Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Raven81]

im in new zealand & we are at the end of our laying season atm, our buff orp has gone clucky 4 times this past season & ive taken her off the cluck everytime.
i did have a banty cross that would not break so i gave her some eggs. as the nesting boxes are raised & the other hens kept laying on top of her i built her a broody box with a run & then i built another bigger run that slides up to it for when the chicks are a bit bigger. all made out of scraps lying around.
as all the chickens are free range they would often come & visit mum & babies but couldnt get in to harm them ( neither could the cats ). once they were big enough to free range aswell the older flock were used to seeing the little ones so integration was fairly easy.
i ended up weaning them at about 8 weeks as miss banty was very aggressive with people if you got too close to the babies.
once they are away from the mother they go into the juvenile coop
currently the broody box has a blue orp in it with 15 eggs due on the 10th march.
this is the broody box when miss banty was in it - minus the extra run

& this is the juvenile coop

 

[Myabcs3]

I have a question for the broody hen hatching experts - how long to leave unhatched eggs under the hen to see if they will hatch? We had some hatch yesterday afternoon and few that are still unhatched...do I need to remove or will she let me know that they are unviable by getting off or pushing them out?

Thanks! Mama hen is still keeping the chics very well covered under her, so I can't get pics yet. She lifts up and let's me look but doesn't stay that way so I can get a picture and it's still chilly enough to freeze the waterers so I don't want to take the chics out to get pics, but as soon as I can I will!

Sandy

 

[ldrwnorman47]

Congrats on the hatch

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:
The Usserys' article says:

"Remember that the embryos all started development at the same time. However, their rate of growth varies sufficiently that the first chick may be out of the shell 16 hours earlier than its slowest sibling. The hen has the wisdom to know that she must not leave the nest early, and is quite patient in waiting for the last chick to hatch. The early arrivals hatch with the last of the yolk material in their systems, and are thus able to wait awhile without feed or water. In practice this means that one typically waits until the following morning for the last chicks to hatch. Any egg showing no sign of pipping at this point is unlikely to hatch. If you shake it gently, you may hear a liquid gurgle inside—proof of a non-viable egg. Even if there is pipping which has not progressed, if you tap on the egg and hear no peep, it is clear that the embryo has died attempting to hatch. Such failed eggs should be removed from the nest, and the hen encouraged to leave and start caring for her chicks.

Once the hen takes her chicks for their first outing she will seldom if ever return to the nest to continue incubating any remaining eggs. Even if they still have live chicks inside. At that point I remove any remaining whole eggs and bury them deep under the drip line of a bush or tree. I'm not brave enough to crack them open to see what's inside. You are welcome to look or listen, and could even try to continue to incubate any that seem to have live chicks inside. Which is possible if another hen got into the nest after the broody began her set and left a fertile egg in there. If you get any more chicks to hatch you can *try* to get the broody to accept them (put them under her at night) but you also have to be ready to care for them yourself if she rejects them.

I have never just left eggs in the nest with the hen, I don't know what she would do, if she'd try to move them out by herself. If your hen's chicks started hatching yesterday afternoon she might wait until late this afternoon, or even tomorrow morning, to leave the nest.

 

[dandelionheart]

Quote:
Probably the bantam.

Don't let their size fool you.

 

[rebel-rousing-at-night]

Great thread!
Here's my broody experience(which is not a lot.lol) but has a good leason.
I recently broke up a broody but then about 2 wks. later another one started.I decided I would love to give it a chance.Last week I got her off the nest to eat and counted and marked the eggs with a pencil(next time will use a sharpie).I was worried about that she is still with the other chickens and was not sure what to do.I read what I could search out here on BYC about broodys.Several ppl said to take them out from the other chickens and gave several reasons.
I agreed but I'm in a dilemma as to where to put her as I don't live on a farm with access to other buildings.I decided I would move her this past Sun. night to somewhere

Too late as one of the problems I read about had happened.She got confused and got on a different nest so those eggs got cold.

This was my fault for not moving her sooner so now I'm collecting more eggs to put under her in a moved place.I'm still trying to figure out where but it will happen. Now to figure out where to put her.Would love to have some Olive Eggers and more Marans.

Hope this helps anyone in this situation.

BYW this is a Marans broody.How many eggs can I put under her?

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I am sure someone has answered this I am only just started reading the thread. But with my first broody hen I left the hen in until I found out the other hens were still adding to her eggs. Eventually she couldnt sit on them all and wound up loosing about half. The ones outside get cool get roolled in therefore pushing others out. By then all I could do is build a wire cage around her.

 

[perchie.girl]

bantyhen'sfriend :

I've been having a hard time hatching my white rock bantam eggs in my hovabator, so I have seven in the 'bator and seven under my white rock hen (who decided to go broody after I needed a hen...

). We'll see if nature does a better job than my hovabator on these eggs. Will post back with results!

I have had no luck moving the hen, so I moved the rest of the flock, lol! I have two pens bacause my rock cockeral fights with my cochin cock, so I just took all the hens (mutts) from the pen my rocks were in and put them in the other pen. This might not work for everyone, but it's OK for me. You might also be able to partition off a part of the coop, like we did for a new batch of youngsters a couple of years ago.

Our nest boxes are raised off the ground, and I am concerned about the chicks falling out and not being able to get back up to mama. Should I make a ramp? Should I close off the front of the nest box until everyone has hatched and then move the chicks and mama to ground level?

I wound up building up the area around the nest box with flat stones and dirt. The nest box was actually a dog house in the yard....LOL. It was up about six inches but once the chicks came out they couldnt get back in. I wouldnt lock them in how would they eat and drink?​

 

[Raven81]

Quote:
if the eggs got cold but if she wasnt off them for more than a day they can actually still hatch, a bantum can sit on 10 comfy & a large fowl will cover 20.
as i said previously i have a blue orp sitting on 15 eggs atm & i didnt think she would of handled that many but once i put them under her & she got comfy on them i now now she can sit on alot more than i gave her.

 

[Soapologist]

I put 12 eggs under my Australorp hen last night

I have just left her in the coop with the others, and will rig something around the nest to stop the babies being able to get out until I can help them out. I didn't want to move the hen to a broody box, as the last time I tried I broke the broodyness and I'd already ordered the eggs and don't have an incubator.

It's 21 days til hatch, right? So that should have them hatching around the 22nd of this month. This is my first hatch, I'm so excited