Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[vegaschick]

This is Casino, my broody gamebird mama.

Well, here goes...! I made a broody box and seperated my hen while she was still sitting on wooden eggs. I gathered some fertile eggs from local BYCers and placed nine eggs under her last night. I was worried that may be too many as she is a game hen but she seems to be covering them all. The broody box is under the next boxes and I was a bit worried she'd try to go back to her old nest when I let her out for a stretch and dust bath. So I shoved a heavy box in her favorite nest to make sure she couldn't get in. It worked...or maybe it was just the lure of all those eggs calling her back, either way, she returned to the right spot. The main problem today was that she kept getting in fights...probably 10 within 15 minutes. NO KIDDING!!! It was like the other hens couldn't even look her way or stand near her without getting attacked. Those are some serious hormones!!! I've decided to try something new tomorrow. First, I'll throw out the scratch and BOSS to all the other girls. That should get all the hens not seriously laying out into the run. Then I'll block off the access points in the hen house and extension, open her cage so she can go into the extension to dust bathe and I'll save some seeds just for her. When she's back in place, I'll open it up again. We'll see how it goes. I don't really want to remove her from the henhouse all together until after the babies are hatched.


Oh, and I may have another broody. She's been lingering in the nest longer and longer. I kicked her out of her nest at night a few times a week ago. Today she spent all day in the nest except about 5 minutes. My game broody is tried and true. I got her with her chicks in July, so I know she's a good mama, but this one's a pullet I incubated and has only been laying for a couple of months. She's a BCM X EE that is still laying speckled brown eggs but probably not for long. Now, where to put her if she's serious???

 

[ldrwnorman47]

Just an update on my Broody my 4 yr old daughter has recently named Henra ( henry only the female version i guess)
Henra is sitting good. She gets up every couple days and eats, poos and drinks and goes right back to the eggs. She is sitting on 16 GC eggs. I decided to move her and now I think that was a great decesion. She is alone in a private "suite" no one to irritate her or get her confused Her and the eggs and mouse that gets into her food dish!!
Good luck everyone who has a sitter this month, i cant wait for pictures!!!

 

[ChickadeeMom]

i ordered 4 dozen eggs and my stupid bator only holds 41! so i have 2 in my mini bator (trying one last time b4 i throw it out) and the rest under my blue cochin broody.

i set them on the 1st. she has been sitting for about 3 weeks on nothing, all my hens quit laying and still she sat in the box on absolutely nothing. kinda cool. but now she has eggs, big eggs!! buff orp and rir crosses!! huge eggs compared to hers lol.


i will be keeping up with this thread for sure

 

[aveca]

Quote:
I LOVE the broody. If i have a broody starting to set and have hens in the breeding pen..I mark with pencil one fertile egg to keep her busy then start making a collection for her..I LOVE that brinsea candler you can see any spots that will not hatch so throw those away..you can see just about everything with those so worth every cent..after I make a reasonable collection of eggs for her kept around 55 - 60 degrees..I mark them date and in calander book..Then I go out about day 8 with the brinsea and one by one candle them and set them aside If I find an unfertile one throw it out so it doesnt go bad under there..then I set the eggs right in front of her and like a backhoe, she gently pulles them back under her..I have the best time doing that and the hens are used to me messing with them once in while..I dont bother them befor day 8 that is a time when with brown eggs you can see that something is really going on...

This is a pet hen that I kept because she is such a great mother and a pleasure to have around..she is austraslorp and barred rock that someone gave me a couple years ago..they didnt want her because she was broody....works for me..I can sleep at night when shes on duty unlike when I have bator going and heat with woodstove and fretting all night that it will spike or drop too low..shes hatched a few deleware chicks for a freind of mine..I dont raise those but they were thrilled that she got 3 chicks out of 4 eggs. one is hiding in this pic.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

One big reason for isolating the broody is the fact that laying hens seem to prefer to follow fashion, rather than think for themselves. (This is also a great object lesson for my teens) Hens don't like to have to figure out for themselves where the safe places are for laying eggs. That's why they're so attracted to nest boxes with other eggs or egg-ish looking objects already in them. "Well, somebird else thinks that's a good place to lay, so I'll lay my egg there too!" There seems to be something irresistable about a nest with a broody hen in it. "WOW, that's such a great safe place that she plans to raise her children there!" and they all go nuts trying to add their eggs to that clutch. (Similar behavior can be found in big cities among parents of preschoolers searching for the ideal day care center)

With chickens it might also be a survival behavior, adding eggs to another hen's nest, getting your DNA out there even if another hen will incubate & raise it.

