When to slip chick under broody hen during hatching?

[NNations]

Hello, I wanted to get your advice on something. I have a broody hen about to hatch 2 eggs: one on Monday and one on Wednesday. I was wanting to slip another chick under her at night during the hatching process hoping she will take it in but I wanted to make sure I do it correctly and without risking the 2 eggs being broken. My thought was to slip the chick under her Tuesday night. What do y'all think? I have also read that the chick needs to be 5 days old or younger for it to imprint on the mother. Is this true? Thanks for your advice, this is our first rodeo and we are all super excited!!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Well, I would remove the Monday hatching chick... and slip them ALL under her when the last one has hatched.

My oldest successful adoption was 6 days old. Yes they need to be under mum hearing her clucks and she learns their peeps. In this way they learn how to listen to and follow her and recognize her voice. The older the chicks get, if they have been under a lamp... they may not realize mom is the warm safe place. The older chicks are already adventuring out on their own and have zero interest in listening to a hen. But have carried out dozens of successful adoptions.

For future reference... If you'r gonna let a hen sit... collect ALL the eggs you want her to hatch and place under her at one time. In nature, staggered hatches are a death sentence for either the early or late hatchers depending on what mums' instincts tell her. But the early hatching may make her leave the nest to search out food for her babies. Or she stay stuck to the nest and the early hatcher starve/dehydrate. She usually stays stuck to the nest for a couple days letting hatch finish up. I place feed and water nearby so chicks and mom can access safely, collecting at nigh because chickens don't eat in the dark and rats do.

If you take the first one and the second one doesn't hatch you can still put the little's under her and remove the unhatched one. Adding in other chicks once hatch has taken place and mom has them out of the box would not be recommended in my experience.

In regards to eggs getting broke... earlier hatching CHICKS inside my incubator have NEVER cracked an egg... despite the heavy amount of soccer ball that sometimes gets played in there. It's always scary though... wondering how eggs that just got knocked to kingdom come will still be able to pip the right location and not be twisted!

Yes, I do adoptions early in the dark evening, giving as many hours as possible for her to hear and feel them moving under her. Tuck every one in keep it dark and listen for activity. I come back out a couple times to make sure no one accidentally got out and can't find their way back under mom. I have found many a cold, barely living chicks. I come out EARLY in the morning to double check this, before and after letting the flock out of the coop. Blocking so the young chicks can't get out of the box the first day can help this. If another flock member causes chaos just out of curiosity chicks are quickly disoriented and mom has to decide to go for the other chick or stay with the ones under her. Very often she stays where she is... at least at first. Broody's are not without challenge. But how special it is to see them leading their little families around!

Happy hatching!

 

[NNations]

Well, I would remove the Monday hatching chick... and slip them ALL under her when the last one has hatched.

My oldest successful adoption was 6 days old. Yes they need to be under mum hearing her clucks and she learns their peeps. In this way they learn how to listen to and follow her and recognize her voice. The older the chicks get, if they have been under a lamp... they may not realize mom is the warm safe place. The older chicks are already adventuring out on their own and have zero interest in listening to a hen. But have carried out dozens of successful adoptions.

For future reference... If you'r gonna let a hen sit... collect ALL the eggs you want her to hatch and place under her at one time. In nature, staggered hatches are a death sentence for either the early or late hatchers depending on what mums' instincts tell her. But the early hatching may make her leave the nest to search out food for her babies. Or she stay stuck to the nest and the early hatcher starve/dehydrate. She usually stays stuck to the nest for a couple days letting hatch finish up. I place feed and water nearby so chicks and mom can access safely, collecting at nigh because chickens don't eat in the dark and rats do.

If you take the first one and the second one doesn't hatch you can still put the little's under her and remove the unhatched one. Adding in other chicks once hatch has taken place and mom has them out of the box would not be recommended in my experience.

In regards to eggs getting broke... earlier hatching CHICKS inside my incubator have NEVER cracked an egg... despite the heavy amount of soccer ball that sometimes gets played in there. It's always scary though... wondering how eggs that just got knocked to kingdom come will still be able to pip the right location and not be twisted!

Yes, I do adoptions early in the dark evening, giving as many hours as possible for her to hear and feel them moving under her. Tuck every one in keep it dark and listen for activity. I come back out a couple times to make sure no one accidentally got out and can't find their way back under mom. I have found many a cold, barely living chicks. I come out EARLY in the morning to double check this, before and after letting the flock out of the coop. Blocking so the young chicks can't get out of the box the first day can help this. If another flock member causes chaos just out of curiosity chicks are quickly disoriented and mom has to decide to go for the other chick or stay with the ones under her. Very often she stays where she is... at least at first. Broody's are not without challenge. But how special it is to see them leading their little families around!

