Putting a couple new babies under a broody BO

[Dottie Ferrell]

I would like to add a couple new babies to our existing 4 girls (2 BO's, a RI Red, & a Dominick) and one of our BO's is forever going into strong broodiness periods. I don't want to do the incubator thing and only want a couple additions. A friend successfully adds a baby chic under a broody female and she accepts it without problem. Does anyone else know if that is a good idea? And if so, would that broody Mom need to be in a separate housing area away from the other three chickens, or would those chickens tend to attack the new baby? I would do the switch at night and switch the couple of eggs under her for the new babies. Thanks to anyone who could answer this for me. I would get more than two but our city regulations has a limit on how many chickens per household in town.

 

[SIMZ]

I've had this work wonderfully and I've had it end tragically. It tends to depend on the hen and the timing. Your best chance of success is going to be if she's been incubating eggs for at least a couple of weeks and make the switch as soon as it gets dark, so she has all night to think about it. lol Make sure the chicks are 1 or 2 days old at the most! My successful times have always involved a hen that just hatched some of her own and I snuck a few more under her.

Housing really depends on your set-up. If you put them all together you want to have LOTS of room for those other chickens to steer clear of mom and her babies. How big if your coop and how big is your run? Keep in mind that eventually the hen is going to reject the babies and want to go back into the flock, so if they're not all together you'll still have to introduce the chicks. I've seen that happen as early as 3-4 weeks - and some broody hens don't do well raising chicks anyway.

But don't let me scare you - it does work out sometimes! Just be prepared to jump in and raise the chicks yourself if it doesn't work out.

 

[tinakevin]

I gave my Rhode Island Red 3 babies and she accepted them with no problem. She was determined to have babies so I got her three. I gave them to her in the morning so I guess it depends on the broody. I have a silkie that's been on fake eggs for a couple of weeks now and I'm getting my order of 26 chicks tomorrow from cackle hatchery so I'm going to give her a few. I did separate the rir and her babies because the others were not playing nice.

 

[Dottie Ferrell]

Thank you very much for the reply...and information. My RI R has never gone broody but my buffs, both, seem to go broody every 2-3 months and I have to put tthem in a separate cage in the garage for about 3 nights, only night time as during the day, they free range in the yard and I keep them out of the usual nests) That brings them out of brooding fairly quickly, but they sure do go back in often.

 

[Dottie Ferrell]

to SIMZ----- Thank you for your information and for taking the time to write a long reply. Our housing unit is fairly small and the outside enclosure is very large, plus the girls get free range in the fenced yard quite a bit of the day but you are most likely right that I would need to keep the broody Mom and possible new babies, in a separate area, My gut feeling is that the other three girls would probably be mean towards a couple of new babies under our BO who suddenly has chicks. I will sure think about it longer before I try it. The buffs (2) sure do want to be Mom's though, Thanks again

 

[SIMZ]

to SIMZ----- Thank you for your information and for taking the time to write a long reply. Our housing unit is fairly small and the outside enclosure is very large, plus the girls get free range in the fenced yard quite a bit of the day but you are most likely right that I would need to keep the broody Mom and possible new babies, in a separate area, My gut feeling is that the other three girls would probably be mean towards a couple of new babies under our BO who suddenly has chicks. I will sure think about it longer before I try it. The buffs (2) sure do want to be Mom's though, Thanks again

I use little rabbit hutch type enclosures. A dog kennel/crate inside the larger outside enclosure might be an idea, too. As long as you can predator-proof it. Best of luck!