Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

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Well Candy is beautiful! I love white hens -- I have a light Brahma and she is all white except for a little black on the head and tail and I love her white feathers on her legs. I call her Bloomer because she looks like her bloomers are down around her ankles!
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My Araucana hen is starting week 3 sitting on 11 eggs. When I realized she was broody, I moved her to a separate pen because the other hens had crowded her out of the nest when she went broody before. So far, she's doing great in the separate pen. She rarely gets off the nest. However, I'm wondering about re-introducing her (and her chicks) to the rest of the flock after they hatch. I'm sure this has been discussed before. Anybody have a link for me to check out to get that information? Thanks!
 
Congrats on the broody! It's so much fun to watch the mommas with their babies.

If she's been nearby in a pen, but not in the coop with the others, what most will do is let momma and babies out into a fenced area so they can be nearby the larger flock for a couple of weeks since technically the babies are "new" to the flock. That means they will have to be integrated along with the momma back into the larger flock. The sooner you do it the better for the babies - that way if a bigger chicken comes along they can still run and hide. It also depends on where the hen was in the pecking order - if she was high up - she won't have many problems bringing her babies into the flock. But if she was lowest, she may have some difficulties because the others will want to be sure she remembers she's lowest. If you have roosters in there - be especially watchful of how they accept or don't accept the new babies.

I kept my broodies in the main coop in a wired off area so that they were still with the flock, but the eggs were safe from others breaking them. I let the babies out with the mommas by the 5th day and let the mommas do all the moving around of chicks. I trust them to defend the babies - which they do. And I try not to intervene in squabbles - unless there is a bloodletting going on. Usually the babies are accepted by the larger flock and left alone - unless they get in the way of the older ones - who might give them a peck to remind them who is in charge.

The progression I saw last time was that momma will teach them to find food and water by the end of day 3-5, and teach them how to go up and down the ramp by the end of the 1st week. By the end of week 2 they will be given more independence from momma - she won't cluck so much for them to follow until they look like they are in trouble. By the end of week 3 she will move them from the floor of the coop to the nest box to sleep. By week 4 she will have moved them to the roost with her and all but abandon them by week 5.

This time I have two broodies with their chicks walking around the run - they are small broodies with silky chicks - so that timeline might get stretched out a little longer. Then again the babies just hit 2 weeks old today and I noticed both mommas ran off to get treats - ate some and then ran back with some for the babies. A week ago they would have stayed put or rushed back with their babies once they picked up a treat. They grow up so fast.


CarolJ said:
My Araucana hen is starting week 3 sitting on 11 eggs. When I realized she was broody, I moved her to a separate pen because the other hens had crowded her out of the nest when she went broody before. So far, she's doing great in the separate pen. She rarely gets off the nest. However, I'm wondering about re-introducing her (and her chicks) to the rest of the flock after they hatch. I'm sure this has been discussed before. Anybody have a link for me to check out to get that information? Thanks!
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Well thought I was done hatching for the season and then had three hens go broody and another one go missing (maybe hiding out with eggs because the other possibility is not cool). Between the three of them they have 13 eggs. One is due the 11th of June, the second is due the 20th of June and the third is also due on the 20th of June. Hoping I will be able to keep all three together in an outdoor brooder with their babies. I haven't had luck with keeping them with the other hens in the past (I have to say though these three are much more aggressive than the first one was) so I think I am just going to err on the side of caution. I will try to get pictures to show you the girls and their prizes lol. Fingers crossed that everyone hatches okay.
 
Tripp16 said:
They all look like a happy family! I hope one of my ducks is a hen and will hatch me some babies! Are ducks normally broody?
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I think it depends on the breed. We bough Patrick and Penelope BECAUSE they were born from broody's last year. You know how much I LOVE broody's.
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. I'll be the 1st to admit, I enabled her. Leaving 2 false eggs in the nest ALL OF THE TIME, and at the 1st incling of sitting on the nest a little too long in the morning, started leaving her eggs there. I am a broody enabler
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