What can we do differently next time? Broody hen questions

[Newtoit]

Hello all, first of all, I would like to thank everyone who takes the time to answer- we (my hubby and I who share the account) are learning A LOT from reading and reading here. We are new to chickens- just got our first hens in January. Our Australorp went broody on March 20, and we were beside ourselves excited (we've never been through this before). Our rooster, Bob, is also an Australorp , so we were excited to have a full australorp- we only had one of her eggs as we had been collecting and eating them up to that point. We moved her into a smaller coop for privacy and safety- we moved her with her egg and an EE egg. The next morning, we put another EE egg, a red star egg, and two RIR eggs under her (6 egg total)- these are all fertilized and from our chickens- who have oyster shells mixed with their feed for stronger shells. Last Saturday, one of the eggs broke. My son saw it when she got up to eat and he alerted us. We removed the broken egg, and she got back on the rest. On Tuesday, Softy (our broody hen), moved off the eggs again, and we saw one of the EE eggs was crushed on one side- not pipped, but crushed. We heard peeping and hoped for the best, but by the next morning, we just had a dead chick in half a crushed shell. On the positive side, the next day, we also had Silkie (the lone Australorp egg) had hatched! That left 3 eggs under Softy.

Thursday (yesterday) was day 21 for the other eggs, and there was no sign of movement, but Softy wasn't leaving the nest. She was taking care of her chick while planted on the remaining 3 eggs. This afternoon, I came home from work, and she had pushed one of the remaining eggs out of the next. I cracked it and thick goo came out (not in her coop, of course!). I went out for a meeting, and when I came home, her red star egg was in the same condition as the EE egg from Tuesday- the egg was half crushed, and the chick was dead in the half shell. My husband determined at that point that the remaining egg was not viable (we had been suspicious of that one early on, and it had stopped developing early, apparently). When last we left Softy, she was still stubbornly sitting in her nest with no eggs, but her chick under her. Thanks for reading my novel, and here are my questions- while we're REALLY excited that the Australorp chick hatched, what did we do wrong with the other eggs? 1 out of 6 (probably really 5, because I think that one EE just wasn't going to happen) doesn't seem like a great success rate. Also, will she get off her nest tomorrow since the eggs are gone? She's been doing a great job with her chick, but it seems like she should get out of the nest and walk around with her or something now that the chick is a couple of days old. Your thoughts are appreciated!

And momma and child...

 

[HEChicken]

You probably did nothing wrong. It sounds like she is a first time sitter and not that good at positioning her weight over the eggs, causing them to get crushed.

It is normal for them to stay on the nest for the first few days - the chick can go 72 hours before it needs food/water, but when the time comes, Mama will/should show it how to find them.

Congratulations on the new chick!

 

[Newtoit]

Thank you so much!! She is young- this is the first time she has gone broody. Will she learn to distribute her weight, do you think? Or do chickens who crush eggs always crush eggs? Sorry for the barrage of questions, it was just so heartbreaking to see two fully formed chicks not make it. I moved the food and water to just outside the nesting box, and her baby already stands in the food and eats, and knows how to drink. She's a sharp one! Also, when the chick gets old enough, and her mom head back into her flock (we have 3 segregated coops of chickens), should the chick move in with the younger set (Easter chicks who are a month older than she/he is) or stay with her mom and the older hens?

 

[HEChicken]

I don't know the answer to the age thing - to date I have never had the same hen go broody twice! And, honestly, I have never had a hen crush the eggs, so I'm probably not the best one to answer that.

I let the chicks stay with Mama Hen as long as she is willing to care for them. I had one hen who kept her 7 chicks with her until they were 15 weeks old and almost as big as she was. They had long since stopped trying to sleep under her, but they stayed together as a group during the day, and slept side-by-side at night. Another hen only kept her chicks 5 weeks before telling them they were on their own. So it is really variable. The lovely thing about a broody hen raising chicks (in my opinion) is that there is a seamless integration into the flock. The chicks stay with Mama and she teaches them to roost in the main coop, and as long as they're with her, I've never had any of my other birds bully them. By the time Mama decides to give them the boot, the rest of the flock has already accepted them as belonging, and as long as they respect their elders, I haven't had any issues. Even if they don't show the proper respect, a little peck here or there puts them in their place - they learn fast.

 

[kannna]

Hens are a bit like people. Some are meant to have children and have that natural instinct to raise them. Some want to have children, but don't quite have the instinct, persevere and the children come out fine. Some shouldn't have children at all no matter how much they want them.

