This is our first year hatching eggs with a broody hen. And, our new clutch of chicks is due literally any minute! I’m having to restrain myself from going out to the coop every hour to see if they’re ready. I’m sure Broody Mama, our setting hen, is sick of me peeking in on her.
Hatching chicks at home is an excellent way to develop self-reliance, and increase the size of your flock. If you have a rooster, then it’s the best way to get free chicks. However, you can also purchase fertilized eggs for less than the cost of day-old chicks, and hatch those.
A broody hen can make a very dedicated mother for a clutch of chicks. But, should you try hatching eggs with a broody hen? And if you decide to let one of your hens hatch eggs, what can you do to help support her? Let’s take a look.
The Benefits of Hatching Eggs With a Broody Hen
It’s fairly easy to hatch eggs with a broody hen. After all, she does all the hard work! And, a broody hen is a perfect incubator.
A hen’s natural body temperature is 105 to 107 degrees F, which keeps the eggs at 100 to 101 degrees F, the perfect temperature to incubate a clutch of eggs. What’s more, her feathers create an insulating layer to trap this warmth, as well as the humidity from her body. She instinctively turns the eggs when they need to be turned so that the developing embryo doesn’t stick to the side of the shell.
Once the chicks hatch, she then does all the hard work of raising them. You don’t have to worry with a heat pad or heating lamp. You don’t have to constantly clean a brooder box, or check them for pasty butt. Mama does all that for you.
Hatching Eggs With a Broody Hen
It’s not easy being a broody hen. She’s sitting on a nest all day and night, only getting up once to eat, drink, take a dust bath, and poop. With that in mind, there are several things you can do to support her along the way and help ensure a successful hatch.
1. Make Sure She’s Broody
Your first step is to make sure that you really have a broody chicken on your hands. Some signs of a broody hen include:
- Not leaving the nesting box to join the rest of the flock.
- Fluffing her feathers and growling if you come near her.
- She’s very flat when on the nest, trying to cover the widest area possible with her feathers.
- She has pulled feathers off her chest, creating a bare area.
- Her poop is larger than normal and is very smelly.
Once a hen goes broody, she will sit on a nest for 21 days or longer until her eggs hatch.
2. Set Up a Secure Nesting Area
Much of the time (but not ALL of the time,) a broody hen will set up shop in her favorite nesting box. This is where she feels most comfortable, so of course that’s where she’s going to want to hatch her eggs. However, her favorite spot is also probably a favorite spot for other hens. And, they’re going to get pretty upset when they can no longer go into that nest to lay.
There are two ways to handle this.
Move the Nest
One way to approach this problem is to move the broody hen, and her eggs, to a secure and private location. This might be a large dog crate, a separate stall in the barn, a separate chicken tractor, or fenced-off area within the coop.
The advantage of moving the broody hen to a secure location is that she’ll have privacy, and you won’t have to worry as much about other hens hopping on the nest to lay. The disadvantage is that moving the hen can cause her to abandon the nest.
This happened to us late this spring. Another one of our Sussex chickens went broody in everyone’s favorite nest, and I decided to move her to private area of the coop to keep the peace. So, I set up her with a nesting mansion: plenty of privacy and space, ample bedding, food and water, and I covered most of the area with wooden latticework to help her feel safe. I moved her and the eggs to the new nesting area at night to reduce stress and lower the risk of abandonment.
The next morning I opened up the coop to find the Sussex had abandoned the new nest. She had relocated back to the old nesting spot, and was sitting on an empty nest. The hatching eggs were cold and had to be tossed out. So, abandonment is a real concern.
Kelsey at Green Willow Homestead has an excellent article on how to move a broody hen, and most importantly, how to box her in for the first 12 hours after you move her so she doesn’t abandon the nest. I wish I’d had this information the first time around! Right now, we’re literally hours or minutes away from hatching…however, next time one of our hens goes broody I’m definitely trying Kelsey’s technique.
Leave Her Where She Is
If you’re going to hatch eggs with a broody hen, your other option is leave her where she’s at. As long as she’s in a safe location, this is a viable option. However, it definitely has its risks.
The benefit to leaving her be is that she’ll be more comfortable. Obviously, she really likes this particular spot and that’s where she wants to be. The downside is that you’ll have to keep an eye on the nest daily to make sure that other hens aren’t laying new eggs in the nest, or breaking them going in and out. Your broody hen might also forget which nest is hers when she goes on her daily walkabout, and wind up sitting on fresh eggs instead of the developing embryos.
So, leaving her be is definitely a risky option. However, that’s what I’ve decided to do with our current broody hen, Broody Mama. She set up shop in everyone’s favorite nest and, rather than move her and risk losing another clutch of chicks, I decided weeks ago to just leave her there.
3. Mark Hatching Eggs
Once your hen is successfully setting, mark each fertile egg with a pencil. You can put an “X” on the hatching eggs, and the date if you had to add fertile eggs on different days.
