Hen meets chick

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Hen meets chick
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Issygp

Joined: 29 Jul 2011
Posts: 1

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 8:58 am Post subject: Hen meets chick
I have some eggs under a broody and some eggs in an incubator. As i want to mix the new chickens with the older ones can i put a newly hatched chick under a broody? Or should i do it before the chick hatches?

Mutton

Joined: 09 May 2009
Posts: 1508

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 9:36 am Post subject:

You can get away with slipping a chick under a broody hen, most will accept it. But if she is sitting eggs

1. She may abandon them after 24 hours to look after the chick.

2. Or she may wait for a lot more to hatch and the first chick dies.

You can also wait a couple of days and introduce chicks who've learnt to feed into a brood - one that is also out and about and learning to feed. Chicks are pretty determined about getting under a hen, and providing she already has more than two she won't recognise the intruders unless they are a different colour. We've even had a hen accept chicks of a different colour after a day or two from a mixed colour brood, after their broody proved to be not much cop as a mother and kept striding off and forgetting to keep them warm.

TINKS30

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 162
Location: Swindon, Wiltshire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 11:55 am Post subject:

The eggs she is sat on are the same breed and due date as the one pipping. Also i am not hopefull for the ones she is sat on to hatch. I managed to candle them once. So i thought if i feed her out of the coop she will go to eat and i can put the egg that is pipping in the nest, just wasn`t sure if i should remove one of the eggs she is already sat on? Can chickens count????

I have both my chickens broody, they are not a year old yet and are the only chicken i have ever owned. They are a chocolate orp bantam and a buff orp bantam. The eggs are lavender pekin.

Oh i made an account issygp as i couldn`t get on this one. so i and the op.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 12:21 pm Post subject:
I'd leave her as she is for a few more hours. Where's Chez when you need her?

TINKS30

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 162
Location: Swindon, Wiltshire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 12:25 pm Post subject:
The buff is trying to hatch an apple, so when she came out for some warm mash i put the egg that is pipping next to it. I also checked the choc`s eggs and one had pipped so i looked closer and it was dead in the egg , so i have removed it.

TINKS30

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 162
Location: Swindon, Wiltshire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 12:40 pm Post subject:
I was just out in the garden an heard lots of cheeping, so i looked through the spy hole and the buff was eating the shell off the egg that is trying to hatch. is that normal???

darkbrowneggs

Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 663
Location: Worcestershire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 12:47 pm Post subject:

I usually put anything I want to under the broody after it is dark, and by morning (in my experience) everything is ok

I have even put chicks which had been hatched in a brooder under a broody with chicks about 4or 5 days old - but they were the same breed and colour.

Interestingly the broody took them all quite happily, but they stayed in their two groups of six throughout their "chickhood"

I even put some 10day ish golden pheasant chicks under a broody with her own chicks/eggs, and she took them fine. Unfortunately my Marans are very large birds, and over a period of a couple of weeks she gradually "overlaid" them - ah well - lesson learned

As I say I always do the deed after dark when everyone is tucked up for the night. Also my line of hens is a very "non-pecking" strain.

All the best
Sue

TINKS30

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 162
Location: Swindon, Wiltshire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 12:50 pm Post subject:
How do you know if they are non pecking?

darkbrowneggs

Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 663
Location: Worcestershire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 12:53 pm Post subject:

TINKS30 wrote:

I was just out in the garden an heard lots of cheeping, so i looked through the spy hole and the buff was eating the shell off the egg that is trying to hatch. is that normal???

Not in my experience

She would normally be sitting tight down on the eggs if they were in the middle of a hatch.

darkbrowneggs

Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 663
Location: Worcestershire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 12:54 pm Post subject:

TINKS30 wrote:

How do you know if they are non pecking?

Because I never get any aggression or pecking in my birds (apart from mature cockerels who have not been together always)

Our posts keep crossing

TINKS30

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 162
Location: Swindon, Wiltshire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 1:08 pm Post subject:

darkbrowneggs wrote:

TINKS30 wrote:

How do you know if they are non pecking?

Because I never get any aggression or pecking in my birds (apart from mature cockerels who have not been together always)

Our posts keep crossing

Lol. I have never had any pecking or aggression with these before, inface the other one is the one that is normally the boss. Just went to check she wasn`t hurting the chick and found the chick out side the nest, i think the chicken may have picked up the egg and the chick has dropped out. So i slipped under the other broody.

As long as i get one hen from this clutch and one from the next, i am going to give up hatching eggs, it is so stressfull and i only get one or two eggs hatch.

RuthG

Joined: 01 Jul 2011
Posts: 268
Location: Village near Durham

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 1:13 pm Post subject:
How often have you done it? Your posts suggest you are a little impatient and not interested in letting nature run its course. I know people hwo get many chicks - almost a full incubator full, but they are patient and dont interfere with the eggs. Apologies if you are an old hand; it's just the way it comes across to an outsider.

TINKS30

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 162
Location: Swindon, Wiltshire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 1:24 pm Post subject:

This is the 6th time i have hatched chicks. All have had one or two hatch, afew time i have had chicks dead in the egg after trying pipping. This is why i am so worried. The eggs i left with the broody ( this is the first time i have used a broody) had one dead after pipping. I found it only when i went to try and put these eggs under the broody to hatch. I didn`t want to leave them all under the broody from start of hatch in case she let the eggs go cold, but as they are to go in with these chickens, i suddenly thought that it would be best if they hatch under the broody, that way i won`t have to worry about having afew pens with afew chicks in each. I have to say in my experiacne so far letting nature take it`s course i find dead chicks in eggs. I want to just leave nature to it, of course i do, If i could find out what is going wrong, then i could sort it.

TINKS30

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 162
Location: Swindon, Wiltshire

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 1:34 pm Post subject:
This is the incubator i have. https://www.hatchitincubators.com/catalogue.asp?action=showproduct&productid=765

Woodburner

Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 2904
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 11 7:13 pm Post subject:

Some broodies are better than others same as some incubators! Some are better 'sitters' and some are better mothers. imho it's worth persisting, because there are few things more wonderful to watch than a good broody with a bunch of chicks. Putting eggs in the incubator the same time you put eggs under a broody is a good way to supplement a hens 'clutch'. I find it less stressful to give incubator hatched chicks a few days in a brooder before giving them to a hen.

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