Day old chicks and broody hen?

Miss M · Jul 16, 2024

For some reason my search skills are failing me! I have some day-old chicks coming to be put under a hen that's been broody for three weeks.

She's set up just inside the door of the shed, which she accesses through a hole for the farm cat. We figure we should be able to slip the chicks under her late at night.

I'm figuring that just putting them in the shed on the floor in her nest is probably a really bad idea, since there are lots of shed things in the shed.. including a few chemicals. I do have a rabbit hutch, and some cages, and at least one other difficult option.

My husband and I were hard hit by covid in 2021, and my husband is disabled as a result. But we still raise chickens for eggs.

Should we set her up in the hutch? Will she abandon the nest?

Alaska Satin · Jul 16, 2024

Miss M said:
For some reason my search skills are failing me! I have some day-old chicks coming to be put under a hen that's been broody for three weeks.

She's set up just inside the door of the shed, which she accesses through a hole for the farm cat. We figure we should be able to slip the chicks under her late at night.

I'm figuring that just putting them in the shed on the floor in her nest is probably a really bad idea, since there are lots of shed things in the shed.. including a few chemicals. I do have a rabbit hutch, and some cages, and at least one other difficult option.

My husband and I were hard hit by covid in 2021, and my husband is disabled as a result. But we still raise chickens for eggs.

Should we set her up in the hutch? Will she abandon the nest?

You could try to build a little enclosure around her nesting spot where it is, just big enough to enclose the nest and allow her to access the hole, so that she could still go in and out like she's used to for food/water. It wouldn't have to be very big, since she's just sitting there, but it would keep chicks from straying too near dangerous shed things. As soon as she "hatches" the chicks, she'll lead them away from the nest anyway, and a barrier would nudge her into taking them out of the shed.

I have moved a hen and her current nest into a dog travel kennel, with the kennel right on the spot where she made the nest. But I've not tried to completely relocate a setting hen.

R Buns · Jul 18, 2024

Alaska Satin said exactly what I was going to say.
I have moved a hen that I put chicks under but only after a night with them and she's taken them. I usually do this because of our set up. However I can lock the hen in with the new chicks under her in the nest for the night then relocated them the next day to a safer pen for them all. We have terrible problems with chicks getting stollen and killed by blue jays so we have to put them in a very secure pen until they get bigger than the birds want.
I hope you'll keep us posted on how it goes! Good luck! I love doing this with broody hens when I need new stock in the flock.

Miss M · Sep 3, 2024

I can't believe how quickly time has passed!! I took y'all's advice and we built an enclosure around her. We couldn't figure out giving her access to go in and out with what we had, so we just made sure there was plenty of food and water to take care of her as well.

She adopted them all immediately and was a fantastic mom of 17

Three weeks old, we removed the barrel and expanded their space:

5 weeks:

We just moved them this past weekend, and separated the hen and a cockerel and let them out with the retired chickens (as the hen had been before).

We are used to great production, but our last two batches of hens have not even provided for our needs, much less allowing us to give eggs to friends and family. Hopefully these young ladies will take us back to the numbers we always had before

Thank y'all for your help!!

R Buns · Sep 4, 2024

That's awesome! Thanks for the update and the pictures. We got one with 13 under her right now. She can't spread wide enough anymore. Some sleep on top of her now. Pretty funny to watch. Congratulations on the success!

Miss M · Sep 5, 2024

R Buns said:
That's awesome! Thanks for the update and the pictures. We got one with 13 under her right now. She can't spread wide enough anymore. Some sleep on top of her now. Pretty funny to watch. Congratulations on the success!

Ours were sleeping on top of the hen too

Thank you, and good luck with yours!!