Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Sydney Acres]

Wow Sydney thanks for the great info and advice! My coop is 10 x20 aprox. So trying to figure out how I could set something like that up. Currently, my 2 co parenting moms with 4 chicks are in a 4 x 4 x 4 inside the coop, one mom with 4 chicks in a 3 x 3 x 2 and a mom with 5 chicks in a 2 x 2 x 2. Plenty of room for mom with new chicks but now the moms are getting antsy. So you wait until the chicks are older to incorporate them into the main flock?

You don't normally need to wait until they're older, but with my setup I will end up waiting. If you've only got one broody, or multiple broodies that won't fight with each other, then Mama can decide when it's time to take her chicks into the group, and many will do so when the chicks are less than one week old. But my situation is unique. I have 2, hopefully soon to be 3, broodies with chicks, and each group is separated by ~10 days in age. The broodies got along great before brooding, but will now fight aggressively, which could injure the chicks. And since I free range over more than an acre, I need to wait until the chicks are old enough to not be cat treats before they can be out of a secure run.

Can you set up some runs outside the coop safely, or would that be dangerous? If it has to be inside the coop, could you do 3 sets of 4X4X4 foot cages, or 3X3X10 foot runs, just on a temporary basis? That poor hen in the 2X2X2 with 5 chicks is pretty tightly packed, unless she's a tiny bantam (my hens are 6-7 lbs each, so I visualize everything as needing to be huge).

 

[Sydney Acres]

It's official, I now will have three broodies with chicks. Despite my total mistake in leaving the eggs from group #3 in the incubator on days 11-14 of incubation while eggs from group #2 were hatching, with the humidity at 65-68%, I now have my first chick hatched from group #3. It hatched at exactly 21 days to the hour. The second chick is moving around in the egg quite a bit but I can't see anything else, and the third egg has a miniscule external pip. Hopefully the other two eggs will be able to hatch without drowning. I'd hate for this little darling to end up as an only chick. I'll see what's in the incubator in the morning.

 

[loobyloo88]

So the eggs should hatch in around 10 days, and she's been broody for a few days, so that's enough time.  You could put the eggs under her now and let her hatch them out if you think she'll be a reliable broody.  If she's a first time broody nine eggs might be 1-3 more than ideal, so you could put 3-6 under her and the rest in the incubator.  You could replace her fake eggs with real eggs when she gets off the nest to eat, drink, and poop, if you ever see her do that.  Or you can go into her pen at night and pull out all the fake eggs first, then put in the real eggs one by one.  If you put them down in front of her breast she will likely pull the egg under her.  I usually just put the eggs under her wing and she rearranges however she likes.  If she's really tame and used to you handling her you could probably do this anytime day or night, but it very much depends on the temperament of the broody.  Some birds will stop brooding if you mess with them.

If you do switch out eggs, it would be a good idea to have identifying marks on numerous areas of each egg.  That is especially important if there might be other hens that could crowd in with your broody and lay additional eggs in the nest.  If you draw a circle around the equator of the egg so you can see it when the egg is in any position, then you'll know if there's any new eggs being added.  If there are new eggs, removed them asap.  Too many eggs under a hen can decrease your hatch rate, sometimes significantly, and new eggs can create staggered hatches, which can end with either untended chicks, or more likely abandonment of near-term eggs prior to hatch.  So if other hens can lay eggs in broody's nest, check the eggs daily or every other day and remove any unmarked eggs.

If you graft chicks from the incubator onto the broody, it is important to stick around for a little while afterwards to be sure that she accepts the chick(s), and that the chick stays in the nest and doesn't wander off.   The younger the chick the better, but 3 day old chicks are probably the oldest that will graft successfully on a regular basis.  There are exceptions, of course, but you can't count on those. It's not just a matter of will the hen accept the baby, but will the chick accept the hen.  Chicks imprint on a caretaker during the first three days of life, whether it's a hen, a person, a stuffed animal, or a heat lamp.   A 5-10 day old chick that knows to get under the heat lamp for warmth will look at the giant bird and think it's T. Rex, possibly run away, get chilled and die.  And even if it stays under the warm feathers, it may not listen to the hen as it grows and the hen tries to teach it life skills.  If it wanders off when the hen tells it to come back, it may get eaten by a cat or ???  So grafting a chick to a hen is a two way street which really should be started by day 3, if possible, although there have been successful grafts that have started later.

How to graft successfully does somewhat depend on the hen.  Theoretically, it should be done at night after the chicks are dry.  Use the minimal light possible where you can see, and don't shine the light at the hen's face.  Also, don't drop the flashlight.  A keychain flashlight that is attached to a lanyard around your neck works great, as does a headlamp (as long as you don't shine it directly at the broody, which I have difficulty avoiding with the headlamp).  The dry chicks are placed under her fluff from behind, or under her wing if she tolerates handling, but not up front where she might peck an unfamiliar chick before it gets nuzzled it and she bonds with it.  If there's enough light for her to see well, ideally cup your hand over the chick so she can't see it during the transfer.

That's what I've been told for the average broody, where there's the potential that she may not want chicks that aren't hers, so you have to sneak them under her to be sure that they will be safe.  I started out that way with my hen.  She had 5 hatching/hatched under her, and I had 12 eggs in the incubator timed to coordinate with her hatch.  The incubator chicks were soooo active that I had to take them out of the incubator ASAP, as they were flopping around, rolling the other eggs around, and seemed distressed to not have anything to snuggle against as they dried out.  So the moment they were half way dry I pulled them out, weighed them, leg banded them for pedigree, wrapped them in a warm T-shirt out of the dryer and took them out to the barn to put under the hen.  I started out trying to sneak the chick in, but as the day progressed into night both she and I got tired and the pretense totally fell apart.  By the end of the night I just walked into her pen, showed her the chick all wrapped up warm, picked up her wing and tucked the chick somewhere under there with all the others.  By the end of the night her little "wingpits" were bloated with squirming peeping chicks, a total of 13.  Way too many for a first time broody, but she's set up in a way where there are no dangers to the chicks, and it's summer, and she's amazing.  All 13 are growing like weeds, and are 10 days old today.  But that's a broody that is extremely tame, totally trusts me, and didn't look at these chicks as interlopers from another nest.  Not all broodies will have that type of temperament, so sneaking a chick in during low light is definitely the safest way to go until you know how your hen will react to new chicks.

