Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

Love it!

 

[chicks4fun]

I hope this is the right place to post this question. I just hatched 5 chicks under a broodie. I usually get day old chicks. With them I use a heat lamp & feed them.
My question is when do I feed them since they are with a mother? Do I just put chick starter in with them? Also what about water & drinking? Will they leave the nest themselves?
Their mother has barely touched anything since she has been sitting on eggs.
Any advice is appreciated.

 

[chooniecat]

I hope this is the right place to post this question. I just hatched 5 chicks under a broodie. I usually get day old chicks. With them I use a heat lamp & feed them.
My question is when do I feed them since they are with a mother? Do I just put chick starter in with them? Also what about water & drinking? Will they leave the nest themselves?
Their mother has barely touched anything since she has been sitting on eggs.
Any advice is appreciated.

Have just done this for the first time myself and everyone else said/and I have just done ---to put starter food/water out with mom and chix and there you go. My broody is eating well for the first time in weeks and her chicks are doing great(day 2 for chicks)

 

[Daloorashens]

I'm getting back into the chicken thing, but when I had them several years ago, I never used an incubator, just the bantam hens. I always put food and water close by the momma hen and the chicks learn to eat from her. I never used special food or anything, either, I did loose a chick from time to time, but most of them lived and there were seldom issues putting them back with the flock, they were always with the rest of the flock, the momma protected them, so they were fine. I don't have an incubator now, so I would have to learn how to use one of those, and the chicks we bought this spring I had to read about how to set up a brooder, etc. Although it's fun to have the chicks in the house and keep an eye on them, it still seems kind of sad to me that they don't have their momma hen to hide under.... But they're doing fine, they're outside now in a pen with some shade and I'll bring them back in later today... Anyway.. that's my experience!

 

[stonykill]

Thank you stony. and how is Penelope doing? getting close i can't keep the days straight anymore.

If i picked her 1st day correctly she should have her hatch about a week from tomorrow. She is doing GREAT. Yesterday I come home to a Sumatra egg next to her nest. She was a good girl and let one of those girls lay in her coop. I didn't feel like getting bit, so I figured I would get it in the am. Well, it was gone. She is sitting on it!

 

[aaggjg]

Sounds like my girl before she went broody. Now she knows where her nest is unless the other girls get on it. But the past few days I have been having to force the poor girl off her nest. She literally has not pooped since the first week she started sitting.

Needless to say she hasnt eaten much so that is why she isnt pooping but still 2 weeks!!

I think your Maran eggs still could grow. How long was she sitting on them? It just may slow down the incubation period by a few days. My hen was attacked by our rooster while off the nest and her eggs got cool while I was getting her cleaned up and (praying this wouldnt snap her out of broody mode) but it didnt. She got right back on her nest and her eggs are due sunday!

Well she has been sitting for 4 weeks now ... The eggs are due to hatch on Thursday/ Friday .... I think if it was early on in the process they might have survived getting cold for 12+ hours but at this late stage I am not so sure .... This is an entirely different kind of lockdown!

 

[vmdanielsen]

I'd go ahead and let them in if they have been able to see each other this whole time then things should go pretty smooth. It's when they are so isolated that when mama is put back with the flock they look at her as being new and that doesn't fare well with the chicks either. Either your going to have to do it or maintain 2 separate flocks. Just be there to stop any problems.

That's the thing. I do not want to maintain separate flocks....The event is scheduled for Saturday night and we will be up early Sunday.....

 

[vmdanielsen]

I'm so upset...I built popcorn a lean-to section of the coop on Sunday and gave her back her eggs... All was dandy yesterday morning and then I went to work and got home late so couldn't go and check on chickens. Well this morning popcorn was sitting on the egg nugget laid yesterday and her eggs were ice cold.... ICE 2 beautiful darkest of dark Marans eggs (yes I put the best ones under her... idiot...) and the only lavender silkie and one other silkie....(yep double idiot) I'm so sad so so so sad.... There was a Small space in the screen on the side of my structure and I use that term loosely .... And she got out through that....

and as i wasnt home to collect the eggs laid yesterday she found them..... I gave her back the 2 cold silkies and put the Marans in the bator... I'm sure they are all dead ..... So here is my question.... Should I wait and put hatched chicks under her? Or should I put eggs that have pipped under her?? Obviously I can't do anything right with her.... She hadnt moved from her nest in days!! Again..... Ugh

I had good luck putting just hatched under my broody.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That's the thing. I do not want to maintain separate flocks....The event is scheduled for Saturday night and we will be up early Sunday.....

Let us know how it goes...

 

[chicks4fun]

Have just done this for the first time myself and everyone else said/and I have just done ---to put starter food/water out with mom and chix and there you go. My broody is eating well for the first time in weeks and her chicks are doing great(day 2 for chicks)

Thanks, she hasn't gotten off the nest yet at all but I had fed her a few berries today to celebrate the new chicks. I will put the food out & keep an eye on it.