Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Johnn]

Love this pic!

 

[luvmychicken]

Good morning everyone. Hope y'all enjoy the day.

 

[luvmychicken]

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[fisherlady]

Good morning everyone. Hope y'all enjoy the day.

Just spent a couple of hours in the coop watching our (nearly) 3 wk old chicks playing. They are now learning to fly, testing their balance on the mini roost we made for them and generally doing everything their mama (Gracie) does. They got their treat this morning of a cup of meal worms (of all sizes, still mixed in with the wheat and oat germ we raise them in, just get a scoop from the meal worm farm with probably a 100 or more from 1/8th inch to 3/4" or so) I scatter this out on the floor and they go nuts 'hunting' for the worms. When one finds a larger worm they run around carrying it and cheeping at full voice while 2 or 3 others chase it. Seems to be a favorite game.
They are also using Mindy (our dog) as a jungle gym now... climbing all over her and using her as a launch pad for flying practice.... she's been a saint about it, but gets a bit worried when she has 3 trying to perch on her head all at once!! LOL

And for those worried about temps with their little ones... our coop is probably about 35-40 degrees today, and the little ones could care less... when they get cold they run under Gracie for a minute or two then are right back out exploring. If they have a good nest area and a hen to hide under they are fine!

 

[CoopChick719]

Thanks Bobbie & Johnn! Those are my favorite pics too!

 

[JanaBanana1]

I had not one but THREE young hens, (not even 6 months old) go broody in the dead of winter....lots of snow and frigid cold temps. . So I ended up putting some fertilized eggs that I got from a guy I know under one of them. 4 hatched out, so I left her 2 babies and stuck one under each of the other mama wannabes'. They are each in a nesting box, there are only 4 total boxes and 3 are being used up by the new mamas and their babies. My question is, I am going to have to move them somehow, and I need to know what would be the best option for this? Do I need to quickly buy something to house these 3 hens and babies? The house they are in now, the boxes are up off the ground at a height that if/when the babies decide to fall out or fly the coop they couldn't get back in. The other hens that occupy the hen house will most likely kill them. Yesterday one of the mamas let one of them in her box to lay an egg while she was sitting on her chicks! The hen house has a heat lamp on 24/7 in the cold temps so whatever we end up doing we will have to get another heat lamp for them too...
thanks for any and all advice.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I had not one but THREE young hens, (not even 6 months old) go broody in the dead of winter....lots of snow and frigid cold temps. . So I ended up putting some fertilized eggs that I got from a guy I know under one of them. 4 hatched out, so I left her 2 babies and stuck one under each of the other mama wannabes'. They are each in a nesting box, there are only 4 total boxes and 3 are being used up by the new mamas and their babies. My question is, I am going to have to move them somehow, and I need to know what would be the best option for this? Do I need to quickly buy something to house these 3 hens and babies? The house they are in now, the boxes are up off the ground at a height that if/when the babies decide to fall out or fly the coop they couldn't get back in. The other hens that occupy the hen house will most likely kill them. Yesterday one of the mamas let one of them in her box to lay an egg while she was sitting on her chicks! The hen house has a heat lamp on 24/7 in the cold temps so whatever we end up doing we will have to get another heat lamp for them too...
thanks for any and all advice.

My broodies usually take their chicks out of the nest and make a new nest on the coop floor somewhere. They stay there until about four weeks old. The mom usually teaches them to roost around that time and then abandons them. I let my broodies do whatever they please since I figure they know best. Also, I don't heat my coop. My broodies have had babies in 20F coop without needing a heat lamp. But our temps don't stay that low for long. I wouldn't add extra heat unless temps drop below 20F for extended periods. The broody will warm the babies.

 

[CoopChick719]

Just spent a couple of hours in the coop watching our (nearly) 3 wk old chicks playing. They are now learning to fly, testing their balance on the mini roost we made for them and generally doing everything their mama (Gracie) does. They got their treat this morning of a cup of meal worms (of all sizes, still mixed in with the wheat and oat germ we raise them in, just get a scoop from the meal worm farm with probably a 100 or more from 1/8th inch to 3/4" or so) I scatter this out on the floor and they go nuts 'hunting' for the worms. When one finds a larger worm they run around carrying it and cheeping at full voice while 2 or 3 others chase it. Seems to be a favorite game.
They are also using Mindy (our dog) as a jungle gym now... climbing all over her and using her as a launch pad for flying practice.... she's been a saint about it, but gets a bit worried when she has 3 trying to perch on her head all at once!! LOL

And for those worried about temps with their little ones... our coop is probably about 35-40 degrees today, and the little ones could care less... when they get cold they run under Gracie for a minute or two then are right back out exploring. If they have a good nest area and a hen to hide under they are fine!

