Preparing a Place
- Don't use this method unless you are content to hatch
a limited number of eggs and are willing to make a
greater risk of a failed hatch. Most standard size
hens that go broody can easily cover 12 to 15 eggs. Large hens of large
breeds may be able to cover as many as 20. The more eggs under a hen,
the greater the risk that some eggs won't be covered effectively and
consistantly enough to hatch. In addition, although most hens will be
Hortonesque
in their faithfulness, some may give up on the eggs altogether or at
least leave the nest for too long at the wrong time for a very successful
hatch.
- Don't use this method unless you are flexible.
You will have to wait for a hen to go broody, and it won't necessarily
be when it is convenient for you. There's no proven or widely accepted
methods for encouraging hens to go broody. Heavy and dual purpose breeds
are more likely to go broody than Mediterreanian and other breeds developed
for high egg production.
- To tell that a hen as gone broody, look for a hen
that stays flattened out in the nest box in a trance-like state and
stays there at night. You can also look for a patch of naked skin on
her underside. And if she warns you away with a loud squawk or gives you a sharp peck, you'll
know she's broody. Although I've heard that some hens go broody only
after they have created a clutch of eggs often in an odd or hidden location,
many of our hens have gone broody in an empty nestbox.
- If you want the process to be successful from incubation to hatching
through chick-rearing, you should remove her to a special brooding
area that you have prepared just for her. You don't have to
act immediately, because once a hen has broody, she will remain broody
for a good long while -- much longer than the three weeks it would take
to hatch out chicks.
- Put the hen in a separate house or room that can
be used for both the incubation and hatching period and the time when
the chicks are growing. If you use a cage or a box to house the hen,
the area may become too small very quickly after the chicks hatch. Then you may have to move them all when it isn't
very convenient to do so. If using more than one broody hen
for natural incubation, house the hens separately.
Rival mother hens may attack each other's eggs and chicks.
- Minimally the brooding area should be somewhere quiet, dark,
clean, draft-free, isolated from the rest of the flock, free
of lice and ticks, and safe from potential predators.
Allow ample room for the hen leave the nest to eat,
drink, and poop.
- Prepare one comfortable ground-level nest. A wide,
flat depression in litter will work. We create a nest inside an old apple crate in an otherwise unused tack room that is about 8'x8'. Being on the ground is important, because eventually baby chicks will climb in and out and around the nest, and you don't want them to fall or be unable to
easily return to their mother. Many different kinds of litter
may be used on the floor. We use kiln-dried pine shavings. Many use
straw. Don't use anything slippery, such as newspaper.
- Have feed and water available at all times, even
if the hen may only get up to use them once a day.
- Meanwhile, collect and save the eggs you wish to
hatch. Since a hen will sit on eggs that aren't hers, you aren't limited
in which eggs you can collect. Select eggs from healthy, mature hens
who are popular with the roosters. Prefer medium to large eggs of regular
shape. Don't wash the eggs, and don't use cracked, thin-shelled, or
dirty eggs. It is good to mark the eggs for identification, but use a regular lead pencil, not a pen or marker.
- Until you are ready to place them under the hen, store the
eggs where the temperature is somewhat cooler than normal room temperature. [I've seen temperature range advice as low as 40 and as
high as 70] and where there is some moisture in the air. Do not refrigerate
them or let them get too warm. You can safely save eggs for up to a
ten days. One week is better, and up to two weeks will work, but not much longer. If you can't store eggs in ideal conditions,
don't give up, but you're beginning to gamble with their hatchability.
Keep them in an egg carton or other safe container with the pointy end pointing down. It may be overkill, but to be sure that the
yolks don't stick to the shells, shift the carton each day
so it is not always in the same horizontal position -- I have not always done this and have not had a problem.
- When the brooding area is ready, wait until dark before moving
the hen. That way, you won't disturb her as much, and if she
does get riled up, she should be more likely to accept her new quarters.
- If you don't trust your hen, before placing fertile eggs under her, test her for
a couple of days to see if she sticks tight to the nest. You
can place her on golf balls, artificial eggs, or regular
eggs that you are willing to sacrifice. You don't want a hen that will
abandon the nest partway through the incubation cycle.