The reason you mark the eggs is to differentiate the hatching eggs from any new eggs that get laid in the nest over the next 21 days. Typically, this will happen when your broody hen gets up for her daily walkabout, and another hen steals into the nest to lay an egg.
This has been a daily occurrence around here. I catch hens hovering around Broody Mama’s nest, waiting for her to get up so they can jump on and lay. And, every day I have to inspect the nest and remove any unmarked eggs.
So, mark your eggs. It will save you time and stress over the next few weeks.
4. Take Care of the Broody Hen
There are several things you can do to take care of a broody hen.
First, put food and fresh water near the nesting box. If refreshment is close by, it might encourage her to get up more than once a day to eat and drink. At the least, she won’t have to leave the nest unguarded for long when she does get up.
Most broody hens will lose weight while they’re setting. After all, they’re only getting up once per day to eat and drink. However, some broody hens can really neglect themselves while they’re on the nest. According to The Happy Chicken Coop, a hen can decrease her nutritional intake by up to 80% when she’s on the nest.
If you’re worried that your broody hen is not getting enough to eat, mix some feed with a little water to make a mash and try to feed her while she’s still on the nest. She might like the special treatment and eat more when she’s hand-fed like this. Or, she might try to peck at you if you get too close. So, proceed with caution.
If your hen is setting during summer, you might need to take steps to keep your broody hen cool in summer. If you have power out in your barn, run a fan to keep the air circulating. Or, offer her some treats, like frozen fruit, throughout the day.
Chances are, your broody chicken will look pretty rough by hatch day. The picture posted at the top of this article is Broody Mama at the end of her setting cycle. You can see that her comb and wattles are very pale, and she just looks unhealthy and tired. Poor girl! Every mother can empathize with that look of complete exhaustion.
5. Make Sure the Nest is Chick-Friendly
Before hatch day, make sure that the nest is safe and accessible for the chicks. For instance, is your broody chicken sitting on a nest that a baby chick can get in and out of easily? Does the nesting site pose any risks for baby chicks?
Here’s a good example. If you look carefully in the pictures I posted in this article, you’ll see that both of our Sussex hens decided to go broody in flower boxes. For whatever reason, they love laying eggs in these flower boxes! Although the flower boxes make great nests, it’s impossible for a baby chick to get in and out of these boxes easily. In order to make sure the baby chicks could get back to Mama, I built a ramp up to the nest out of bedding and will check it daily to make sure the chicks are safely getting back to the nest.
6. Pick Up Chick Feed
Pick up a bag of chick feed before hatch day. Baby chicks and Mama should all be on chick feed, as layer feed has too much calcium for baby chicks. Your Mama hen won’t start laying for four to five weeks after the chicks hatch, so she won’t need the extra calcium anyway
Keep in mind that baby chicks absorb all the nutrients in the yolk right before they hatch, so they likely won’t eat anything in the first 48 hours. So, don’t stress if the babies aren’t eating!
7. Relocate Family to Secure Area
Once the chicks hatch, relocate the entire family to a secure location within the coop. This might be a large dog crate, or a fenced-off area. Keeping the new family separated, but still visible to the flock, will ensure that older hens won’t attack the chicks. You should keep them separated for most of the day for at least two weeks, and then let Mama decide when to introduce the new chicks to the flock.
Make sure their private space has plenty of room for Mama to get up and relieve herself, fresh water, a dish of chick feed, fresh bedding, and a bowl of dirt or grit so that chicks can digest their food. After the first couple of days, you can give them chicken treats like grass, fresh herbs to improve health like oregano or thyme , chickweed, or veggie peels.
After the third or fourth day, open up their private space daily so that the family can go outside. Mama will be ready for a dust bath, and to stretch her legs. She’s also going to start teaching the chicks how to forage, take dust baths, and stay close. During these early outings, it’s important to stay close to supervise. Baby chicks are so vulnerable, and even a watchful Mama can’t always stop a hawk from swooping in and nabbing a chick.
8. Watch Mama
Many hens make great mothers, but some don’t. Once the eggs hatch, watch Mama for a couple of days to make sure she’s attending to her chicks like she should: keeping them warm, showing them how to eat and drink, and making sure they’re safe from other hens or predators.
If Mama hen is attentive, the rest of the flock will probably give them a great deal of space. No one wants to tango with an angry Mama! She’ll likely do a great job keeping her babies protected from other adults.
However, if Mama is not taking care of the chicks, you’ll need to put them in a brooder box and raise the chicks yourself.
Last Word
I just took another trip down to the coop to check on Broody Mama. Still no chicks! So, I can only keep waiting.
Hatching eggs with a broody hen has been a lot of fun, far more so than buying day-old chicks. Broody Mama has been committed to her nest, and I think she’s going to turn into a wonderful mother.
I’d love to her from you. Are you hatching eggs with a broody hen? Do you have any tips or secrets to share?