Hi fisherlady, I was watching our 13 day olds last night. 2 of them were flying at each other while the other 2 were up on the big girls lower roost watching. The bedding is pretty deep so they just hopped up. Tonight when I went out all 4 of them ran over to me and sat at my feet peeping. This is the first time they've done that!!

Too cute that Mindy is a jungle gym! Our Molly, a Pomeranian, went into the coop w/my daughter who let her smell one of the chicks. She sniffed it like it was one of her puppies. Now she stands outside the chicken room door whining to come in. The rooster doesn't like her in there! She looks a lot like a fox.

Question on your mealworm farm--do you separate the beetles from the larva & worms? I've got a farm going...lots of beetles....haven't seen any worms yet.

 

[fisherlady]

Hi fisherlady, I was watching our 13 day olds last night. 2 of them were flying at each other while the other 2 were up on the big girls lower roost watching. The bedding is pretty deep so they just hopped up. Tonight when I went out all 4 of them ran over to me and sat at my feet peeping. This is the first time they've done that!!

Too cute that Mindy is a jungle gym! Our Molly, a Pomeranian, went into the coop w/my daughter who let her smell one of the chicks. She sniffed it like it was one of her puppies. Now she stands outside the chicken room door whining to come in. The rooster doesn't like her in there! She looks a lot like a fox.

Question on your mealworm farm--do you separate the beetles from the larva & worms? I've got a farm going...lots of beetles....haven't seen any worms yet.

Sorry to hear the rooster worries about the Pom... but it may get better with time/exposure. Our chickens are used to spending a lot of time with Mindy, the adult birds walk around, under or over her without a care. Frequent, controlled exposures should help make your birds a bit more comfortable. Though they may always be nervous when babies are involved. Much depends on personalities of both the chickens and the dogs.

On our Meal worms... we don't separate them. It seemed like it took forever to really 'get going', and we saw nothing but beetles for a few weeks, then finally noticed tiny, tiny worms starting to move around. Some were so small you really didn't see the individual worms, you saw the bedding moving instead. We just kept replacing our apples slices every few days, made sure we had a water dish with a wet paper towel crumpled up in it for humidity and 2 or 3 pieces of crumpled up newspaper for the beetles to crawl around in and eventually we started finding larger and larger worms. We clean out clumped bedding every couple of weeks and now it is to the point where I can easily take out a 3 or 4 cups worth of worms/bedding a week without problem.
When the bedding gets low or seems to be getting clumpy or smelly we sift out the whole box, dispose of the soiled bedding and make a new bedding mix and just dumpt the beetles and worms back into the fresh stuff. We will sometimes take the old bedding and set it aside in another container (with wet paper towels for moisture) in about 2 wks then we resift and get another 2 or 3 hundred meal worms that were small enough they missed the first sifting. These get placed back into one of our regular farm boxes and the old bedding then gets thrown out.

It is great to be able to get a scoop or two of worms to scatter in the coop for the chickens to all dig for. I don't worry about any being missed with the cold temps, anything that somehow is missed by the chickens won't grow or repopulate now. In the summer I won't have any need to scatter them in the coop area since the birds will be outside finding their own bugs.
I also toss some of the beetles to the chicks, Gracie then gets to show the little ones how to catch and kill bugs. She only had to show them once! Now they all pounce as soon as they see any beetles in the stuff I scatter!

 

[delisha]

Thanks Pozees and Deb.
Ok, I will just let it ride. I guess it is obvious by now I am way out of my depth on this broody hatching thang, sigh. So worrisome. Ok, at this point, I'll do nothing. Junior is out of the box and hasn't tried to get into it again for several days. I think at this point, I will open the run this weekend and let Junior out into the run. Then close the door and remove as much old shavings as I can without disturbing the girls. Then add new shavings for the chicks to tread on. That's as close as I can come to a clean new brooder.
I know to only put in chick flint the 1st day or two. Plus add Poultry Nutri-Drops to the chick waterer. I am not quite sure if the chicks will be extra needy because they aren't in my brooder. If I should buy premium chick feed instead of regular Purina to make up for that. Yeah, I am a worriwort and trying to think ahead because I found, in puppies, it is always easier to anticipate problems, than solve them once they crop up.
Thanks so much for bearing with me and helping me while I try to figure all this out.
Karen
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Your hen is getting off the nest.You are just not seeing her. I think you need to mark your eggs. I would not use pencil. It will be gone in a day or two. Use marker and number them. I would leave them do there own thing.unless you see something that tell you to intervene.
Marking the eggs will tell you if the other hen is laying or not. If she is laying, she is laying in her sisters nest.