So far in this series we’ve explained why breeding using broody hens to incubate, hatch and raise chicks is a viable model for the smallholder and guided you through how best to prepare to maximise your hatch rates. In this third instalment we’ll share our tips from our many years of experience with broody hens to support the incubation period you get healthy chicks and a happy, healthy broody hen.
Is my hen broody?
This may sound like a strange question to ask, but recognising a broody hen is not always straight forward. Every hen is different and they do have a mind of their own. It has to be said that waiting for a hen to brood is like waiting for a kettle to boil.
A hen will brood in her own time but there are some signs we look out for:
- She won’t leave the nest
- When we open the nest box she’ll puff up and make a noise that we call “eagle chicken”. Trust us, when you hear it, you’ll know it!
- It’s possible that she may try to bite us if we put our hand on her
- She will have flattened her body to cover as much space in the nest as possible
- She will stop laying although we may find eggs for the first two or three days
Once we are convinced our hen is broody, we can set up her nest.
Setting up the Nest
In our last instalment we explained the importance of giving our broody hens their own coop and run for the duration of the brood. The first thing we do is to relocate our broody hens into their own personal suite. Sometimes the hen changes her mind when she’s moved so we have a little routine before we give our hens fertilised eggs to incubate.
In the nest we put in some false eggs. These are readily available from poultry stores and are normally made from either rubber or Plaster of Paris. We make the transfer from one coop to another at dusk as the hen will naturally roost and is more likely to settle onto the nest. We also give her a small feeder and drinker in the coop which allows us to close the coop up until the afternoon of the following day. When we open the door, if she doesn’t stay on the nest and is very vocal about being in an enclosed run, we let her out as she clearly wasn’t quite ready. Normally, our hens settle onto the nest, so we swap out the false eggs for the fertilised eggs we’ve been saving as explained in part two of the series.
How do we do this? It’s easier than you think. As the broody hen is stuck to the nest, one of us will lift her up and the other will make the swap. Then we settle her down.
This is where our top tip to maximise hatch rates comes in. Bear in mind we are talking about Orpington hens and every breed is different so the numbers may be different for your hens. Our hens can cover at least 12 eggs in a clutch and can easily support 12 chicks. However not all the eggs will successfully hatch and from our experience we work on an average of 80%. That means 9 or 10 eggs will hatch successfully. To ensure we have the maximum clutch size we will put 3 extra eggs in our Brinsea incubator at the same time as the broody hen starts her incubation period. On average this will give us 12 chicks at an 80% hatch rate but in the unlikely event we have a 100% hatch rate our Orpingtons could support 15 chicks and in fact that’s exactly what Jellybean, one of our hens, did this year.
Keeping your Hen Healthy During the Brood
The incubation period lasts 21 days and there’s not much to see in that time but there are things we check for. It’s normal for broody hens to lose weight during a brood. That’s because they stay with the eggs for approximately 23 hours every day only leaving to eat as much as possible, drink as much as possible and evacuate their bowels as they will not poop in the coop near the eggs.
There are two things we check:
- Have they been off the nest?
- Are they losing too much weight?
Checking if they have been off the nest is easy. In this case poop is our friend; if there is poop in the run, our hen has been off the nest. We always remove any poop as soon as we see it. This allows us to easy see the next day if the hen has left the nest.
What do we do if there’s no poop? We will let one day go by, but if there is no sign of poop half way through a second day, we’ll lift the broody hen out and pop her in the run. We make sure the coop door is shut so she is forced to remain in the run. It’s normal for the hen to grab all the food she can, drink all she can and evacuate her bowels. Once we see her having done this, we open the coop door between 30 to 60 minutes after confining her in the run.
Checking if they have lost too much weight means checking their body condition score. It sounds technical but really all we do is feel the hens breast muscles in relation to their keel bone. In a well-conditioned hen, the breast muscles should be convex and you should be able to feel the keel bone (the bone which runs between the two breast muscles but not prominently. When we would intervene is if the muscles start to flatten out from their concave shape and the keel bone becomes prominent. If you’re not sure what to check, make sure you’re aware of how your hens breast muscle and keel bone feels at the beginning of the brood and then you can monitor any changes.
What happens if our broody hen loses too much weight? We tempt them with foods they love. We’ve found that making a warm mash by adding hot water to chick crumb normally does the trick. We’ll put it in a small bowl into the coop just in front of the hen. There’s something about the aroma that really appeals to the hen. In the unlikely event that this doesn’t work, we would suggest seeking guidance from your veterinary professional for further support. You may need to temporarily move the eggs to an incubator to allow you to take your hen to your vet.
