Using Broody Hens to Hatch Eggs?

[Rock Wyandotte]

Hi Barb. There was a great article about broody hens by a woman in the UK. She said it took 20 days to hatch under a hen vs. 21 in an incubator. Well, with my batch she was absolutely right! She said to start counting day 1 the day AFTER you put them under her and they will hatch on day 20. My first pips were on day 19 and they were all hatched by the end of day 20.

 

[Peregrine]

What a great thread! I plan on hatching some chicks in the spring "the old-fashioned way" and I learned a lot from this thread, but I still have a few unanswered questions...

--How old are hens, usually, when they start going broody? Mine will be a year old in the spring.

--What do I do with the eggs I want to hatch so I can put them all under the hen at the same time? It may take a few days to gather up enough eggs to put under a hen.

--After the chicks hatch, do they need special chick food, or will the mother regurgitate their food to them like wild birds do?

--How long after the chicks hatch until the mother starts laying again?

Any words of wisdom from all you experienced egg-hatchers out there?

 

[Rock Wyandotte]

Hi Peregrine,
My girls who have gone broody have done it at 7months, 9 months and a little over a year. From what I read I think they could decide to do it at any time once they start laying.

Collect the eggs you want to hatch and put them in a cool room (50 - 60 degrees I think is best). They stay fertile for 14 days but the first 7 days is the best, so you might want to put them under her by day 6 or so.

I do give the newly hatched chicks starter, just like you would if they were on their own. When she teaches them to scratch and hunt for food you will still want them to have access to the starter, they just won't need as much.

My first broody didn't lay again for about 14 weeks. My latest hen's chicks are now 13 weeks old and she's just now going off on her own and checking out the nest boxes again so I hope she starts laying soon. I now have one new broody on eggs (1 week) and Nana, my original broody is back at it again! Because it's cold now, I gave them each 5 eggs to make sure they'd stay covered. Nana hatched 7 out of 12 her first try but I think I gave her too many, even for summer.

By the way, two of my broodies are Barred Rocks and one is a Black Australorp. The Barred Rocks were a surprise because I had read they are not prone to set. I kind of expected it of the BA. They are great setters and moms.
Hope this helps.

 

[Barbs Organic Garden]

Hi, Gang:
Well, my last post was last July, and I was trying to hatch a batch under one of my Buff Orpington hens. It was a total failure, as had been my first attempt. So I sold my cocks (2) and in the fall ordered some more chicks from McMurray's. Disaster. The first time (spring of 2008) I ordered 25 and they sent 36, all healthy. This time I ordered 25 and they sent 26, with 16 dead or dying. I was devastated. No more chicks from them! The new ones are Rhode Island Reds, because the Buffs really are not as good layers, and if I can't get them to raise their own I might as well go with the better layers. But now the pullets are still immature and the hens are moulting. MY QUESTION NOW IS: How long does the moult last, and when can I expect more eggs? I'm down to 1 - 3 per day, most days 1, and a few days 0. At their height of laying I was getting about 160 eggs a week. Last year they layed right through the winter (even without artificial light), and I had a real problem getting the eggs out to sell because my driveway is very long and the snow is too deep here to keep it plowed. At one time I had almost 40 dozen in my fridge! Now I am having to go without eggs for breakfast sometimes. My new chicks hatched in early September, so I will get eggs from them next summer, unlike my first batch which hatched in April and didn't start laying until the Farmers' Markets were almost over. I find that these new chicks seem to have imprinted on me and they are much easier to handle. I did handle them more when they were peeps, which I learned to do from this thread, and it comes in handy when one goes out and forgets how to get back in. When I go out to shut their gate I can get the little lost one to come to me and she lets me pick her up and put her back in the coop. With the last batch I had a real problem with that, because one would hide under the house, and I am too old, too arthritic and too fat to crawl under a chicken house!

 

[FLChickenFlock]

Well, we're new to hatching chicks with a broody hen, but we put 11 eggs under one black Australorp yesterday. We will move her today with the eggs to a separate area in the coop, to keep her safe from other laying hens. We have one barred rock rooster ("Romeo") with our 15 gorgeous hens, so I have a question about determining which are the fertile eggs - At what time should we "candle" the eggs to determine if they're fertile or duds?

 

[newbee]

I too am wondering how to know if the eggs are fertile. If I separate the mama hen from the rest will she eat the chick starter too? Is that ok? I don't have a broody hen yet but I'm planning on getting some Australorps for brooding. I have Rhode Island Reds now. I got my first dozen eggs from them this week!! Its so exciting every time I collect the eggs.

 

[FisherMOM]

newbee.... you can check a few eggs prior to saving some. If you crack one open, and you see a bullseye in the yolk.. it's fertile.
After that, you have to assume they are fertile and just set them under your broody. You can candle them 7 days later and look for veins.

you can google for the image of a fertile chicken egg....

 

[FisherMOM]

oh, and yes, momma will eat the chick starter. It won't hurt her as my broodies loose quite a bit of weight when sitting on eggs.

 

[Tropical Chook]

Some great info in this thread. I tend to agree with dancingbear though, unless you're raising your birds to be pets. Almost all my birds are tame, although they aren't really accustomed to being handled as I never have the need to handle them.

As far as broodies are concerned................I have one hen who is clearly at the top of the pecking order, probably due to her huge size. Anyway, she was sitting on infertile eggs for a while, and then when I took the eggs away from her after about two weeks, she simply left the nest. By the third day after that, she had abducted one of the other hens babies, and even now after about a month or so, she is still their stepmother....lol. While she can be really aggressive to other hens, she has never hurt any of the chick, all of whom are just over two months old if I remember correctly.

Now for the funny part.......The original mother of these chicks has just recently gone broody, so as I've mentioned in another thread, I ordered some fertile eggs off Ebay. These eggs arrived two days ago and yesterday I placed them in the nest with Miss Broody (a bantam). Now, little miss broody won't allow any of the hens to enter the nest when she's in there, but she is allowing a teenage roo to join her in the nest. If she gets up to eat or poop, the teenage roo immediately gets up and takes her place on the eggs..

Aren't these birds just amazing? I mean, this little guy hasn't even started crowing yet, and apart from the other younger chicks, he's still at the bottom of the social ladder. Perhaps it's a sign that he'll make a good father, or perhaps he's just sexually confused

Ah well, I suppose two mothers are better than none

Oh yes, I almost forgot....... Big Mama, the hen that abducted Miss Broody's first batch of kids, has also started peeping into the nest box, and I won't be at all surprised if she's planning another mass abduction.........................she'll do anything rather than lay some eggs for me

 

[IggiMom]

I think the best of all broodys have got to be Silkies.

My favorite Silkie, Fluffy, (oh didn't that name take a lot of imagination) would raise chicks absolutely all the time.

She is a good, good mama, too.

Catherine