Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[karlamaria]

Quote: we can not get her out side until the coop and run are done ( Saturday and Sunday).
She is in this hutch, ( we got it free but it was so dirty. we cleaned it and removed all that junk in it.
http://postimage.org/image/58x1plcuv/
But I'm worried if I take her out side in this hutch, it will be to cold since it gets down into the 30's at night still and no where but the yard to put her and I worry at night something will harm her with out being in the pen.and the fact the hutch is so wide open with the wire . worry bout the cold since its so open . I'm just wondering how she can take them out side ... Maybe we can pick the hutch up and take it out during the day and then back in at night until the pen and coop are ready?

 

[jgervais]

Thanks for the feedback
I typed up the story here:
http://simplelifeainteasy.blogspot.com/2012/04/chicken-life-aint-easy.html

I didnt include any gruesome pics, there are however pics of the new babies that made it and a few pics of them while they were still in the coop with their mama.

I'm def gonna be a nervous wreck when another hen goes broody

 

[bobbieschicks]

So sorry about the dead chicks. Maybe she felt there was something wrong with them and tried to put them out. Chickens can be harsh to one another. Hope the others are okay. Like humans, not all mommas make great mommas. Hugs.

...and the drama continues.

I had 2 hens on eggs a week apart. I tried to move the first one with her eggs to a safer location, and she gave up on the eggs, so that batch was lost. She left the eggs a day i was at work and they were very cold when i got home.

The second hen I left alone and her eggs started hatching a few days early and continued to hatch for 3-4 days. At first it was great; I saw one fluffy yellow butt, then two, then a darker one and finally four chicks. I came home yesterday to see that she brought them down the mini ramp I made her to the food and water i set up. I peaked in the nest box she hatched her eggs in and saw one dead chick, which i assumed was natural cause or suffocation or something that wasnt too worrisome. Then I opened the side door to look in at her and the chicks and there was another one dead on the floor and she was chasing one around pecking it. I didnt realize what was going on until she pecked it twice more, and to its death right in front of me. I got my husband, we ran her out of the coop and collected the babies. 8 out of 10 eggs hatched, she killed 3 and I now have 5 in my garage under a lamp away from mama. All 3 chicks she killed were dark Dorking chicks, shes a Buff Orp and did not seem to be bothering the light colored chicks.

Did she kill them because they werent 'her' chicks? Or maybe she was distraught once they went down the ramp and didnt come back up to sit under her, but that doesnt explain why she killed the one in the nest box.... Im just not sure this whole 'chicken life' is for me.

 

[Tripp16]

HOw do you change your name on here? I was even thinking about starting over with a whole new profile to change my name.

Contact one of the moderators. They can change it one time but only if no one else has the new name.

 

[aaggjg]

So I candled the possibly/ hopefully fertile eggs my broody has been sitting in for 5 days .... and they are all clear

I have some fertile eggs hopefully arriving today so I will stick those under her.... Having never put shipped eggs under a broody do I have to let them settle like you do before you put them in an incubator??? She has been setting for 6 days already is it okay for her to go another 21 days??? I try to make her eat and drink when I go to feed them in the morning but I haven't forced her off the nest yet .... So I am not sure if she has been off to poop.....

My other pretend broody Nugget hasn't shown any more signs of wanting to go broody ... just the one fluke day .... I'm sure she will go broody in 3 weeks the minute all the shipped eggs hatch .... Yep that would be my luck.

 

[Miss Lydia]

So I candled the possibly/ hopefully fertile eggs my broody has been sitting in for 5 days .... and they are all clear

I have some fertile eggs hopefully arriving today so I will stick those under her.... Having never put shipped eggs under a broody do I have to let them settle like you do before you put them in an incubator??? She has been setting for 6 days already is it okay for her to go another 21 days??? I try to make her eat and drink when I go to feed them in the morning but I haven't forced her off the nest yet .... So I am not sure if she has been off to poop.....

My other pretend broody Nugget hasn't shown any more signs of wanting to go broody ... just the one fluke day .... I'm sure she will go broody in 3 weeks the minute all the shipped eggs hatch .... Yep that would be my luck.

I've never used shipped eggs but i believe your to let them rest on the counter for 24 hrs. maybe tilted but don't remember which way. anyway she will be fine sitting that long. I had one last year that sat 42 days because i gave her non fertile eggs the first time

and she'll also eat and drink when your not looking [just so you can worry she isn't]

 

[Glasshen]

When to let Mom and babies mingle with flock...what has been said by others is right, let Mama decide. I was rather overprotective, and kept them separate, first in the basement, then in a dog crate that was closed. But as soon as I decided to open it, she took it from there, and probably could have much earlier. One reason I had waited so long was that it was Feb. 20 we got the chicks and they could not go out. Couldn't see them being in the coop with nothing better to do than torture the chicks.
But as soon as the door was open, Mama hustled those girls out to start training them. And she made sure that all the others stayed away.

