Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Faraday40]

So the egg can still hatch a chick after a five hour separation from momma hen??

Oh yes! My hen once left them for 2 hours on a 35'F winter morning. Eggs were ice cold and hatched a few days late..... but hatched!

 

[Perris]

Yes. Apart from these 3 experiences with chickens just recounted, and others you can find if you search BYC, new research shows other birds sometimes delay their hatch date, by leaving the eggs for longer than expected, especially in the first week, if the weather is not normal, because they need the hatch to coincide with peak availability of their food source. There was a package about it in this year's Springwatch on BBC1. 21 days for chicks is the normal incubation period in controlled conditions; it is more variable with a broody in the real world.

 

[jeannedeaux]

Two of first batch of eggs hatched this week, yay! Can’t believe it actually happened!! There are still four eggs from a second batch (when I thought first ones weren’t viable) that I’ve put in an incubator for another 10 days. Question: if any of these latter successfully hatch, may I introduce chicks 12 days younger to the hen? Will she care for them or already be over her broodiness for newborns?

 

[Perris]

congratulations! Another example of how robust eggs/ developing chicks can be
I don't think your broody will accept chicks from an incubator nearly 2 weeks after her own hatched, but others who have tried it may know better...

 

[fisherlady]

I doubt it would work to graft chicks that far apart. The hen wont slow down for the new chicks and the oldet ones may not care for new additions either. Activity level and stamina of the older ones will possibly cause problems for the little ones because the hens wont wait and the younger ones will either be exhausted or even left behind.

 

[Faraday40]

Two of first batch of eggs hatched this week, yay! Can’t believe it actually happened!! There are still four eggs from a second batch (when I thought first ones weren’t viable) that I’ve put in an incubator for another 10 days. Question: if any of these latter successfully hatch, may I introduce chicks 12 days younger to the hen? Will she care for them or already be over her broodiness for newborns?

A few days can work, but 2 weeks age diff would be rough. I've only been able to do it a couple times with chicks about 7-10 days behind. In both cases, the bantam broody was inside a very large brooder. The chicks were contained & there were too many for her to count.(20-25 chicks) Basically she didn't notice the chicks among the hoard, but I had to make sure the chicks were eating, drinking, & running for a few days before adding them.

 

[Faraday40]

Recently, I had the opposite happen.

When Cookie's chicks were about 4 weeks old, one Leghorn chick kept escaping. I kept putting her back inside Cookie's brooder, but for some reason she was getting bullied & then running away. I kept finding her in very unusual places & feared she'd die if it kept up. (There were a few turkey poults in there & perhaps this chick was just too sensitive or perhaps it was because she was white, but the turkeys liked to peck her.)

At that time another broody, Xansie, just hatched a big brood of chicks & on a whim I put the giant Leghorn in with the tiny new chicks. Xansie is a pretty accepting hen and didn't attack this strange new chick. Finally, the leghorn stopped trying to escape.

Xansie's chicks are 4 weeks old now & the Leghorn is 8. Here they are last night at bedtime. All you can see of the Leghorn is the giant tail in back. She sleeps against Xansie and the chicks sleep under both.

 

[fisherlady]

Broody fun continues into the dog days of summer.... at least they are happy dog days for Mindy .

2 hens, sat separately, very determined so we got them 4 chicks each. After moving to separate floor boxes it took them about 3 hrs to decide that just wasn't working for them and they joined forces.... so now happily co-raising their 8 chicks. Typical for our coop.

Mindy being her normal 'snoopervisor' self on baby day....
The first brave explorers coming out to check things over

 

[fisherlady]

A couple more

Messing with one broody is scary enough... anything crazy enough to try to take on these 2 now that they are teamed up is in for a heck of a fight!

There has to be some instinctual belief that co brooding has benefits, because our coop does it constantly, in 2s or 3s... and chicks are often even tended by 'aunts and uncles' who are currently chickless themselves but willing to help out a little one . The cobrooding has helped us humans out as well on the rare occasions when we have lost a broody to illness, injury or predator (thankfully those have been very rare events). By having more than one broody around at any time the 'orphans' are quickly assimilated into another hens brood and we dont have to raise them separately. We even have a few exceptional hens who are willing to adopt foster chicks who have been let go by their own moms at 5-6 weeks and are missing the broody comforts. Fun to watch them roaming with their blended families of young chicks and older fosters.

 

[Perris]

thanks for this info fisherlady; very interesting! And aren't the littles cute!?!