Hen and Eggs
- Maintain good records and keep track of time. The
minimal record keeping you should do is to mark your calendar for 20
and 21 days ahead. That's when the chicks should start to hatch,
and you want to be sure you will be home then. You don't want to schedule the hatch for the same day as your Aunt Rena's 80th birthday celebration. If you keep
good records and store them where you can find them again, you can consult
them when you try natural incubation again.
- Once you are sure the broody hen will be a good setter, place
the fertile eggs under her all at once, so they will hatch within 24
hours of each other. Do this at night, since you are less likely to
disturb her and cause her to reject and abandon the nest and eggs. Don't
worry how you place the eggs. The hen will shift them numerous times
over the course of the incubation.
- Watch for the hen's routine. She will likely get
off the nest once a day for a few minutes to eat, drink, defecate, take
a dust bath or exercise. All hens are different, so this ritual could be in
the morning or in the evening, for a very short period or as long as
half an hour. Some tenacious hens never seem to leave and don't seem to be eating enough, but I don't know of a good way to encourage them.
- Place a waterer far enough away from the hen that
she won't bump it or knock it over or spill it onto the nest and eggs.
- We provide chick starter as her feed. Chick starter
has a higher protein content than regular layer pellets, and broody
hens don't need the extra calcium, since they aren't laying eggs.
- Be sure the hen returns to the right place when she
leaves the nest. Remove or level anything the hen might think is an
extra nest, so she won't get confused and abandon the egg clutch.
- Don't disturb either the hen or eggs any more than you have to.
The hen will do all the necessary work of turning and adjusting the
eggs. The eggs should stay moist and warm from the hen's body.
- The less you handle the eggs, the better. If you
want to inspect and candle the eggs to check on their
progress (or lack of), resist the temptation of doing it too often.
On the other hand, you don't want to have rotten eggs that could create
health and safety problems if they crack open. A good compromise is
to candle all the eggs at the same time between seventh and tenth day of the incubation
process. If you discover a rotten egg or are absolutely sure the egg has no chick developing inside, remove it. During the last week of incubation, expect the hen
to stay on the nest full time without turning or fussing with the eggs.
That's all natural, so leave her alone.
- Have a back up. It can be very frustrating when a hen has been faithfully broody for two weeks and then gives up on the eggs. If you have another broody hen or an artificial incubator at hand, you can still save the clutch.
- The sound of peeping and tapping should give you a day or a few
hours warning that the hatching is about to begin. It is also the cue
for the hen to get out of her brooding funk to start her mothering duties.
- Before or after peeping will come pipping, as the tapping of the chicks is finally successful enough to break a small hole in the shell. The hatching process has begun. The chick will work its way around the equator of the egg as it expands on that initial hole in a line from which is can eventually emerge. Unfortunately, since this all occurs underneath the hen, you won't be able to see any of this.
- Be prepared to be awed, thrilled, and distracted.
- Once the chicks start hatching, don't peek or remove the eggs
from under the hen just to get a better look. They are exactly where
they need to be. A few, infrequent inspections may be warranted. Hens are
surprisingly good at multi-tasking between incubating eggs and caring
for baby chicks. The hen will usually stay on the nest for 36 hours
or longer to provide time for all the chicks to hatch and keep the hatched
chicks very close under the wing.
- Don't handle the wet, newly hatched chicks. Wait
at least until they've had a chance to dry off and fluff out, and most
inspections can be made without touching them. Don't worry if the chicks
don't eat and drink on the first day. New-born chicks can survive up
to three days just on the yolk they absorbed before hatching.
- If the chicks have not all hatched after a couple of days, the mother hen will start to ignore the remaining eggs as she
gets up and moves about to care for the chicks. Although I have contemplated moving them to an incubator or
placing the eggs another broody hen, I have yet to have found a viable egg among any a hen has abandoned. Candling may reveal that an chick never developed. Unfortunately only cracking open the egg will show you if there is an embryo that just didn't make it.
- Provide an ample supply of clean water. You can use plain water or
water enhanced with an electrolite/vitamin mix. Use specially
designed chick-waterers that will prevent chicks from falling
or climbing in to drown. We've used plastic waterers that attach to quart sized mason jars.