Food. Give them chick starter. The rest of the flock will want it too as it is higher in protein than the layer feed. Around here in Feb. All I could find was medicated, which I didn't want (IMO medicine is a cure, not a way of life), so I wound up with game bird crumbles. I thought Mama should have some layer food, but she clearly did not want it, and repeatedly warned the babies away from it, so I removed it. Mama clearly wanted to teach them to peck things from the ground, so she scattered the crumbles all over, rather than teaching them to eat from the chick feeder.

Once Mama decided her work was done, the other hens were kind of menacing to the 6week olds, so they are in a small separate coop with a temporary fence within the larger pen. They all see each other, and these girls are supposed to be BOs, so can't wait to see everyone else give them space when they are full grown and can hold their own.

When you make changes, just be sure to be there to watch incase there is a real need to intervene for someone's safety.

 

[karlamaria]

When to let Mom and babies mingle with flock...what has been said by others is right, let Mama decide. I was rather overprotective, and kept them separate, first in the basement, then in a dog crate that was closed. But as soon as I decided to open it, she took it from there, and probably could have much earlier. One reason I had waited so long was that it was Feb. 20 we got the chicks and they could not go out. Couldn't see them being in the coop with nothing better to do than torture the chicks.
But as soon as the door was open, Mama hustled those girls out to start training them. And she made sure that all the others stayed away.

Food. Give them chick starter. The rest of the flock will want it too as it is higher in protein than the layer feed. Around here in Feb. All I could find was medicated, which I didn't want (IMO medicine is a cure, not a way of life), so I wound up with game bird crumbles. I thought Mama should have some layer food, but she clearly did not want it, and repeatedly warned the babies away from it, so I removed it. Mama clearly wanted to teach them to peck things from the ground, so she scattered the crumbles all over, rather than teaching them to eat from the chick feeder.

Once Mama decided her work was done, the other hens were kind of menacing to the 6week olds, so they are in a small separate coop with a temporary fence within the larger pen. They all see each other, and these girls are supposed to be BOs, so can't wait to see everyone else give them space when they are full grown and can hold their own.

When you make changes, just be sure to be there to watch incase there is a real need to intervene for someone's safety.

very informative thank you so much!!! Im off to get crumble today !! my babies should be here with in 2 to 4 days!

 

[bobbieschicks]

When to let Mom and babies mingle with flock...what has been said by others is right, let Mama decide. I was rather overprotective, and kept them separate, first in the basement, then in a dog crate that was closed. But as soon as I decided to open it, she took it from there, and probably could have much earlier. One reason I had waited so long was that it was Feb. 20 we got the chicks and they could not go out. Couldn't see them being in the coop with nothing better to do than torture the chicks.
But as soon as the door was open, Mama hustled those girls out to start training them. And she made sure that all the others stayed away.

Food. Give them chick starter. The rest of the flock will want it too as it is higher in protein than the layer feed. Around here in Feb. All I could find was medicated, which I didn't want (IMO medicine is a cure, not a way of life), so I wound up with game bird crumbles. I thought Mama should have some layer food, but she clearly did not want it, and repeatedly warned the babies away from it, so I removed it. Mama clearly wanted to teach them to peck things from the ground, so she scattered the crumbles all over, rather than teaching them to eat from the chick feeder.

Once Mama decided her work was done, the other hens were kind of menacing to the 6week olds, so they are in a small separate coop with a temporary fence within the larger pen. They all see each other, and these girls are supposed to be BOs, so can't wait to see everyone else give them space when they are full grown and can hold their own.

When you make changes, just be sure to be there to watch incase there is a real need to intervene for someone's safety.

Good info. FYI my LO are bigger then my WL, AC and EE who are all older, but the LO step aside for the older girls. It's attitude rather then size in my flock.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I let Topsy out to TCB and she went back to the nestbox when she finished. So I moved her & the eggs into the secure area and put her on the eggs. She settled down and I was hoping she would take to staying there. Then I heard her rubbing on the hardware cloth repeatedly. So I opened the door and she darted out, ran to the coop and got back up in the nestbox. I'm not going to fight it. I'll let her stay there. When it's time I'll figure something out for her and any chicks. My guess is she will abandon the notion long before a hatch happens. Although right now she's happily sitting in the nestbox and I think she's smiling.