{"id":45339,"date":"2017-03-15T08:13:22","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T12:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/?p=45339"},"modified":"2020-11-03T02:26:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T07:26:14","slug":"how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Work With A Broody Hen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As you\u2019re collecting eggs, you reach into a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-build-a-nest-box\/\">nesting box<\/a> and the hen within emits a loud, strident squawk and viciously pecks your hand. You peer inside, and she fluffs up, fixing you with a beady glare. You reach in again\u2014slowly, this time\u2014and she fluffs up even more and growls\u2014yes, growls\u2014at you. What\u2019s her problem? The answer is simple: Her hormones are telling her it\u2019s time to set some eggs and raise a family. Whether you want her to or not, she\u2019s gone broody.<\/p>\n<h2>A Mood Fit For A Mama<\/h2>\n<p>Because a hen stops laying while setting a clutch of eggs and doesn\u2019t start again for six to eight weeks after her chicks hatch, modern hybrid layers and even many heritage breeds have been selectively bred to discourage broodiness to increase egg output. Occasionally, a hen of these breeds still might set, but don\u2019t count on it. Don\u2019t think you can force a hen to go broody, either: She will have the urge or she won\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to hatch chicks with mama hens, you\u2019re best off with a broody breed. Silkies are noted for their keen desire to set and to mother chicks. Bantams of the setting breeds are good bets, too. Their one fault is that their relatively small bodies can\u2019t cover a lot of full-sized eggs; give them something to set on, though, and they persevere.<\/p>\n<p>This is important because some hens of broody breeds aren\u2019t good setters. Some individuals abandon their nests before the eggs hatch or they aren\u2019t good mothers once the chicks arrive. So once you have a proven broody, keep her! She\u2019ll reward you by setting once or twice a year\u2014occasionally three times, if you\u2019re lucky\u2014and she\u2019ll raise her chicks with very little help.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind that you can raise prolific, nonsetting breeds if you need lots of eggs, but also keep a few setting-breed hens to hatch eggs and raise chicks. If you keep ducks, guinea fowl or quail, you can hatch their eggs under broody chickens, too.<\/p>\n<h2>Why Brood?<\/h2>\n<p>Why would you choose to raise chicks under a hen instead of in an incubator? Some perks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/build-your-own-egg-incubator\/\">Incubators<\/a> can be fairly expensive to buy and operate. A setting hen isn\u2019t, and she\u2019ll give you eggs between her broody spells.<\/li>\n<li>You don\u2019t have to fuss with heat and humid-ity settings, you don\u2019t have to turn eggs, and there\u2019s no worry if your electricity goes out.<\/li>\n<li>You don\u2019t need a brooder to keep chicks warm once they\u2019re hatched; their mama hen will take care of that. She\u2019ll also teach them to drink, eat and forage, and she\u2019ll fiercely protect them from harm.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are also disadvantages to consider, too.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your hens might not be broody when you want to hatch some eggs. Hens tend to be broody in the spring through midsummer, but they rarely set in the winter.<\/li>\n<li>If you don\u2019t have a rooster, you won\u2019t have fertile eggs on hand when your hen decides to set.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t hatch as many eggs under a hen as you can in an incubator, although hens of large broody breeds, such as Australorps, Cochins, Jersey Giants and Orpingtons, can easily handle a dozen or more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Help Your Broody Hen Settle In<\/h2>\n<p>So let\u2019s imagine one of your hens has staked a claim to a nesting box, and she\u2019s settled down to raise a family. What next? It takes 21 days for a hen to hatch an egg; in fact, some eggs will even hatch a day or so before that. Your hen will stay on her nest for three weeks, leaving it once or twice a day to grab a bite to eat and relieve herself.<\/p>\n<h3>Don\u2019t Bug Her<\/h3>\n<p>Because she\u2019s stationary most of the time, she\u2019s much more likely to pick up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/3-parasites-can-infect-chickens\/\">lice and mites<\/a> than her out-and-about sisters do. Dust her with a chicken-friendly parasite control product or diatomaceous earth and consider strewing fresh or dried bug-repellent herbs such as catnip, mint, lemon balm or lavender in and around her nest. These naturally calming herbs will help her mellow out a bit, too.<\/p>\n<h3>Scramble To Get Her Some Eggs<\/h3>\n<p>Make sure you have fertile eggs for her to hatch. If your rooster is an immature cockerel or you have only one rooster to service dozens of hens, this may not be the case. To be on the safe side, pen an overworked rooster with a half a dozen hens; after a week or two, their eggs should be reliably fertile.<\/p>\n<p>If you don\u2019t have a rooster, you\u2019ll need to buy hatching eggs. If you have them delivered via the mail, it could be a week or more until they arrive. This is OK. Keep your mama hen happy by placing a few golf balls, smooth round stones, plastic Easter eggs or unfertile hens\u2019 eggs under her until the fertile eggs arrive. If she\u2019s truly broody, she\u2019ll be content.<\/p>\n<h3>Move Her On Up<\/h3>\n<p>It isn\u2019t a good idea to let her set in a communal nesting box, especially if nesting boxes are in short supply. The biggest hazards are bold, pushy hens that shove their way in alongside her to lay their eggs and hens that lay in the box while she\u2019s out for her daily constitutional. These new eggs won\u2019t hatch when the others do, but they compete for space under the hen.<\/p>\n<p>If you do allow her to brood in a nesting box, use a soft pencil to draw a big X on either side of her eggs and then remove unmarked eggs as they materialize. Remember, setting hens often peck\u2014hard\u2014so doing this daily isn\u2019t in your best interest. If you have to collect new eggs from a broody\u2019s nest, do it at night by flashlight, so she\u2019s drowsy and less likely to peck you.<\/p>\n<h3>Set The Mood For The\u00a0Brood<\/h3>\n<p>Get your hen out of the nesting box, and set her up in a safe brooding area before setting your eggs. Mother hens prefer semidark, out-of-the-way nesting spots, and you\u2019ll want to choose one where she and her chicks will be safe, so a temporary predator-resistant fence is in order. When you build it, remember that she needs enough out-of-nest room to stretch her legs, eat, drink and eliminate.