- Use chick-feeders designed to keep chicks from both pooping in them
and wasting feed by scattering feed everywhere from scratching. One
20 inch long feeder or a couple fruit jar circular feeder are
sufficient for up to 20 chicks and the hen. Feed the hen and chicks
the same feed. Use chick starter, since it is formulated
for proper chick nutrition. We use unmedicated chick starter or gamebird
starter when unmedicated chick starter is not available. You will have
to decide what you are comfortable with. Make sure feed is always available,
even at night.
- Provide grit that is sized for chicks after a few
days. Curious chicks, even when tiny, will find all manner of things
to ingest, and the grit will help them digest it. Grit may be sprinkled
on at first or or provided separately. Don't use ground oyster shell
as a substitute for chick grit, as the calcium isn't good for young,
growing birds.
- Maintain dry, sanitary conditions. Remove wet litter.
As the litter gets dirty, you can add more on top, or remove poop and
dirty litter and add just enough new litter to replace what you've removed.
A mother hen will defecates infrequently, but produce extra large and
extrordinarily smelly poop. We remove that, instead of trying to cover
it over with litter. One annoying, but natural thing a mother hen will do is demonstrate to her chicks how to scratch. The annoying part of that is that she will kick litter into the waterers and feeders and both help create a mess and potential prevent the chicks from getting food and water, especially clean food and water. Some days we have had to clean out and refill waterers three of more times.
- Allow the mother hen to do much of the raising herself.
For example, since the mother hen will show them how to drink, you shouldn't
have to dip each chick's beak into the water as you would if they were
mail-order chicks. Remember that chickens are "precocial,"
so the chicks will very capable of independent activity very shortly
after hatching. Although the hen may disagree, chicks really don't learn
much from their mother that motherless chicks don't learn on their own
in about the same time. On the other hand, do provide them with a stimulating
environment -- space to run around, straw bales to climb on, perches
to practice roosting on, occasional outings outside when the chicks
are at least a month old and the weather conditions permit. I don't
know for sure that it makes the chicks any smarter, but we think it
helps to unleash the instinctive behavior of their wild bird ancestors
and cuts down on bad behaviors, such as pecking at each other, which
is common with bored birds closed in too close together. Enjoy the show,
as the chicks explore their new world and the hen calls and scolds them
or especially when the chicks poke out their heads from multiple locations
about the hen's body. Since chicks are bonding with the mother hen,
however, don't expect them to pay much attention to you.
- Keep an eye out for weak, lame, ill, and oddly behaving chicks,
and take appropriate measures. You, rather than the mother hen, may
have to take care of pasty butts. Since the chicks depend on their mother's
warmth for survival, make sure all the chicks who venture out can get
back to her, and be sure they are tucked in with their mother at night.
- Although I've read that you can do it almost immediately,
we don't introduce a mother hen and her chicks to the rest of the flock
for quite a while. We don't for two reasons. We don't trust that the
hen will always be able to defend her chicks from potential attack by
the other hens, and we haven't figured out any good way to feed the
chicks separately from the laying hens when the two groups are integrated. Also, if for any reason you want to slip a baby chick under a hen, do so at night if you can. Don't try to introduce
a chick older than four days.
- When the mother hen loses interest with chicks, it is time to return
her to the regular flock. She may show signs she is ready for a change
by trying to chase them away or just ignoring them. It usually happens
after about 6 weeks, but in some cases it occurs much earlier or later.
Any time after the chicks have feathered out and no longer need a heat
source, it is all right to separate them from the hen. If the hen is
lucky, she will be readily accepted back with her old gang, and she
should quickly begin laying again.
- When the chicks are about the same size as the adult birds, they too
can be introduced to the old flock. Do it slowly, and don't expect their
"mother" to recognize them or treat them special. One reason
we wait so long is that when they are that size, they will be less picked
upon and better able to defend themselves, but also that's about that
time that the chicks are ready to consume the same feed as the adult
birds. We've never lost a chicken to a hawk, and we think it might have
something to do with the fact that our chicks aren't out in the open
for too long or unsupervised until they are adult sized..
|
