Raising Day Old Chicks with A Broody Hen

If you have a persistently broody hen and no fertile eggs, or a broody that has sat on eggs without success you may be considering purchasing chicks for her to raise. There are a few risks to this - she may not accept them as her own and ignore them, or even worse attack them (sadly this can sometimes happen even when a hen has just hatched her own chicks). You will need to be prepared to look after the chicks yourself if it does turn out that she will not accept them.

Although it does have its risks, putting chicks under a broody hen can work well and if you have a persistent broody it may finally satisfy her apparent need to raise chicks (no guarantees though!). The best chance of success seems to be to recreate a natural hatching as far as possible i.e. a hen that has been sitting on eggs for at least 20 days, day old chicks, and a gradual swapping of an egg for a chick over a few hours.

The video below is of Keeping Chickens Newsletter subscriber Lisa Ruminski’s ‘Carmen Miranda’ getting some adoptive chicks after sitting on infertile eggs for almost a month.

How To Stop A Broody Hen From Staying Broody

Mike Breder : Hi Gina, Thanks for your newsletter. I have a question for you. I have 4 hens including an Americauna, Rhode Island Red, Ancona and Buff Orpington. Our Buff (Jupiter) the big girl became rather broody a month ago and while we had to leave town for the weekend, I decided to seperate her from the other girls so my chickensitter / my mom didn't have to pick her up and get pecked moving her out of the nest box. I usually just toss her out of the nest box to try and break things up a little, but she makes her way back there. Nevertheless, while we were out of town and Jupiter was serving her time in our dog kennel detention facility away from the others, she had time to think about her crimes and when I returned I let her back in the coop and whamo....no more broodiness. Well until a week ago anyways. Now a month since her 1st trip to the pen, I am getting ready to send her to the dog kennel again, but sometimes she's on the eggs and sometimes she's off......more on than off, but I don't want this to become a problem. Do you have any pointers? My research says that Buff Orpingtons tend to be a broody breed. As much as I'd like to cull her from our flock and onto our barbeque, my boys would be devasted and my wife would dissaprove (and I really don't think I could do it anyways). I was wondering if you could put this on your blog. I would love to get some tips from other backyard chicken folks. Thanks for your time. Mike Breder. Citrus County

Broody hens can be a law unto themselves, and they can go broody with or without fertilised eggs to sit on. If you have a broody you will probably already recognise the signs. When broody, hens are very single minded and will want to sit on the eggs almost constantly, taking only brief breaks for food and the toilet (sometimes they forget to even do that). She may pull out some of the feathers from her belly to feather her nest and allow her to feel the eggs directly on her skin. She could get aggressive screeching and even pecking at anyone who gets close. She will also probably have 'broody poos' (the not very nice result of keeping everything held in for hours on end!).

This is all very well if you want her to hatch chicks, but if you don't (or it's not possible) long periods of broodiness can take their toll on her health and so it is sometimes necessary to take action to stop her being broody.

One of the broody signs - A broody hen screeching to be left alone

This is a video of Lisa Ruminski's broody Chinese Silkie Natasha protesting her incarceration.

When broody her body temperature will rise and she will obviously want to get herself comfortable ready for several weeks of being on the nest. The main ideas for stopping broodys are centred around stoping her getting herself too comfortable. Sometimes it can be as simple as removing her from the nests several times a day, but a determined broody can be hard to dissuade. The main method I have seen for persistent broodys (which is basically the same as Mike's dog kennel detention facility), is to put her in a raised wire cage (or wooden / plastic one with a slatted bottom) for a few days with food and water but no comfy bedding - the idea being that the cool air around her 'bits' and lack of comfort deters her from wanting to settle and hatch eggs. Another method common in 'the old days' which is still sometimes used is to dunk her in a pail of cool (but not really cold) water which will bring her brooding temperature down and perhaps make her indignant enough to give up on being broody altogether. This video shows one keepers broody hen 'Pipi' getting the cold water treatment - she had been broody for 3 days and two dips in the water was enough in this case to snap her out of it.

A keen rooster can also 'bother' the broodiness out of a broody hen (if he's brave enough to!).

Hatching Chicken Eggs Naturally

There comes a point in many chicken enthusiasts’ lives when they long to experience hatching and raising their own chicks. Essentially there are two choices when it comes to hatching your own chicken eggs; natural incubation under a hen or artificial incubation in an incubator.

For natural incubation you will obviously need to have some fertile eggs ready and a broody hen. Whilst fertile eggs are usually available at all times (if not from your own flock, then they can often be purchased elsewhere) the presence of a broody hen is not something you can really control. Some hens go broody only once or twice in their lifetime, others will go broody regularly. Your girl(s) will also be strongly influenced by the time of year and so the window of opportunity is again likely to be further narrowed down to the warmer weather of the spring or summer.