<\/p>\n<p>Setting hens usually won\u2019t soil their nests, which is a good thing, as a blob of once-a-day, broody poop is huge and stinky. Place plenty of soft, chopped straw or similar bedding in her new, private nesting box and move her to it after nightfall, when she\u2019s less likely to stress and try to return to her chosen nesting spot. She may be fidgety for a day or two, so don\u2019t give her any eggs until she calms down.<\/p>\n<h3>Set It &amp; Forget It<\/h3>\n<p>This ensures that all eggs hatch within 24 hours of each other. If you have to collect eggs to do this, place them large-end up in a clean, closed carton at 55 to 70 degrees F and roughly 75 percent humidity. Prop up one end of the carton by slipping a book or block of wood under it. The next day, move the book to the other end, alternating ends until you have enough eggs to set. This will keep the yolks from sticking to one side of the shells. Choose well-shaped, clean, uncracked and unwashed eggs.<\/p>\n<h3>Nighttime Is The\u00a0Right Time<\/h3>\n<p>Place the eggs under the mama hen at night. Don\u2019t give her more eggs than she can handle. Large breed hens successfully brood 12 to 15 or so full-size eggs; bantams, up to a dozen bantam eggs or six to eight full-size eggs, depending on the hen\u2019s size. She has to cover them completely, so plan accordingly.<\/p>\n<h2>Caring For\u00a0Your Broody Hen<\/h2>\n<p>As long as the hen is kept out of drafts, no supplementary heat in the brooding area is required. A broody hen plucks feathers from her breast to help line her nest, and in doing so, she exposes skin that helps warm her eggs. If she\u2019s setting in hot, sultry weather, keep her reasonably cool. In extreme cases, a box fan set on low and aimed at the broody box will help.<\/p>\n<p>Because she isn\u2019t laying eggs, a broody hen doesn\u2019t need calcium-rich layer feed. However, because she infrequently leaves her nest to eat, the feed you give her should pack a wallop. Think 18 to 20 percent protein chick starter: It\u2019s nutrient-rich, and it\u2019s what the chicks will eat when they hatch. A broody hen tends to skimp on feed and lose a lot of weight while setting, so a bit of high-carbohydrate scratch grain on the side is helpful, too. Clean water should always be available.<\/p>\n<p>Check the broody hen every day, but keep things low-key. It\u2019s wise to candle the eggs at day 7 and again around day 14, removing any that don\u2019t contain an embryo; do it at night when the hen is less likely to object. If possible, recruit a helper to hold the hen. This way, you can move through the clutch quickly before the eggs cool.<\/p>\n<p>After 20 days or so, the eggs will start to hatch. You\u2019ll hear peeping as each chick pecks through its shell and joins its nest mates. Most broodys continue setting until the last egg hatches, so after 21 days, check any remaining eggs for signs of life and discard any that aren\u2019t viable.<\/p>\n<p>Tiny <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-handle-chicks\/\">chicks<\/a> cuddle under their mother\u2019s wings and are easily dropped when you pick her up, so be careful when you do it.<\/p>\n<p>The new mother hen will teach her chicks everything a chicken needs to know, and she\u2019ll keep them warm under her feathers. You can keep her fenced away from the rest of the flock if you like, but if you do, expand the nursery fence so the chicks can move around. Many people who free-range their chickens separate the new family for a week or two and then let the hen rejoin her flock.<\/p>\n<p>If you let her free-range, place shallow saucers of water or chick-drinking fonts in the areas they frequent, so the chicks can drink water whenever they want. Their mom will teach them to scratch and find wild food, and she\u2019ll bring them back to the coop to sleep at night.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest hazards for free-ranging baby chicks are predation and drowning. Chicks like to hop up onto things, and water buckets maintained for livestock are fair game. If a chick falls in, it\u2019ll drown, so if there are lots of water hazards where baby chicks range, keep them penned until they\u2019re older.<\/p>\n<p>A mama hen\u2019s maternal drive starts to wane when her chicks are 5 to 8 weeks old, then she\u2019ll start spending more time with the rest of the flock. In a few more weeks, she\u2019ll begin laying again. In the meantime, you\u2019ll have raised a clutch of happy, healthy, homegrown chicks.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article originally appeared in the March\/April 2017 issue of\u00a0<\/em>Chickens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you want to raise your hatching eggs the old-fashioned way, you\u2019ll need a hen with a special disposition to do the work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":45367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[424,10456],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals","category-poultry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How To Work With A Broody Hen - Hobby Farms<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Work With A Broody Hen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you want to raise your hatching eggs the old-fashioned way, you\u2019ll need a hen with a special disposition to do the work.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hobby Farms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hobbyfarms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-15T12:13:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-03T07:26:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/img.hobbyfarms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/12192237\/broody-hen.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"462\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sue Weaver\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@hobbyfarms\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hobbyfarms\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sue Weaver\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sue Weaver\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/#\/schema\/person\/78a10f1f26ad55a34286b8dbdb1b6eec\"},\"headline\":\"How To Work With A Broody Hen\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-15T12:13:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-03T07:26:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/\"},\"wordCount\":1891,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/img.hobbyfarms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/12192237\/broody-hen.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Animals\",\"Poultry\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-work-with-a-broody-hen\/\",\"name\":\"How To Work With A Broody Hen - 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