Put em under her and let her do her thing

thanks both for your replies! Shes been broody for a while but let to sit for the last 5 days, ive re checked my calculator and the eggs are to hatch monday/tuesday time, was thinking of slipping them under her sunday so she can hatch them. This is her first time hatching. I've had to take her off the nest myself to eat, drink and poop, so shes definitely into it!

 

[bobbieschicks]

thanks both for your replies! Shes been broody for a while but let to sit for the last 5 days, ive re checked my calculator and the eggs are to hatch monday/tuesday time, was thinking of slipping them under her sunday so she can hatch them. This is her first time hatching. I've had to take her off the nest myself to eat, drink and poop, so shes definitely into it!

I've had a clutches hatch from broodies who only sat for a week or so. I've had a clutch hatched from a girl who never laid an egg but co brood with a silky.

Most broodies will gladly accept the chicks at any point along their broody time line. It doesn't have to match the 21 day cycle for them.

 

[bumpercarr]

I've had a clutches hatch from broodies who only sat for a week or so. I've had a clutch hatched from a girl who never laid an egg but co brood with a silky.

Most broodies will gladly accept the chicks at any point along their broody time line. It doesn't have to match the 21 day cycle for them.

I've never met a chicken that can count!

 

[bobbieschicks]

Noticed one of the WL eggs was broken in the nest, so,she's down to five potentials. Not sure how many of those were viable since I didn't candle recently. Guess I'll find out tomorrow or soon today is Day 20.

 

[fisherlady]

Been a kind of low weekend.... we had 3 broodies on a total of 14 eggs. All 3 have been good mothers already once this year. One of the broodies (Rosie) had only been setting for 10 or 12 days. The eggs had originally been split between the other 2. I gave rosie 5 of the mid way eggs thinking she would be OK with it by hatch time... well, apparently she had trouble adjusting from setting mode to hatching/mother mode and we found 3 chicks dead under her which had died shortly after hatch. All were still wet and were smothered flat under her legs.
In doing a mental review of what went wrong I realized i never heard her talking to her eggs the day before hatch which all of our hens normally do once pipping starts. Had I been thinking I would have pulled her eggs then and given them back to the other 2 hens to hatch.. Rosie just wasn't ready.

So we only ended up with 6 chicks since some others were quitters or didn't zip. A hard lesson to learn but I will know to pay closer attention to a broody's 'body language' in future similar situations. I don't blame Rosie at all.. in fact she is now happily setting on 4 other eggs which another set of broodies had started and they are only on day 6, so she will have plenty of time to be in the right mind set when these start to hatch. I will keep a close eye on her to intervene if another problem arises, but I honestly think it was human error this time. Rosie hatched a brood of 6/7 in February without a hitch so I know she is a great mama when given the right chance to do her thing.

I just wanted folks to understand that even experienced broodies and humans can make mistakes or have problem hatches.. so those of you who are new to the broody thing can understand this and not be too hard on yourself when things go wrong.... it happens and hopefully we can all learn from it to help it be better next time!

 

[micah O]

hey just had the mom hatch them what now?

 

[Sydney Acres]

It's official, I now will have three broodies with chicks. Despite my total mistake in leaving the eggs from group #3 in the incubator on days 11-14 of incubation while eggs from group #2 were hatching, with the humidity at 65-68%, I now have my first chick hatched from group #3. It hatched at exactly 21 days to the hour. The second chick is moving around in the egg quite a bit but I can't see anything else, and the third egg has a miniscule external pip. Hopefully the other two eggs will be able to hatch without drowning. I'd hate for this little darling to end up as an only chick. I'll see what's in the incubator in the morning.

Good news update! The chick that hatched last night has been grafted onto my broody Barnevelder, and she seems to be doing well with it over the last 2 hours. The chick that pipped last night hatched about 2 hours ago and is still drying in its pedigree cage, and the third chick pipped about 3 hours ago, started zipping about 30 minutes ago, and is now taking a nap (that's hard work!). But when the third chick was busy zipping it was having quite a loud conversation with the second chick. It was so stimulating to the cats that I had to put a huge laundry basket over the incubator, just to be sure that they couldn't try to break into the incubator. It wouldn't be easy, but if they jumped at the lid just right with their full weight they might be able to dislodge it. Hopefully the third chick won't rest so long that the exposed membranes dry out, but that's an easy assist if it does happen.

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

Good news update! The chick that hatched last night has been grafted onto my broody Barnevelder, and she seems to be doing well with it over the last 2 hours. The chick that pipped last night hatched about 2 hours ago and is still drying in its pedigree cage, and the third chick pipped about 3 hours ago, started zipping about 30 minutes ago, and is now taking a nap (that's hard work!). But when the third chick was busy zipping it was having quite a loud conversation with the second chick. It was so stimulating to the cats that I had to put a huge laundry basket over the incubator, just to be sure that they couldn't try to break into the incubator. It wouldn't be easy, but if they jumped at the lid just right with their full weight they might be able to dislodge it. Hopefully the third chick won't rest so long that the exposed membranes dry out, but that's an easy assist if it does happen.

Yay!!!