Will my hens raise their chicks on their own?

[ValleyofRoses]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and still have a lot to learn, but I thought I'd ask about something my partner and I have been wondering for a while now...

We have a flock of 11 and only just got them in fall, they are all laying eggs (except for our porcelain) and one seems to have gone broody as soon as we stopped collecting the eggs. So my question is, how much intervention/help are they going to need if the chicks hatch? Will the mother hen take care of them all and raise them amongst the rest of the flock, or are they in danger? Should I separate them? If so, when? I know there's a lot of this information on the web and such, but there's so many different opinions. We try to keep our chickens less tame than most, so I'm looking for people's experience with just letting it happen and seeing what the hens are capable of. Has domestication made it impossible for them to raise their own young? Or will they figure it out on their own without me coddling the chicks?

Thanks for your help!

 

[gryeyes]

IF your hen is truly broody, sitting on the nest 24/7, not leaving the nest to go roost, then she will most likely incubate and hatch chicks by herself, just fine.

With that said, some hens aren't real good at it the first time, and she may leave the nest early. Also, others will lay in her nest, and you really only want one clutch, not a staggered hatch, so mark her eggs and remove any new ones showing up in the nest.

I never separated my broody hens, and they did just fine. Your mileage may vary.

Happy hatching! Broodies are wonderful, and watching them with their chicks is so much fun.

 

[Winisk]

My Phoenix hen decided to go broody in early November. I was concerned that this was not a good time to raise a chick leading into winter but I let her hatch it out anyway. This was her first time, not even a year old herself, and she did wonderful. She kept the chick warm underneath her and showed the chick how to eat and drink, basically how chickens behave. It was fun to watch. I did separate her from the rest in a sub-pen until the chick got old enough to scurry around quickly on it's own. No problems integrating them back into the main coop aside from the odd skirmish. I did raise my other chickens without the benefit of a mother hen. A lot more work. I say let her have her chance. Easier for you.

 

[StephanieD]

ValleyofRoses...... This is a VERY good question, thank you for asking it!

I had a silkie go broody for two weeks, stuck some fertile eggs under her and two-four days later 4 out of 6 chicks were born. They are 5-7 days old now. I have kept her in a large dog crate outside for the time being.

Every morning for the last 3 days I have let her and her babies out....she wildly takes dirt baths and searches for bugs. She does let us pick up the chicks but will not let most of the other flock near her, she does a funny dance with her feathers spread out. BUT...here's the BUT! We have a very large hen (I think she's a buff rock) "Dakota" and she is the queen of the flock. When Dakota gets near Mom or babies, mom runs away leaving her babies exposed. And I do believe Dakota will hurt them as she hates this silkie hen! So.... I can NOT leave them all out there exposed to this if I expect them to live.

 

[zephyr66]

what i did was make a separate area for the hen to set on her eggs as when she gets off to eat/drink/poop she will invariably sit on the wrong eggs/nesting box of another hen might jump in to lay. i made a new nest in the separate area and moved her and the eggs at night. also, with most nesting boxes, they are raised above ground and the chicks will probably fall out when they hatch so putting her on a ground nest is better. i had a separate area and a hatch lid i could open to clean and even let mom out once a day to eat/drink/poop and mix with the hens to make sure the pecking order stayed in tact. when the babies hatch on day 21, mom will take care of them. just make sure there is chick food the babies can get to that the hens can't and make sure the babies can't get to the layer food for the hens as the layer food is too high in calcium and chicks can die. with that said, mom will most likely protect the babies with a vengeance and the hens will quickly know they are not to mess with babies. from that point on, just sit back and enjoy the show. also, growing up with mom, you don't have to worry about coccidiosis as much as growing up with mom will build an immunity to it. in my opinion, they are healthier birds when raised with mom and you don't have to worry about introducing young birds into the flock and watching the violent circus of pecking order being established, ha ha. good luck and keep us posted!

sylvia

 

[smokeyodie97]

My hens are funny cause they would peck it's head and it would die. Then 2 of my would take turns siting on the eggs while I had another hen 1 week ealier try hatch a egg then the 2 hens chick fell and the other hen thought it was hers and se took care of it he is now a year old named JOEY he's a roo .

 

[donrae]

Ditto on the marking the eggs you're letting her hatch, a sharpie is fine and I just made and X on each egg. Then, when newer eggs would wind up in the nest (and they will) they could be collected. Most hens that go broody have good mothering instincts. I prefer to leave the hen with the flock and let her guard the babies. That's part of being a mommy

. My hens have always let everyone else know on NO UNCERTIAN TERMS her babies are not to be messed with. I, also, don't especially want "tame" chickens. I mean, I want them to not flee from me, but I don't want to pet them and I don't want them underfoot. This way just seems more natural to me. And I think a chick raised naturally has a better chance of herself raising babies, leading to a nice self-sustaining flock.

 

[CariLynn]

I am REALLY new at this egg and hen and chick thing but here is what were doing currently. We have a very motherly grey Cochin hen, Zoe, who went broody on me a few weeks back. Once I knew she was truly ready, I waited till she had a few eggs under her, we let her set 4, then that night I got a giant dog crate, put shavings down, then in one corner made a nice nest with bits of hay and with the help of my husband, we moved her and those 4 eggs into the "Hilton Suite" as we call it, and have her in our basement, where she can get some light, is away from the flock, and has peace and quiet.

We did notice, if we left her in the coop in the boxes, she wouldn't sit for more than a day on her eggs. If a hen came in to lay, she would wait then go and sit on that egg, and did this a few times.