Third time with chicks, first with a broody.

[DerbyChook]

So far, i have purchased chicks at a feed store, hatched shipped eggs in an incubator, and this time, bought fertile eggs locally to put under my broody silkie. i am so loving the broody hen method! The chicks are happy and cared for, yet I don't need to fuss over them. Momma seems pleased with her new family. I worry less since she seems to know what she is doing. And the little family is so dang cute!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'm with you, 3rd year of letting mama do it and It's so less stressful and I enjoy so much watching them.. congrats on the hatch

 

[melloladies]

I have a broody who I'm giving eggs to this weekend- I've never done chicks- period! So what do I need to know?!?! Momma is so far sitting on three golf balls very happily in the garage in a nest in the former "broody buster" turned brooder

I think Saturday or Sunday is the day I'm going to switch her golf balls out for eggs when she is out on her daily constitutional. The part I'm nervous about is the hatching! Does momma do everything? Do i need to supervise?? Help!

 

[gritsar]

Broodies are definitely the way to go!

 

[Ken F]

Hi. I had two broody hens hatch chicks this winter. It is so much easier than keeping chicks alone in a brooder.
Both of my hens, first time mothers, did everything. In both cases, the chicks hatched, dried off and were little fluff balls by the time I discovered them.
They spend most of their first few days under mom.
She taught them how to eat and drink and watches over them very closely.
The most recent hatch was 3 1/2 weeks ago and just yesterday the hen took her chicks outside for the first time.

The whole experience has been amazing. I can't wait until another hen goes broody.

 

[DerbyChook]

I am so loving it! Poor momma wants to teach her babies to eat. I have chick crumbles down for the babies, but momma takes layer pellets out of the big bird feeder and tries to break them up in small pieces for the babies. She gets so frustrated when they don't break! On the plus side, the chicks will eat anything momma east, so when I bring out unfamiliar treats, the babies are introduced immediately. New food was always met with suspicion and disdain by the brooder chicks.

 

[DerbyChook]

Quote:
I am hardly the expert, but all I did was ease the sterile eggs out and put the fertile eggs under. I made sure that the broody had food and water close by and wasn't being harassed by the big girls (my broody is a bantam silkie, lowest in the pecking order, and one of only two bantams in the flock, so she needed a little protection). Now that the chicks are hatched, she is in a covered dog run with the other bantam hen. They all sleep in an old dog house together at night.

We had a good hatch. 8 of the 10 eggs hatched, one pipped but failed to hatch and one was a dud. Not bad since I realized that the other bantam had been sneaking her own sterile eggs into the clutch and the poor silkie was trying to cover 13 eggs, not the 10 I had planned!

Have fun!