Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Roxannemc]

Ok I have incubated a lot but now one of my Buff orps went broody over a month ago so I let her set.I know nothing about broody and natural chick hatching....
There are so many post to go thru thought id just asked this ......
she has been broody for weeks now as my grand daughter keeps getting eggs out from under her so I doubt any are close to hatch in any way.

I rarely see her go for food and water.
If she continues to be broody for over the 3 weeks due to the eggs being taken and her starting over will she be harmed?
No sunlight eating once or twice a day .
I cant make it a nice spot for her with food and water easily because of how its built Too Narrow triangular tractor turned nest box .

The nest box was never meant for baby chicks only eggs A makeshift Its built where I can reach in and down a narrow area for eggs in the nest but now she has them on the screen floor (has straw ) Cant reach there at all from the top
I have a low side door floor level but inconvienent to get into as its almost up against another coop these are tractors

Anyway all this for my biggest question
. Do I need to break her from being broody after some length of time to keep her healthy?

 

[chickcharmer]

Instead of spending the next several days going thru 1760 pages of responses and information, can anyone comment about poopy vents on baby chicks being raised by a momma hen. Do the momma hens take care of this issue or do I need to help her out?

 

[OHfarmerswife]

Instead of spending the next several days going thru 1760 pages of responses and information, can anyone comment about poopy vents on baby chicks being raised by a momma hen.  Do the momma hens take care of this issue or do I need to help her out? 

you will need to take care of this problem. dampen a paper towel with warm water, pick up the affected chick and set her down on the paper towel, so that the blockage is in contact with the damp surface. you want to moisten the crusty poop. gently wipe the poop with a paper towel being very gentle. removing the poop . you may need to soak fir a bit to remove the poop several times. to help prevent this in the future you can add chick grit to their feed.

 

[chickcharmer]

Thank you for the reply...I was hoping momma would take care of that as well. Off to clean some vents

 

[3 NH reds]

Start giving them water with apple cider vinegar with the Mother ( live culture ) in it . You might want to ferment some mash using acv. It helps prevent sticky Butt. The fermented mash may look funny and have a film on it but thats ok. More info on this in the meaty section on the fermented mash thread.

 

[BCMaraniac]

Ok I have incubated a lot but now one of my Buff orps went broody over a month ago so I let her set.I know nothing about broody and natural chick hatching....
There are so many post to go thru thought id just asked this ......
she has been broody for weeks now as my grand daughter keeps getting eggs out from under her so I doubt any are close to hatch in any way.

I rarely see her go for food and water.
If she continues to be broody for over the 3 weeks due to the eggs being taken and her starting over will she be harmed?
No sunlight eating once or twice a day .
I cant make it a nice spot for her with food and water easily because of how its built Too Narrow triangular tractor turned nest box .

The nest box was never meant for baby chicks only eggs A makeshift Its built where I can reach in and down a narrow area for eggs in the nest but now she has them on the screen floor (has straw ) Cant reach there at all from the top
I have a low side door floor level but inconvienent to get into as its almost up against another coop these are tractors

Anyway all this for my biggest question
. Do I need to break her from being broody after some length of time to keep her healthy?

I am very new to chickens--less than a year---and I have a broody FBCM. She got broody all of a sudden, so I put 3 eggs under her. She stayed in the main house for about 5 days, and this stressed my other layers to the point that they started laying elsewhere. So we decided to move her and the eggs. We did so at night, but did not contain her in a cat carrier or other very enclosed area, so she was off her eggs the morning, but had chosen another spot. So I put more eggs under her and we are on day 10 of her second set of eggs.

She has already lost more weight than I would like. I get her off her nest twice a day for 10-15 minutes each time, by physically picking her up and carrying her away from the eggs, and am able to get her to eat and drink. As soon as she eats a little and drinks, she starts looking for her nest, so I let her back in, and she promptly gets back on the eggs. The beauty of a broody hen is that she is doing all of the work....I am just trying to keep her in as good a condition as possible.

You mentioned that your granddaughter was removing eggs from under her. Are the other hens getting in her box when she is out eating and laying eggs....or is she still laying??

If it were me, and my hen had been broody for several weeks, I would consider putting her in a pet carrier with 2 or 3 eggs for a day or two, giving her access to food and water, and try to find a couple of day-old chicks to put under her at night to see if she will take them. It sounds like she really wants babies.

I don't have any experience breaking a broody hen, but I would be concerned about her health if she has been broody that long and there is no end in sight for her in terms of hatching out her own chicks.

 

[Johnn]

Chicks have had a nice day outside!

Not sure if anyone can remember Bella who was the chick from the same hen last year? But anyways, she doesn't like the new chicks and attacked them. But that was the last time she did it her/the new chicks mother beat the crap out of her, I went running thinking something attacked her!

My dog appeared to be a bit to curious of the chicks (don't worry I knew he would attack them):

Then I wanted to make mama give me a stink eye:

Ok, I don't know what has happened to the font :/. But anyways I leaded her to the shed and she got them up the ramp fine so they are out 24/7 now! Here are some pics of them today and them eating pasta!:

 

[Flowerbh]

I live in GA, too!

Yea, I know! LOL. I seen you on the GA thread all the time!

 

[Jharper]

Yea, I know!  LOL.  I seen you on the GA thread all the time! 

Haha

 

[AVintageLife]

Here's my Zelda, one year old this month, sitting on her first clutch of eggs. I bought some beautiful fertile LF and bantam olive egger eggs from ChickinPickin here in NH. Today is Day 5 on the eggs and Zelda had been on the nest five days at that point. She's in the coop, can see the rest of the flock but fenced in from the others so they can't lay any eggs in her nest. She has water, fresh food daily and even part of the poop board in her enclosure (which I hope she uses instead of the nest). She is stuck tight to this nest and I'm hand feeding her tidbits in the morning and evening. Finally got her to drink a good bit of water tonight. I'm torn between wanting to baby her through this whole thing or just leave her in charge. I figure she'll get up when she needs to get up and I'll just keep an eye on her. So excited to candle the eggs this weekend to see what's going on