Had it with broody chickens

I really try to like my sons chickens but they make it so hard! So after hubby and son were left in charge of collecting eggs for a couple weeks while my asthma was bad, we ended up with 13 hens sitting on about 7+dzn eggs!

Now we've found hens breaking open half formed chicks in eggs and eating them oh gross so they got kicked out of nests and then we were down to 9 hens.

A salmon faverolle hatched a chick and seemed to be doing fine. We made sure they were safe and secure in their own nest box but found in the morning chick was squished to her foot and its behind was a bloody mess (it had been checked and was perfect when we went in for the night). She got kicked out of broody house.

We have 2 bantam cochin hens (horrible rotten little creatures normally) that have 5 babies hatched between them and are doing great! But while I was taking pics a couple of hens came out and tried to kill the chicks so they got kicked out of the broody house too.

Then we found 3 hatched chicks hatched yesterday pulled out of nest and heads missing So now were are down to 1 absolutely horribly nasty blue cochin hen (supposed to be pure but thinking maybe crossed with orpington or something). My son had enough with her evilness and threw her out of the broody coop but after yesterdays chick eating fest the last 3 hens got kicked out and we had 29 eggs and a full incubator. He caught her and she sat immediately on all the eggs and turned back into her evil evil evil self so hope she doesn't kill anything she manages to hatch

We feed these creatures! they have food and water at all times. Yuck chickens are very hard to like

Bantam cochin with 3 chicks under her
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Son checking on the other bantam cochin with 2 pipped eggs hatching under her
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The 4 remaining hens in the nest box, the big blue one got thrown out secs after I took this pic since she tried to eat my son and he'd finally had enough. However the welsummer, cuckoo marans and turken had themselves a chick head feast yesterday so big blue is back in the nest box alone now.
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We knew it was a long shot allowing them to finish hatching those eggs with so many hens in that box but wow even I didn't think they were that horrible!

I hear ya I have about 5 right now. One has been sitting for a bit and yesterday I found a rotten egg cracked open and she was sitting on it still. I am ready to remove all eggs from all broodies and call it done!

I hear you as well.

Every breeding group I have right now has at least two hens that have gone broody. Has really put a dent in egg numbers.
Plus with the recent fox attack all my pens are down in egg production.

But such is life, I have been fighting breaking broody hens since the weather warmed up. I almost want to give up at this point with them.

Not everyone's cut out to be mama I guess...but I do believe that if you have a broody she should be completely on her own, which also means you should be leaving her alone as well, especially around hatch time, lots of species if you keep interfering they will leave the babies at the wrong time or eat them.

Most hens are pretty good with their own chicks, but will happily kill someone else's. A broody hen will have no hope of having her chicks survive if another hen can get to her. She MUST be separate. Having them all together is a recipe for disaster.

I had only one mom who killed her chicks as they hatched. Went out in the morning to find dead bodies everywhere and her beating another one on the head. She was promptly made into coyote food.

For the security of hen and chicks, separate quarters are a must. As well, once the chicks are hatched I remove the nest box and let mom nest on ground. That way no cold chick is left outside the nest box, unable to get back in because of the edge, while the hen climbs back in to settle down.

Sorry this happened. But it's not uncommon for hens to kill other hen's chicks. It wasn't that long ago that they were dinosaurs.

I got five sitting as well !! could be more , but I just take the eggs away every day till they get the message !Some are breeds that are not known to sit ? yet here they are ?!!

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Think about the species and how they got where they are, in evolutionary terms. Mum went out and found a quiet safe dark place, then laid her eggs, one by one, and then sat on them until they hatched. Did multiple hens all nest happily together? No.

If we want chickens to cooperate with us, we need to think about how they got to be a successful species, and then allow them to behave that way, as much as possible.

As several others have said, this means (among other things) ALWAYS giving each setting hen her own space.

Every year I raise 5-10 batches of chicks under broody hens. Only once have I had a murderous mum (who killed two chicks) with well over 50 clutches hatched.

I love Broody hens, and have no intention ever of buying an incubator, even a small one.

Was tempted once. Just a flash of silliness.

Broody hens teach chicks to be chickens! To me they are worth their weight in Gold.

We don't breed chickens but this year all his hens are at least 2yrs most 3+yrs as we bought a bunch of "old hens" the first year he had chickens. We've allowed one broody to hatch eggs a couple years ago our tufted Araucana x bantam buff brahma (we think and she's the only hen I'd keep if we got rid of the chickens), she successfully hatched out the 2 LF blue cochins (1 is the broody in nest now). She did great. We have 2 of her daughters from a OE dad and they are great too but one is named trooper because as a chick the bantam cochins (2 brooding chicks now) were 3weeks older and jumped out of their brooder into her brooder. I ran to see what screeching was about but they'd pecked a huge gash in troopers head I didn't think she would survive but I tended that chick because son was so sad and she survived and gash was so big that she still has a huge scar along top of her head.

This year I let son put a dzn eggs under a hen that just refused to quit being broody and then my asthma got REALLY bad. I had to stay away from checking up on his coop as the feather dust was just too much for me. Dad was in charge of checking on sons chores and when I finally braved the coop I found hens sitting on eggs everywhere! I was grumpy.

We don't have places to separate everyone since we don't breed these are mutts that would either be layers or soup. They were left alone (which is how so many went broody with so many eggs!). I was using external flash in those pics as that is the dark nesting area of the coop. We made is dark when building the new coop last year to help prevent egg eating. We were in there because we'd cleaned bedding and set up feed, water for chicks.

