Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[vpatt]

Here they are!!

 

[ChickenLady2014]

Are they

So I decided against chicks. I had to go pick up my granddaughter from school which just happens to be within five minutes of the feed and seed. Fortunately we only brought four babies home....lol. now I need to know what I should put in their water....and in a week or so I need to be figuring out their outdoor schedule provided the weather cooperates.

I think I need to put sugar in the water.....was there something else?

Already had our first chick issue and we've only had them for an hour. Cameron was looking at them and told me that one of them had something brown hanging on its behind. Was a big bit of dried poo. So I had to hold its little fuzzy butt under the faucet until the stuff finally came off.

They are one week old already. One is a RIR-Buttercup. The other three are Aracauna according to the store lady....Helga, Nora and Viola. All are supposed to be pullets. Time will tell. I know they may be EE's I guess we will see about that too. I am calling back to ask what hatchery they are from and I will try to do pics in a little bit....I hope I'm not in over my head.

getting too warm in the space you have them? If they can't get far enough from the heat source if they're too hot they will paste up on their bottom. Or if they are in a big pile under the heat lamp they may not be warm enough. I always lay the brooder thermometer directly below the light so you know the actual temp they're experiencing at the height of the bulb. I've always found mine do better at 85-90 on week one versus the 95 they recommend. The only time I had pasty butt with a chick is with a shipped hatchery bird or if they were getting too warm. I know TSC carries the electrolyte packets that good in their water for a bit. Somewhere on Here I know someone has posted a recipe, just don't know where now. Hope the little one gets to feeling better. I also dab a little dollup of antibiotic ointment on their bumm after cleaning them off.

 

[ChickenLady2014]

Here they are!!

Awe sweet!

 

[vpatt]

Are they
getting too warm in the space you have them? If they can't get far enough from the heat source if they're too hot they will paste up on their bottom. Or if they are in a big pile under the heat lamp they may not be warm enough. I always lay the brooder thermometer directly below the light so you know the actual temp they're experiencing at the height of the bulb. I've always found mine do better at 85-90 on week one versus the 95 they recommend. The only time I had pasty butt with a chick is with a shipped hatchery bird or if they were getting too warm. I know TSC carries the electrolyte packets that good in their water for a bit. Somewhere on Here I know someone has posted a recipe, just don't know where now. Hope the little one gets to feeling better. I also dab a little dollup of antibiotic ointment on their bumm after cleaning them off.

They had only been in there for about twenty minutes when she found it......I let Cameron choose them and she picked them up in the store so I am thinking it was there from the store.....I wouldn't mind a few more but not sure how much space is needed. They may need to go in the garage when they start flying.

 

[ChickenLady2014]

They had only been in there for about twenty minutes when she found it......I let Cameron choose them and she picked them up in the store so I am thinking it was there from the store.....I wouldn't mind a few more but not sure how much space is needed. They may need to go in the garage when they start flying.

they probably were getting too warm & stressed at the store. My store does not let customer handle the chicks, so if yours does, that's another stresser for them. How big of space are you brooding them in, how warm is the area your keeping them in & what kind of heat lamp are you using? Go to forum and look up brooding chicks. That will give you more of an idea of what kind of space and the best brooder setup. I've always found the bigger the space you have is the best. They will grow really fast. Make sure you have some kind of mesh lid if you have other pets in the house.

 

[FL Crowing Hen]

So I decided against chicks. I had to go pick up my granddaughter from school which just happens to be within five minutes of the feed and seed. Fortunately we only brought four babies home....lol. now I need to know what I should put in their water....and in a week or so I need to be figuring out their outdoor schedule provided the weather cooperates.

I think I need to put sugar in the water.....was there something else?

Already had our first chick issue and we've only had them for an hour. Cameron was looking at them and told me that one of them had something brown hanging on its behind. Was a big bit of dried poo. So I had to hold its little fuzzy butt under the faucet until the stuff finally came off.

They are one week old already. One is a RIR-Buttercup. The other three are Aracauna according to the store lady....Helga, Nora and Viola. All are supposed to be pullets. Time will tell. I know they may be EE's I guess we will see about that too. I am calling back to ask what hatchery they are from and I will try to do pics in a little bit....I hope I'm not in over my head.

