Will Belle be a good mother??

[Nats Chickens]

i have an almost 3 year old RIR x Australorp, she is broody for the 4th time in her life. We tried giving her day old chicks last time but she didn’t accept them and we raised them inside. I am considering getting some semi fertile eggs for her if mum lets me. Might hatch a chick or 2. Do you think she would be a good mother? She is big and aggressive. Not as aggressive as one or two others, but her and the chicks would be separated from the rest of the flock. I plan if I am allowed to hatch to get the eggs this Friday.

 

[GodofPecking]

keep a useless egg or a few under her, if she looks after them sometimes she might be able to look after a chick.

if you can visit her everyday or twice daily with a treat and feed her on the nest and water her, she will get used to you doing that, later, youll be able tp fiddle with eggs and chicks without her killing them.

once she likes you around the nest you can add eggs that have pipped.

 

[Nats Chickens]

keep a useless egg or a few under her, if she looks after them sometimes she might be able to look after a chick.

if you can visit her everyday or twice daily with a treat and feed her on the nest and water her, she will get used to you doing that, later, youll be able tp fiddle with eggs and chicks without her killing them.

once she likes you around the nest you can add eggs that have pipped.

It doesn't matter anymore, Mum said no eggs...Now I have no idea how to break her. (Dad pulled down the isolation pen, and she is broody in the only thing that could have been an isolation pen. I have lots of experience trying to break her, and nothing has ever worked, I can't remember what happened the first few times, and the third time I had the isolation pen. So I am at a loss, ice seems to make her more comfortable, and blocking it off from her doesn't work either, it just makes her mad (I left it like this for a week once, and still nup!)

 

[GodofPecking]

OH I am so tempted to say go and give mum and dad a big smack.

If nothing 'breaks' her broodyness then obvious solution is obvious, just go with it. Let her have chicks, but then this is not going to work very well with parents against it. sigh.

 

[Lizzy733]

How long had she been broody last time when you gave her chicks? They 'know' the general hatch time is 21 days and if she wasn't sitting anything in the first place, she might have put two and two together. That being said, some hens will apparently bring their chicks to hatch and still reject them - meaning there always needs to be a backup plan.
I've never had much luck breaking my broody - she's gone 5 weeks sitting on air before. I block her off from the coop and she just keeps herself warm by settling down in the dustbath. She's very determined.

 

[GodofPecking]

Its true that they have an idea about hatch time, if your lucky, you can barely stretch it out to 2x, don't know if people can do better than that.

I try to co-ordinate the incubator with the silly hens. I got it pretty right this/last time when the silly hens (3 or 4) all went broody and sat on the same nest. Ridiculous. Managed to separate them into new identical nests side by side and deal out allotments of actually incubated eggs rather than kicked out of the community nest dead eggs. All went ok

 

[Nats Chickens]

She was broody for 5 weeks last time.

 

[GodofPecking]

that'd mean you can get eggs if shes been broody a week or so, two at the most. Otherwise she may get up off the eggs n theyll die perhaps...

 

[Lizzy733]

Also, 5 weeks is a loong time to be sitting a nest - if she doesn't get up for a stretch on her own - and mine acted differently when given 'real' eggs - it will start to wear her down. My poor silkie couldn't walk straight by the time the chicks were hatched as she refused to budge and would only take the shortest of breaks when I kicked her off twice a day.
She also got pretty depressed around day 19 (there'd been a bad egg likely lost around this time). I had to sit with her for half a day after just to perk her up - she was also bored out of her mind the poor thing.

 

[GodofPecking]

Hens get up off the nest at least once a day all by themselves if the temperature is fine. Won't matter though, because mum said " No Eggs ! " so there'd be a lot of back n forth between Woeful Belle and mum to try and convey Belle's need to be a good mom, and as good as Belle's mum's mum, who must understand that ?

Five weeks is ok in good weather. When it gets too cold, they cant get off the nest and you may consider moving the nest WHICH IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR BEGINNERS. DON"T MOVE A NEST.

They get up, take a huge..., err, go to the toilet, have food to eat, back to the bathroom to dust bath, and when all stretched out, back to the nest. So long as no enemies are looking. They'll wait a while to hide the top-secret location of the nest if they don't trust you.