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[ninnymary]

Mary you get up at 5am what time do you go to bed ?

I get up at 5am usually on Monday, Tuesdays, and Fridays. On these workout days I usually am super tired and go to bed at 8:30pm. and go to bed by 9pm the night before.

Mary

 

[henless]

@Beekissed ~ I have a chicken question for you. I have a hen that has gone broody. She's actually been broody several times before Christmas. This is her first broody spell this year. Which would be better, getting hatching eggs for her to sit or get baby chicks to slip under her at night? I've never had chicks with a broody before. I usually go buy some and raise them with my MHP (Momma Heating Pad).

 

[Beekissed]

@Beekissed ~ I have a chicken question for you. I have a hen that has gone broody. She's actually been broody several times before Christmas. This is her first broody spell this year. Which would be better, getting hatching eggs for her to sit or get baby chicks to slip under her at night? I've never had chicks with a broody before. I usually go buy some and raise them with my MHP (Momma Heating Pad).

Depends on where you get hatching eggs and how they've been handled whether you'll have a good hatch. If you slip chicks under her at night you'll know what you are getting, how many you'll have and it will get you there a tad faster.

It's all preference.

You'll LOVE seeing chicks with a broody and you'll love how easy it all gets when a professional is taking over the worry over the chicks. Once you do that, you'll not want to go back to brooding your own.

Let us know what you do and how it all works out?

 

[henless]

I was leaning toward getting chicks. I do have a few questions if you don't mind?

She's never been a mom before, so will that matter?
How many should I get for her? (she's a buff Orp)
Should I let her sit on ceramic eggs for a few days/week before getting chicks? I would rather wait until after this weekend since it's supposed to get cold again.
She is in one of my nesting boxes. They are about 18" off the ground. Do I need to move her first? (I doubt she would stay unless it's a cage).

I may have more questions later.

 

[Beekissed]

I was leaning toward getting chicks. I do have a few questions if you don't mind?

She's never been a mom before, so will that matter?
How many should I get for her? (she's a buff Orp)
Should I let her sit on ceramic eggs for a few days/week before getting chicks? I would rather wait until after this weekend since it's supposed to get cold again.
She is in one of my nesting boxes. They are about 18" off the ground. Do I need to move her first? (I doubt she would stay unless it's a cage).

I may have more questions later.

You can let her sit on a few eggs if you want for a bit, but IME it doesn't really matter and chickens can't really figure out what happened if they were sitting on nothing and then on chicks or sitting on nothing and then on eggs....either way they do what comes naturally.

It doesn't matter if she's never been a mom before as she will know exactly what to do with chicks, but it does matter if she's truly broody or not. If she's just playing around at being broody, she may not accept the chicks. If she's a dedicated, "I'm not getting off this nest even if you kill me" broody that does the broody cluck, fluff and protests or pecks you if you try to evict her from the nest, it's likely she's ready for chicks.

You'll want to move her to a low nest and let her get used to that before you give her chicks. Just move her at night, give her the ceramic eggs and keep that new nest/cage covered with a box or towel all the next day so she stays on the nest. It's best if she's isolated from the flock for this and out of sight of the old nest, but if you can't manage that, keeping her covered on that nest for a few days may help her accept the new nest.

You'll need her to be away from the rest of the flock with her new chicks for the first week or so anyway, so giving her a brooding area of her own will work best.

After you see she's glued to the new nest, you can do an exchange of ceramic eggs for chicks one night, use low lighting so she can't see what you are doing and slip them under her one at a time. Just take your time and protect the chicks as you do the exchange, by keeping them on the undersides of your hand as you slip them under her backside.

Keep her nest site covered until you can monitor her interaction with the chicks the next day...the longer she's in the dark and has to sit still, the more likely it will be that she will take to those chicks. I've never had a broody reject chicks yet with this method, so I'd say they rarely really reject chicks if they are truly in a broody state and you give them a little time to get used to the situation.

A BO should be able to do 10-15 chicks easily and could even do 20+ but you don't want to push it if she's never been a mama before. You can set her up for success by giving her a manageable brood in a quiet, isolated area where she can bond with and keep an eye on them without having to fight with other hens over her babies.

Once you've set her and the chicks up with water and feed, I'd uncover her nest and watch to see what she does. If she's true to form as a mama, it won't be long until she steps off that nest and shows her babies how to eat and drink. Once you've seen her do that, you have no worries. She'll take it from there and, even in cold weather, you won't have to worry about the chicks anymore.

 

[flowerbug]

@Beekissed & @henless now you got me going all secondhand broody in anticipation! *pulls up nest and sits*

 

[canesisters]

 

[henless]

Thanks for all the help Bee. I'll have to fix her a small separate place in the coop, or I can put her in the coop next to the one they are in. She would be by herself in that coop, but the other chickens can see her. If I did that, would it be a problem putting her back in with the other chickens?

Here are my 3 coops. They are 10x10 each. The first 2 coops I have taken out part of the separating wall to make it into 1 10x20 coop.

The 3rd coop is on the far right. Should I put her in this coop, or just fix a small place in the other coop? The nest boxes are no longer in the last coop. I just use this coop for when I get new chicks. When they are big enough, I just move them over in the main coop.

I actually hadn't planned on getting chicks this year. I was just going to keep the girls I have and replace them next spring. It's either get her chicks or break her broodiness (again).

She stays on the nest really good. She only gets out in the evening to eat some scratch when I throw it out. She doesn't peck at me, but she flattens out and growls anytime you look at her or the other hens get close. I call her growly guss, LOL.

 

[baymule]

Nice looking chicken coops!!

 

[Nyboy]

Ditto good looking set up