Happy hatching!

Wow, thank you for such great advice!

Ya, I didn’t realize you were suppose to pull the eggs until after. Lesson learned! I’ll do better next time!

I’ll attach a picture of the set up we have created for her. I am placing the food and water in the nesting box next to her and pulled out the divider in hopes she will stay sitting on that 2nd egg.



The door on the side will be closed so the chicks won’t fall out.



The half wall is there so when they are ready to fly over it then they’ll be ready to fly down to the ground. I’m thinking 2 weeks but we shall see.

Momma is little but fierce so we aren’t worried about the rest of our flock hurting the babies but if we need to we do have another pad set up.



So @EggSighted4Life, now that you see the set up do you still think we need to remove the 1st chick after hatching?

 

[NNations]

Had another thought this morning, does it matter that the chicks that are hatched and the ones purchased might be 3-5 days apart when it comes to exploring, etc? Maybe getting chicks to slip under her to get a total of 4 is a bad idea. The feed store is getting them in either today or tomorrow.

 

[L1sa]

No, it's not a bad idea at all. I did exactly that last week with my broody.

She had been sitting on eggs for 22 days but I wasn't sure that the remaining 2 eggs were going to hatch at all, so I bought 4 x day old chicks from a local farm. I kept them in the house for the remainder of the day and waited until it had been dark for a couple of hours. Then with a very quick burst of a flashlight (just so I knew exactly where she was and that I wasn't putting them under the wrong hen!). I grabbed each chick and just placed them under mumma, pretty quickly and shut the coop. I waited outside for a while to make sure there was no squawking and once I was happy that everything was silent, I left them to it. Checking again an hour or so later. It was really easy, she accepted them instantly. She continued to sit on the remaining 2 eggs and 24 hours later one of those hatched.

They now are all one beautiful happy, fuzzy flock! It is amazing to watch mumma with them, you can almost understand her little instructional clucks. She tells them when it's time to eat, drink or time to go out. If I put something new in there for them she calls them over to watch how she eats it and then they just copy. It's adorable.

Good luck.

 

[L1sa]

Heres a little picture of my fuzzy flock!

I like this pic, all you can see are 2 fuzzy bottoms!!

 

[NNations]

No, it's not a bad idea at all. I did exactly that last week with my broody.

She had been sitting on eggs for 22 days but I wasn't sure that the remaining 2 eggs were going to hatch at all, so I bought 4 x day old chicks from a local farm. I kept them in the house for the remainder of the day and waited until it had been dark for a couple of hours. Then with a very quick burst of a flashlight (just so I knew exactly where she was and that I wasn't putting them under the wrong hen!). I grabbed each chick and just placed them under mumma, pretty quickly and shut the coop. I waited outside for a while to make sure there was no squawking and once I was happy that everything was silent, I left them to it. Checking again an hour or so later. It was really easy, she accepted them instantly. She continued to sit on the remaining 2 eggs and 24 hours later one of those hatched.

They now are all one beautiful happy, fuzzy flock! It is amazing to watch mumma with them, you can almost understand her little instructional clucks. She tells them when it's time to eat, drink or time to go out. If I put something new in there for them she calls them over to watch how she eats it and then they just copy. It's adorable.

Good luck.

That’s good news to my ears!! Thank you!!

 

[NNations]

Heres a little picture of my fuzzy flock!


View attachment 1545211


I like this pic, all you can see are 2 fuzzy bottoms!!

View attachment 1545212

Adorable!!

 

[NNations]

@L1sa I noticed you have a ramp in your picture. How high is it? I have a ramp that leads up to the roost but I wasn't sure if the chicks could get up and down that 1st week or 2 so we blocked it off. What have you discovered with your new fuzzy flock?

 

[L1sa]

@L1sa I noticed you have a ramp in your picture. How high is it? I have a ramp that leads up to the roost but I wasn't sure if the chicks could get up and down that 1st week or 2 so we blocked it off. What have you discovered with your new fuzzy flock?

I have learnt that the chicks cannot get up the ramp! They can get down it no problem. It's 1 ft off the ground.
They spend all day outside now with mum, still sheltering under her for most of the day. But when it comes time for bed, mum goes up the ramp and in the house, gets comfy and calls the chicks up, and they just sit there on the ground and peep at the top of their lungs!! Until I come along and pick them up and put them at the top of the ramp! They run happily in the house and under mumma! I may have to make some modifications to it today, more cross threads for their feet to grip on to.