When the hen has her privacy insured then the other hens won't get in to bother her. Sometimes eggs get pushed out, cracked or broken. Even when other hens haven't pushed the broody out, they can go on the nest when the broody is out on her daily coffee break and still be there when she returns. Sometimes the broody will just go on to another nest and happily start incubating those eggs, meanwhile the intruding hen has left the original nest and now the egglings are left to cool.

It is possible for a hen to brood along her flockmates right in the coop, but it's just not the ideal set-up in my opinion. I always try to move the broody, or block off the area for her, whenever possible.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:
I love this description, it does look like a backhoe when the hen reaches out with her beak and pulls the eggs under her with her chin. Now the boys & I will have a new phrase to say when we're setting a hen with eggs. We love to watch the hen once she gets all the eggs tucked beneath her and then rocks from side to side to settle them in place. We call it "The Chickie Cha-cha" and will chant "Chickie, chickie, cha-CHA!" as the hen seems to dance. They just give us the dirty look that broody hens are so famous for.

Once I gave a bantam hen a big goose egg to incubate. I had scooped out the little banty eggs she had begun with and placed the goose egg against her breast. At first she just stared at it with wide-open eyes -- "What in the world is THAT!?" Then her gaze softened "Awww, it's a dear baby egg that needs my love" and she bravely backhoed it beneath her. Then she awkwardly did the dance "Chickie -- ugh! Chickie -- ooh!! Cha -- aah CHA!!!"

 

[michaelinnc84]

Rofl. Chicken backhoe and chacha. I can picture it now. All we need is a strobe light and it will be a shindig in the barn.

 

[Hennyhandler]

I am so glad this thread has been made. I like having other people's experience right here to read and learn.
Now, I was wondering if ya'll could give me some advice. This is the situation. I would like to buy a silkie since I like the way they look and they are known to go broody. So she would have to get used to the new place and be integrated into my flock. THEN I would like to get her some fertile eggs for her to sit on. The things is I would like to seperate her from the rest of the flock when she starts to sit as that seems to be recommended but the way my coop is set up it would be impossible.
So my thoughts would be to have her in a nesting box outside in the very secure run. I would fence it off so that she could get up and move around and the other hens couldn't bug her. Then when the chicks are born they can stay here too. I was thinking of making it big enough that they can stay here even when they are older till it is time to integrate them with my flock. Does this sound like a good plan?


I do have some questions on the details. Like, how much space should I section off? I don't want to do to much cause it will be taking away from my existing flock. Could I put her in a cat carrier for the nest box? How tall does the fencing need to be so that the other hens won't fly over it into her area or does it need to be enclosed? And when does she need to be seperated from her babies or does she at all?
I know it is a lot of questions but they are all jsut swirling in my mind? So thanks for any help.

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

First, you don't want hawks swooping in for a chickie snack, so you need to enclose the top. Cats that will ignore full grown chickens can't resist the little balls of fluff. Make the broody space as predator proof as possible.

A cat carrier would probably be fine. Will it keep the rain off of Mama and babies? If not you might consider a tarp over the top and shading the wire door. Make sure they won't be baking in the sun.

Fencing height is dependant upon the flying/jumping ability of your current hens. I have bird netting across my runs to keep the hawks out, but first thing in the morning it also keeps these sprongy Leghorns and Ameracuanas IN. They quite often hit the bird netting on their flight out the coop. I swear they need a jungle gym!

After the babies are older (others can give you better timing advice), you will intergrate Mama and babies into the flock. Mama will start roosting away from the chicks or altogether ignoring them when she's done playing mommy.

Good luck on your Silkie purchase. Both of mine turned out to be roosters. Drat.

 

[ldrwnorman47]

Sunny Side Up I laughed out loud, and im at work !!!!!

I heard cat carriers work just fine. Ive never used one but they say they work.