Photo By Dottie Day

Once you do have a broody she will probably benefit from a secluded nest and having food and water within easy reach. The nest is safest close to ground level to prevent any unfortunate accidents when the chicks are hatching out. A small coop or area of a coop if available can be an ideal solution as it also allows her and the chicks some safety and privacy if she is to raise them. She will need to leave the nest from time to time, but these periods will be brief, and unless she is quite young and / or flighty, she is not likely to abandon the nest unless she has cause to (i.e. a predator attack or if she knows there are no surviving chicks left to hatch out).

The biggest benefit of hatching chicken eggs naturally (in my opinion) is that you can, if you want to, leave everything up to the hen. It can be hard to resist visiting the nest to candle the eggs or check that none have been soiled or damaged, but it is probably fair to say that even without that additional help she is likely quite capable of successfully hatching out some chicks. All being well, in around 21 days, you will be enjoying watching your broody with her brood.

Good luck!

Some of the benefits of natural incubation are:
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• You can leave everything up to Mother Nature - what will be will be.
• Watching a good mother hen teaching her chicks how to find food and dust bathe etc. is a joy to behold.
• Chicks hatched and raised naturally can tend to be more robust.
  

Some of the downsides of natural incubation are:
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• You can't choose when, or even if, you will have a hen go broody.
• She will stop laying eggs whilst she is broody, and will not start laying again until her chicks are well developed (that could mean as many as four months without eggs from her).
• There is a limit to the number of chicks one hen can hatch and raise.
• Not all hens make good mothers; some can be clumsy and break the eggs they are supposed to be hatching, others will ignore their newly hatched chicks, some may even peck at and attack them (have a back-up plan for brooding the chicks yourself in case the need arises).
  

Photos by Jill Capel

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"Sometimes you don't get to choose where broody hens will nest. These chicks were born in a high-rise nesting box. My solution is the balcony. . . ."

A SETTIN' HEN

A SETTIN' HEN

When a hen is bound to set,
Seems as though 'tain't etiket
Dowsin' her in water till
She's connected with a chill.
Seems as though 'twas skursely right
Givin' her a dreadful fright,
Tyin' rags around her tail,
Poundin' on an old tin pail,
Chasin' her around the yard.
- Seems as though 'twas kinder hard
Bein' kicked and slammed and shooed
'Cause she wants to raise a brood.
I sh'd say it's gettin' gay
Jest 'cause natur' wants its way,
- While ago my neighbor, Penn,
Started bustin' up a hen ;
Went to yank her off the nest,
Hen, though, made a peck and jest
Grabbed his thumbnail good and stout,
- Liked to yanked the darn thing out.
Penn he twitched away and then
Tried again to grab the hen.
But, by ginger, she had spunk,
'Cause she took and nipped a junk
Big's a bean right out his palm,
Swallowed it, and cool and calm
Histed up and yelled "Cah-dah !"
- Sounded like she said "Hoo-rah!"
Wal, sir, when that hen done that,
Penn he bowed, took off his hat,
- Spunk jest suits him, you can bet -
"Set," says he, "gol darn ye, SET."

Holman F. Day

Hatching Eggs Naturally

From time to time one or more of your hens may go broody (most likely during the spring and summer months). You may wish to take advantage of their broodiness and put some fertilized eggs under them to hatch out naturally (the broody hen does not have to be the natural mother, so you can buy some ready to hatch eggs if you do not have a rooster yourself). Generally, it is best to choose a medium sized hen for the job (i.e one that is not too fat and clumsy) – she should also preferably have a gentle temperament and not be too much of a fidget.

To hatch her eggs the hen will need a comfortable nest box which is big enough for her turn around in and adjust herself as necessary. It should be positioned so that the other hens cannot interfere with her. Generally, a good size for a nest box is around 12x12. A large soap box (or anything similar) with two-thirds of the top removed, and turned on its side would make a suitable nestbox (see illustration below).

Set on the floor of the laying room or on a shelf with the open side toward the wall but a few feet away from it, a box of this kind can make a nice secluded nesting place when needed - when a hen becomes broody, simply move the box a bit nearer to the wall to keep the other hens out (alternatively you can partition the broody hen and nest in her own area).

The nest should be made of some soft material, broken oat straw or hay, carefully spread out and pressed down, lightly hollowed and with the edges raised a little to prevent the eggs from rolling out. If the bottom is made too flat the eggs roll away from the hen and she cannot cover them; if too convex, they will roll close together, and when the hen enters the nest and steps on them or among them they do not separate or roll away and a fouled nest is the result. It also helps to put some feed and water in reach of the sitting hen as ocassionally you can get a hen that is so intent on hatching she forgets to leave the nest to eat and drink (most will get off the
nest at least once a day).

If you need to replace non-fertile eggs with fertile eggs (for instance if you do not have a rooster and have bought in some fertile eggs), it is easiest to make the switch after dark – just reach under your broody hen (or lift her up), and swap them in. Don’t worry if she growls or tries to peck you, it is perfectly normal (hence the reason why it is easiest to do it at night when she is sleepy!).

The above photo has been sent in by Susan Taylor of her recent successful Broody hatch : 2 Columbian Pekins and 3 Belgian D'Anvers chicks - congratulations Susan!