Don't get discouraged. I'm sure you're not in over your head. I started with 9 week old chicks last June. I now have 18 total in my flock, including 4 chicks, one of which my broody hen hatched this past Sunday. It gets easier, and then chicken math will take over. Before you know it, you may have more than just those original 4 chicks.

 

[vpatt]

So far so good. They seem to be ok and are quiet and have been eating and drinking. I have a red light and they are in my Tv room.....so I would think they are warm enough.

 

[Hayduke27]

My broody hatching adventure continues. Today is day 11. I candled on day 7, and at least 7 of the original 9 looked like they were doing just fine. On the morning of day 8, I went out to the coop, and one of the broodies had moved during the night to another nest with 1 fake egg in it. At some point, during that time, a chicken had eaten 2 of the eggs she was sitting on, so I scopped up the remaining egg, which was chilly but not super cold, and put it under hen #2 (who originally had 6 eggs under her). Later that evening, hen #2 got up for her break, so I went to check the eggs... Low and behold, there were 8 marked eggs under her...

The thing is, she started with 6 under her, and the morning of the broken egg catastrophe, I moved one more under her. She resides on the top row of nesting boxes, so as far as my imagination is concerned, she could not have moved the egg herself. I have no idea how the extra egg got under her, but the good news is that when it's all said and done, I still have 8 of the original 9 eggs.

I am going to candle again soon and pull any clear eggs out. At this point hen #2 is sitting on all 8 of the hatching eggs, and hen #1 is still broody, sitting on 3 fake eggs. I am not going to give her back any of the hatching eggs, as she moves around a little more than hen #2, and other chickens get into her nest to lay. I've been trying to do all of this in the coop.


Soooo, my questions are these: the hen that is sitting reliably right now is a cochin bantam. She's doing a great job, but she is very low in the pecking order. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if she'll be able to protect the chicks. The vast majority of the flock is standard sized, and they don't give the banties any respect. Therefore, I am thinking about moving her into my chicken room in the basement to hatch out and at least begin the raising of the chicks. Does this sound like the best course of action in this banty-mom situation?

Along these same lines, the other hen who has been the shifty broody could most likely be moved to the chicken room as well, and she is dying to be a mom. This is her third time being broody. She's a whirling dervish for sure, and she could easily protect chicks. This makes me wonder if I shouldn't make her a separate little area in the coop with some chicken wire where she could have one nest and some private space to hatch. She could then go about her business as mom once this hatching business is over. Part of me thinks that maybe I should just separate her off, put the eggs under her, and let her raise hatchlings. She would definitely be in a better position to defend the chicks, and I can just tell she wants them so very badly. I feel like letting her hatch out the eggs and raise the chickens as a ferocious mom sounds like the better plan, no?

So those are my plans/thoughts on the current situation. I am also not against picking up a few store chicks to put under a mom, as they are supposed to be arriving right around my hatch day. Maybe I'll move the banty to the basement with a few fosters, and move the viable eggs under the marans out in the coop, just to let my new hatchlings get the natural, mom-raised, outdoor experience...

If anybody has any thoughts on any of this, advice would be welcomed and appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ChickenLady2014]

So far so good. They seem to be ok and are quiet and have been eating and drinking. I have a red light and they are in my Tv room.....so I would think they are warm enough.

Wonderful, best of luck with you and your granddaughters chicks. I have 4-4 week old Silkie mixes that I hatched for my granddaughter. I have many others, but she has been wanting some Silkies so Silkies we got

 

[bramblefir]

I need some advice!

Eunice hatched her brood on the 26th and 27th. She has been an excellent mother to them... until this evening. We went to bring our other animals in, close up the coop, and other various evening chores. Eunice had abandoned her chicks in favor of a nest with eggs in it. I got her settled on a nest that chicks can easily go in and out of, rounded up all of the chicks (many of which were chilled), and slid 3 eggs under her to keep her content. She was busy throwing straw all over herself while her chicks found any place they could to squeeze in and warm up.

What do you do with a broody that wants to hatch more eggs before the last hatch is ready to be fledged?

I have eggs in the incubator going on day 18 tomorrow. I could transfer a bunch under her to hatch and move her current chicks into the brooder. Is that a good idea? I'm concerned that she no longer wants to care for the existing chicks. Would the chicks be okay if I set their food and water nearby to her nest and left them with her, especially since the others are so close to hatching?