? I never would have guessed ....

(Good thing too! You sure have enough of them.

)

 

[stonykill]

Really ??????? I never would have guessed ....

(Good thing too! You sure have enough of them.

)

 

[upcdayz]

Thank you for the suggestions on how to get just ONE hen to finish sitting on the pipping eggs. What I did was place a broody hen in a large plastic tub, with food, water & bedding, of course, then put the eggs in there and covered it with hardware cloth. I then placed that tub in a darkened area so she would settle down, which she did. Friday afternoon two chicks hatched. I'm not convinced this hen knows what to do with chicks, though. After I picked up the chicks to look at them, then put them back in with the hen, the hen tried to scoop them underneath her like she did the eggs. I've never seen a hen do that before. Until I'm confident that she will keep the chicks warm, I'll keep a close eye on them all to make sure.

Here's the mama with her babies hidden underneath.


Here are the two babies.
s

 

[upcdayz]

To clarify why I'm not sure about the hen keeping the babies warm is because I found one of the chicks laying in the bedding away from the mother. The chick was cold and barely moving when I found it, so I took it and put it in a small box with straw in it and placed that box under a heat lamp. Within about 20 minutes the chick was active and trying to walk toward me. I let it stay under the heat lamp long enough to almost completely fluff out before putting it back in with the hen. If it turns out that she's not keeping them warm, I'll take the babies away and keep them in a brooder.

 

[countrygirl5]

Miz Mary it depends how much you are willing to risk, really

Personally I wouldn't, having tried it last year and failed!

I leave her to go broody for a day or 2 with the other hens. Then once she is sitting good and tight on plastic eggs, I move her into her nursery still with the 'falsies'.

By which time my eggs are ordered. So it takes about a week between the onset of broodiness to her actually getting the correct eggs in the right place.

Good luck with your hatching

That's a good idea to have her sit on "fake" eggs for awhile! I was wondering how I was going to move her, make sure she sits, and get all 5 eggs that I want under her a the same time. I think I'll move them earlier than the 17th of March (for the easter-egg hatching) then after two days of watching them with the "fakes" I'll add the ones I want them to sit on. What do you recommend to put under her for those two days? Golf balls?