Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[ameliadanielle]

Lmfao. Trust me, I was worried about that too. I spent the day sitting behind my desk not moving a lot.

 

[ameliadanielle]

I also was wrapped up in a wool blanket on a hot day to make sure I had them warm enough. Miserable. Lol.

 

[fisherlady]

We had 2 hens hatch out broods last Thursday, got a few pictures yesterday while working out in the chicken yard.

And one young rooster who was doing his darndest to convince the hens he had found the bestest brooding box ever!

 

[h2oratt]

I ended up throwing the egg out. When I rotated it, I could see stuff moving/floating. So, all done with the hatch with 7 adorable babies. 

Good job

 

[tjmings]

First time broody mama here! I have a frizzle that went broody so I got 3 fertilized silkie eggs for her to lay on. She has been great! I take her off every morning to eat, drink and do her business (not sure I should be doing that). Strangest thing is that even though I have two nest boxes, all my layers are laying in her box. So I have to retrieve the eggs from under her every day. She will be at day 21 in 3 days. I have left her in with the rest but I'm wondering if I should separate her now. Is it too late? I have a small coop and run. The next box is about a foot up from the coop floor. There is not room to put food/water in with her but I have it in the coop. My biggest fear is that when the chicks hop down they will get smoothed by one of my bigger hens.

I do have a separate coop that I use as a sick bay/nursery but it currently has 5 week old chicks in there that I am waiting to get a little bigger before integrating with that big girls. If I put my broody in there with her babies, is it likely everyone will get along ok?

 

[fisherlady]

First time broody mama here! I have a frizzle that went broody so I got 3 fertilized silkie eggs for her to lay on. She has been great! I take her off every morning to eat, drink and do her business (not sure I should be doing that). Strangest thing is that even though I have two nest boxes, all my layers are laying in her box. So I have to retrieve the eggs from under her every day. She will be at day 21 in 3 days. I have left her in with the rest but I'm wondering if I should separate her now. Is it too late? I have a small coop and run. The next box is about a foot up from the coop floor. There is not room to put food/water in with her but I have it in the coop. My biggest fear is that when the chicks hop down they will get smoothed by one of my bigger hens.

I do have a separate coop that I use as a sick bay/nursery but it currently has 5 week old chicks in there that I am waiting to get a little bigger before integrating with that big girls. If I put my broody in there with her babies, is it likely everyone will get along ok?

I would not move a hen so close to hatch, but I would make a barrier out of chicken wire or fencing material and use it to block off her nest for the last 3 days. Since you are already getting her out each day just do so until day 20 and then let her alone until after the hatch. You can then move her to a floor nest or similar safe spot of your choosing.
Leaving her in the current coop or moving her to the other is a call you have to make based on the personalities of the other hens and your broody's ability to defend her chicks. Sometimes older chicks can be quite nasty to little ones but a strong broody can overcome that...a timid broody or even just a very small hen can have trouble defending against determined bigger birds but a good broody can often do quite well in a mild mannered flock. Wherever you choose to keep her I would give her a couple of days behind a wire barrier at least to give the mother and chicks time to bond and get quicker on their feet.

 

[PD-Riverman]

First time broody mama here! I have a frizzle that went broody so I got 3 fertilized silkie eggs for her to lay on. She has been great! I take her off every morning to eat, drink and do her business (not sure I should be doing that). Strangest thing is that even though I have two nest boxes, all my layers are laying in her box. So I have to retrieve the eggs from under her every day. She will be at day 21 in 3 days. I have left her in with the rest but I'm wondering if I should separate her now. Is it too late? I have a small coop and run. The next box is about a foot up from the coop floor. There is not room to put food/water in with her but I have it in the coop. My biggest fear is that when the chicks hop down they will get smoothed by one of my bigger hens.

I do have a separate coop that I use as a sick bay/nursery but it currently has 5 week old chicks in there that I am waiting to get a little bigger before integrating with that big girls. If I put my broody in there with her babies, is it likely everyone will get along ok?

Which ever way you go----do not remove her from her nest anymore----and do not have feed and water at her nest where she can reach it from the nest. She needs to stay on the eggs for the next 3 days all the time to increase the moisture. Hands off for sure. Good Luck

 

[tjmings]

First time broody mama here! I have a frizzle that went broody so I got 3 fertilized silkie eggs for her to lay on. She has been great! I take her off every morning to eat, drink and do her business (not sure I should be doing that). Strangest thing is that even though I have two nest boxes, all my layers are laying in her box. So I have to retrieve the eggs from under her every day. She will be at day 21 in 3 days. I have left her in with the rest but I'm wondering if I should separate her now. Is it too late? I have a small coop and run. The next box is about a foot up from the coop floor. There is not room to put food/water in with her but I have it in the coop. My biggest fear is that when the chicks hop down they will get smoothed by one of my bigger hens.

I do have a separate coop that I use as a sick bay/nursery but it currently has 5 week old chicks in there that I am waiting to get a little bigger before integrating with that big girls. If I put my broody in there with her babies, is it likely everyone will get along ok?

 

[circleSchick]

I'm very excited to try this method! Since my ladies are not interested in being broody I recently ordered and received 12 buff oppington chicks. They are so cute! It will be 18 weeks before they are ready I know.

My question is how do I know which eggs are fertilized and ready to go under the broody hen? I have a new Roo that is still getting to know his girls.

I'd love your advice please

 

[ameliadanielle]

My Buff Orpington broody with her 5 babies.

The issue is you never can tell if each individual egg is fertilized. If the rooster is mating with the hens, you're going to start getting fertile eggs. If they haven't had a rooster around before, I'd just give him enough time to be getting to them all. My Splash Red Laced Wyandotte has 11 hens. Here and there I get eggs that aren't fertilized. I think he has favorites that he spends more time with. Because I'm always hatching out babies mixed with the gold laced wyandottes and buff orpingtons off of him. I had three fertile eggs that didn't make it under my hen. Out of 8 we got five chicks. I opened the others after they didn't hatch and candling showed no movement. One I thought was infertile stopped development during the first week but it's hard to see when candling brown eggs. The other two somewhere at the end of the 2nd week or beginning of the 3rd week. So even with fertile eggs you don't always get chicks. You can give the roo a week to make the rounds to all the ladies and then crack a few of them and look for the bullseye on the yolk. You can Google pictures of fertilized egg yolks and that will give you an idea. Once you're seeing that bullseye on the yolk, you know he's doing his job right. But there is no way to tell to for certain every egg is fertile. Once a hen starts sitting on eggs and is broody, in about a week you can candle and you'll be able to see if the eggs are developing. With white eggs you can see it earlier, the darker the egg the harder it is to see and it gets easier the bigger the embryo gets and the more veins grow.

If you just have a new rooster and you've had a different rooster before they can still lay fertile eggs from the previous rooster until the new one gets on the job. They can hold sperm for a long time. I usually wait a month before I assume a hen is laying fertile eggs for sure from a new rooster. I also have hatched out eggs that were laid within days of putting a new rooster with the flock and he was the daddy of quite a few of them. Try watching the rooster out the window when he doesn't know you're looking. For weeks I had no clue my new roo was humping anyone. He was only doing it while we weren't around. I didn't know he'd done anything until I hatched some of his babies. Lol.