You haven't done anything wrong. It depends on the girl. You gave her some eggs and for whatever reasons only one hatched. You may want to get the chick a friend though. We had only one chick hatch once and s/he peeped loudly all the time no matter what her mother did. Drove us all nuts. Do it now while she's sitting on the nest and sneak it under her at night.

 

[Fowl Menagerie]

It has been my experience that when you use heavy breeds of chickens for broody hens you will get a lot of breakage of their eggs. I have had used bantams for broodies as their weight and instincts seem to better for this purpose. You cannot set as many eggs at a time but most of the larger bantams can handle 6 to 8 full sized eggs.

 

[luvtohatch]

My first broody hen was an Aussie and I never had any broken eggs under her. She hatched out lots of babies for me wih no problems. And all the other hens would take a turn on the nest as well if she got off. Sometimes you can get a hen that doesn't understand that the result of eggs is chicks. Seriously. They seem to think the chick is an intruder and as soon as it pips she will pretty much destroy the egg trying to get rid of the 'threat'. These are the only eggs I've brought inside to hatch under a heat lamp ( I don't have an incubator) and the chicks all made it.

 

[luvtohatch]

Oh... And the hen that attacked her eggs was never allowed to go broody again.

 

[oesdog]

Hens are a bit like people. Some are meant to have children and have that natural instinct to raise them. Some want to have children, but don't quite have the instinct, persevere and the children come out fine. Some shouldn't have children at all no matter how much they want them.

You haven't done anything wrong. It depends on the girl. You gave her some eggs and for whatever reasons only one hatched. You may want to get the chick a friend though. We had only one chick hatch once and s/he peeped loudly all the time no matter what her mother did. Drove us all nuts. Do it now while she's sitting on the nest and sneak it under her at night.

Yes I agree. We had two broody hens at the sametime. The Speckled sussex was a brillient mom and she sat on them until they were - 18 weeks of age!!!! Yes it is true! She got the award for the longest sitting hen on BYC! Sadly she passed away a few weeks back. Her chicks Mable and Betty and the roo boys Duck and big red stayed with her for as long as we could. Then the boys got re-homed. The girls are still int he flock and we hope they may go broody for us one day.
However the other brood hen Gerty a Maran - wanted babies so much she sat on her eggs, crushed them, threw them out of her nest. Tried to get on Berthas nest and trod on her eggs. Then once Gerty finally got little chicks hatched - she immediately killed every one of them! After that she stayed in the nest and I found her tollerating field mice babies running through her feathers - she even attacked me for showing them away??????? Odd girl!
Both these hens were larger breeds. Both took to motherhood very differently. One was brillient the other turned out to be a baby killer you simply just don;t know! Gerty is still very much with us. A few weeks back when her sister Bertha was ill both girls were out in the dust bath they had dug and Agnes a RIR came by to push Bertha out. Gerty immediately launched an attack on Agnes. It was the tender side of gerty comming to the fore to protect her sick sister. They were very close, brought up together and yet very different indeed when it came to havign their own babies.

Here is Bertha trying to sit on 18 week old chicks - honestly the most hilarious thing ever as here in this pic she is pushing them into the corner of the coop andthen she would trod her way up them to plonk herself on the top of a pile of massive chicks! She was not a daft girl and knew in this pic that one was missing !



The little hen at the front with the brown blaze is Mable trying to roost and hide from her mother. However
Bertha saw her and pulled her down from the roost bar and sat on her! - lol


Yes she did get mable off the bar and sat on her! This was the last night she ever did that as the following night she was on the bar with mable
firmly next to her!!!!!!!! This was a full 18 week brood!


This is Gerty the other one! Who was not the least bit interested in babies at this stage!
She is the grey second from left. Isobella ( Green Speckled)and Caroline(White Speckled) either side of her ( They are known as the Buzzards!)
You can clearly see Bertha counting her babies and realising to her utter dismay that mable was up on the roost bar looking down at her!

You can clearly see in the pic that mable was just as big as Caroline and Isobella our adult hens!
Oes

 

[Newtoit]

Thank you for the laugh!! That Bertha had me howling!!! I appreciate the advice and your experience! I don't believe Softy intentionally killed them, she is VERY attentive of her surviving baby. Still sitting on the nest, though, like she's waiting for something. I wish she would stretch her legs!