Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[mystonedgarden]

So we had a crazy storm last night, and now its nippy outside. As I was doing my morning chores, I found that the EE chick that my broody mama hatched was chilled to the bone and looking pitiful. Everyone else was fine and gobbling down breakfast. I decided to bring in the EE chick into my brooder. I wrapped her up and lowered the heat lamp. Its been 30 mins and she seems a bit brighter. Question is, do yall think lil mama will accept her back? I figured shes been with her for almost two weeks, she should recognize her chirps right?

 

[fisherlady]

So we had a crazy storm last night, and now its nippy outside. As I was doing my morning chores, I found that the EE chick that my broody mama hatched was chilled to the bone and looking pitiful. Everyone else was fine and gobbling down breakfast. I decided to bring in the EE chick into my brooder. I wrapped her up and lowered the heat lamp. Its been 30 mins and she seems a bit brighter. Question is, do yall think lil mama will accept her back? I figured shes been with her for almost two weeks, she should recognize her chirps right?

Once the chick is warm and back to normal activity level then evaluate it for any injuries or sign of illness which may have caused trouble to begin with. If no sign of contributing cause then return to the broody but watch closely for trouble today. Chicks can get separated and confused, so hopefully a one time incident.

 

[Sydney Acres]

The subject of breaking a hen's brood came up on one of my other threads, so I wanted to do a duplicate post on this thread. Admittedly, this thread usually has the opposite goal, but sometimes we don't want a hen to brood at a particular time, so I though this information could be useful.

The wire bottom cage is the best known gold standard for breaking a brood, but my main breed (Red Dorking) has a very heavy hen that broods frequently, so I didn't want them on wire. I tried many of the other well known techniques and nothing worked. Eventually I found a very reliable technique that doesn't require a wire bottom cage, but works just as well.

Build a small wire run. Mine is about 30" wide, 30" high, and 5' long. It is made out of 1X2" welded wire, just four side panels held together by cable ties (it could be made out of other materials, but this is very stable because of the frequent welds, and has lasted for almost 10 years). The top is divided into two parts. Half is attached by cable ties on the sides and one end. The other half is about 4" longer than the remaining opening on top. One end is cable tied onto the first half (the only remaining unattached edge of the top's first half, spanning across the center of the run), so that it can open and close like a hatch. The other end has the extra length bent down over the end side panel so that the hatch doesn't fall down into the run. I prevent the hatch from opening with a simple latch, which isn't usually necessary, but one hen years ago figured out that she could get out of the run by repeatedly flying up into the hatch until it opened. There is no bottom on the run. It is very lightweight, very secure, and easy to move. It was easy and cheap to build, and can be disassembled and stored flat when not in use, if desired.

My birds free range. I put the run somewhere on the property where the broody cannot see her nest, or anything near her nest. I chose an area that is protected from the weather so she won't get too hot, too cold, or wet, and is very safe from predators and harassment. There should ideally be some dirt to dustbathe, and some grass to graze, but that's not essential. What is absolutely necessary is that there not be anything on the ground that can be used to build a nest -- no leaves, no straw, no shavings, no dry grass, no bedding of any kind. Just food, water, plain ground to sit on, enough room to pace a little as the brood starts to transition out, and no reminder or sight of her nest or eggs. At night I put her in a pet carrier with cardboard on the bottom, covered with a towel, and put her in the garage (or barn, or coop, or spare bedroom -- just somewhere that is no where near her nest, and is 100% predator proof). I've had 100% success at breaking broods with this method, with 90% of hens taking 3-4 days, and the remaining hens taking either 2 or 5-6 days. And no wire pressed into the plucked, bare brood spot on their chest.

I hope this can be useful to someone.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
I agree, the hen will likely remember the chick, and the chick will of course remember its mom. I would recommend that the chick eats and drinks well before being returned to mom, if possible, just to be sure that it's still healthy. You may need to bring in a second chick to keep it from panicking from being alone before it will eat, or it may feel like it's starving and eat well by itself.

 

[mebberry4]

Thanks 5 Acre Rooster!
I set 10 eggs out of the dozen, leaving out the two that were quite poo splotched. A few of the others had some mild spots on them, but I included them anyway.
I set the eggs under her last night around 10 pm and while the transfer didn't go as smoothly as it could have, when I checked on her this morning she is sitting and brooding nicely.
I did find one of the eggs in front of the nest box....I did the transfer with no light so as not to disturb the chickens roosting or my broody, so I can't be sure if she pushed the egg out of the nest or it was my poor placement in the dark. The sad part is, it was one of the cleanest eggs!
I placed it back under her on the off chance it was still good, but will definitely be candling on day 10 to see which eggs are viable.

I'm hoping for an 80% hatch rate with a 50/50 mix of hens/Roos. More hens than that would be awesome of course, but this should bring me up to 8 laying hens which will meet our egg production needs much better.
I really wish we could keep a rooster in our flock, but our residential zoning doesn't allow it. When I hatched my first batch of eggs in the incubator I ended up with 6 Roos and 5 pullets.... I tried so had to convince DH to let me keep the nicest NH rooster from that group, but he wouldn't hear of it. That little roo was so nice to the hens and would even do the rooster dance for them. It certainly would have been easier to set up my broody with eggs if he was still around.
Ah well.
Here's hoping for a great broody hatch!

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Good luck on that. Always remember just because the egg is the cleanest doesn't mean its the most hatchable or fertile.

I am split on my broody as to let her sit the eggs I put under her to make sure she was going to sit or swap them out with others. Its a toss up for me. The eggs I gave her were soiled heavy and I was to lazy at the time to clean them for any reason, probably would of went back to birds as feed anyway. There is a local breeder that has SQ WLH eggs for $10 dz. and I won't have to pay shipping. That way I have a 2nd strain of WLH to use for breeding purposes. I have some pures yet that I might just swap out for her current eggs.

 

[SunnysMama]

I currently have 3 mommas with chicks, 2 sitting on eggs and 7 more broody! I'm done with babies after the ones hatch. I need to break some broodys as they are taking up the majority of my nest boxes.

My mommas have their chicks with the rest of the flock and the other hens are awesome with them. My problem is feeding because the hens eat all of the chick starter!! This is my first year letting broodys hatch eggs so feeding an integrated flock is new to me.

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

I just feed 1 type of feed, either chick or layer, to all birds. Its a cost factor, either use higher protein chick feed, hoping it doesn't make egg production slack off, or layer and the chicks slow growth by a small margin. They don't need the extra calcium like layers do. If they range they will even out diet as they need themselves. Otherwise I think you would have to keep broodies w/chicks separated from main flock to keep feed from being eaten by all birds. Unless you want to get constructive and build a chick "creep feeder". Something where only small chicks can enter and get the feed you put in there. This however might cause Mama's to call chicks away if SHE cannot reach feed therefor decide chicks can't get to it either.

 

[elsfieldchickens]

my pekin and her aracuna chick

 

[boomchicken]

my pekin and her aracuna chick