The Joys of a Broody Chicken

One thing is for sure, chicks can be so fun on a farm. They can also be a headache and a very large cause of stress!

When starting our farming and chicken empire, I was interested in the idea of hatching our own chicks. How wonderful it will be to hatch out our own chicks! To experience life on a farm! And it can be, with a little practice.

Our first batch of chicks, pictured above.

To start with, a little information on broody hens.

A broody hen is one that is sitting on eggs with the hopes of hatching chicks. These mamas can become obnoxious little devils that seek to rue the day you get them. They will sit and sit, only leaving the nest about once per day to defecate and eat. If you have never dealt with a broody chicken before, some things to keep in mind are that they will tend to lose feather condition and body condition, their feathers will get dull and sometimes scraggly as other chickens may peck on them and they will drastically lose weight.

There are several ways of dealing with broody chickens. If you want to keep your chicken from being broody, you can read online and find; dipping the chicken in cold water, segregating her to a chicken "time-out", taking her off the nest until she gets the idea. I have tried all of these, and it really depends on the hen. The most successful way I have found is to completely segregate the hen into a different pen without eggs for a few days, sometimes up to a week.

If she is a very determined hen, she may very well go broody a week or two after you put her back with the flock. My Millie-de-fleur is that way.

If you want her to hatch some eggs, that is usually the easiest. If you have a rooster, you will have fertilized eggs. There are a few ways for this as well. The best way I have found is to leave mamma in the nesting box with the eggs. Once she has chosen this as her spot, it is very difficult to get her to move without abandoning the eggs.

Take a sharpie and mark the eggs that you want her to incubate. Some chickens may continue to use the nest box while your broody hen is sitting, so it is important to know which are the good eggs.

The hen will take charge of her brood and you really don't have to do much, just periodically remove the excess eggs and check on her.

21 days later is when the fun begins. If your hen is still in the coop with the other chickens, beware, the older chickens will peck at the chicks. There are 2 good ways to combat this. First, you can take some chicken wire and cover the front of the nesting box. This will keep your chicks in and other chickens out. Mamma will more than likely not leave the nest during hatching.

Another option, you can remove the chicks to a brooder until hatching is complete. You will need to keep a close eye on mom and make sure that you don't miss any and that you don't remove them for too long.

Place the chicks in a brooder while we wait for others to hatch.

About 24-48 hours into hatching, it is time to move mamma.

Have a secondary coop with a small pen, designs can be found in my coops post. This is usually a two person job, so it is good to have an extra pair of hands. One person grabs mom and the other gathers all the chicks and the remaining eggs. Place the eggs and chicks in the broody coop first, followed closely by mom. She will cluck to them and settle down. Usually, the transition goes more smoothly at night. Keep the chicks and mom seperated from the rest of the flock until about 2 1/2- 3 months of age.