I do breed ducks and I LOVE when they set and hatch their own I FAR prefer that and have never had a hen kill a baby and babies quickly join the rest of the group with mom. I've quite a few times had waterfowl take on incubator adoptees as well without issue. I love my cayugas they are fantastic broodies and moms. I have 4 sitting on nests now and yes we leave them be but I do have to keep things clean in their area and feed/water filled and clean.

I am much more fond of waterfowl but I try really hard to be supportive and helpful with my sons chickens. I keep my thoughts (dislike) to myself around him and help him sort things out but I needed to vent because their carnivorous tendancies really bother me. I really do try to like them since he enjoys them so much. He was really hoping for some Turken chicks but the only 2 to hatch were of the 3 that lost heads.

The bantam cochin sisters were in separate nest boxes but they're sharing now instead but all 5 chicks doing just fine getting out to food water etc and back into nest. The bigger nest box is deeper and so if LF cochin manages to hatch anything they'll be stuck inside but we can remove the front then and she can have her own safe area with them but for now I think its best if she's in her nice deep dark nest box.

My barn is filled with month old cornish x's and pony stall filled with turkey poults, my greenhouse is housing my pilgrim goose and her 3 goslings and her adoptee duckling. My duck pen has 4 broody ducks set up in the quiet side and my old pony shelter has my Buff goose sitting on 5 eggs. I have no place but the chicken coop to set up broodies so we blocked off half so the rest of the hens have a much smaller area but then they can go outside and broodies have 5x15ft but no outside access. Only the 5ftx5ft nesting area is dark and the rest of the coop is bright and sunny with lots of windows along the front that open for fresh air. I will see how LF cochin does with her eggs and if she kills any well then I will talk son into forgetting about broody chickens

Higgins yes I agree son really wanted silkies and we tried 3 times but those things are stoooopid! Sons first chicken was a black silky roo he disappeared and next day found him floating in my garden rain water barrel. Next son got 2 silkies in a hatchery order and roo jumped up into my duck pool and sank like a rock so I wasn't able to get to him in time. Last was the hen and this still stumps me but we found it laying in the water too. However water was just in those big black wide shallow rubber feed bowl things it's only about 4 inches deep! So told son no more silikes enough is enough.

Thanx for letting me vent. Hubby and I removed yucky possible bomb eggs out from under LF Cochin hen tonight we went with thick jackets and thick gloves but we did it! She now has 14 good growing eggs under her and she was purring and growling and all eggs covered when we left so we'll see what happens. The 2 Bantam cochin sisters were snuggled up together and all chicks snuggled into their fluff

I can’t say enough good things about broody hens.  I think that certain breeds are really good at it. I am going to direct to a post I had made last fall about four blue cochin gals that decided to all go broody at once, it is a long read,but has some marvelous pictures.
 
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Such little work is really required when the mammas decide to raise their young.  Of course, there are certain things that the human must do in order to help to protect the babies.  For example, if chicks are hatching at different times, I really think that the mothers need to be kept separately, so they don’t hatch their chicks in the same area.  As what happened with SerJay, those mammas can be mean to the new babies, who have no clue about that fact that something that should be nice to them, will not be.  I once had two little babies, newborn, have a hole pecked in their head when the mamma got off the nest for that break which she had not had for a couple of days during the hatching process.  That was a lesson learned.  I always have an area where the broody mammas can raise their chicks safely, away from others.  And that comes in the form of dog exercise kennels, or I also have a place where I can move the mammas to. 
 
I currently have three buff Orpington hens raising chicks.  Two hens have 9 each, and one has 10.  The one with the 10 chicks is still in her segregated area, the other two are now sharing the chicken yard with their chicks and the adult birds.  I find by the age of about 2 weeks old, the chicks are smart enough to know that they must be very wary that there could be someone who does not like them. Although, for the most part, at this age, the roosters and hens are very tolerant of these little barnyard brats.  And that they are.  The antics that these little brats perform are just something else.  I get such a kick out of little 2 week old babes taking dust baths.  Little furry bodies, deep in the dry dusty spots, flipping and pecking the soil, rolling over from side to side, full of dirt and dust, just like mamma does.  Mammas are the best teachers for the little ones.  Still at the age of 4 weeks, those babies go below that beautiful belly of Jamaican humidity and sunshine at night, although they barely fit below that great and beautiful belly any more.  Soon mammas will be abandoning those chicks and they will be ready to find out about the big world themselves.  They have big kid panties on by that age. 
 
Viva la broody!!
 
I am with HigginsRAT with this one.  Bring on any broody that wants to set on eggs.  I welcome that.  Sometimes I do admit, I have wished to break that habit, and have, but for the most part, welcome the brooding mamma.  Sometimes I have had a mamma decide in the middle of winter to sit on eggs.  From now on, until I can be of surety of the fertility of those winter eggs, I will break that broody feeling.  A couple of times there has only been one or two hatch out of 12 eggs this past winter.  That was not a good thing and did become more of a nuisance.  Not doing that again, not natural to hatch that time of year.  Hormoney things must have gone wrong. 
 
I think the only time that multiple hens can brood together safely is when they are in separate boxes, a small distance apart, so they can look after their own.  I saw the issue for sure with you, SerJay.  Those hens were cramped, side by side and too many in that box.  No fault to you, they should not have decided to go broody, we lay blame on them, smiling.  We can’t control what they do for the most part, we can break the broody cycle, but for how long?  I think once that has started, that it is going to start up again right away after breaking.  Maybe some have luck, and that is good. 
 
I dunno. I love broody hens and welcome that in summertime with open arms.  It works for me, I know it does not work for many, and that is what it is, but I say bring it!!
 
This is what a dog kennel exercise fence looks like, to keep that mamma safe from the other part of the flock until the chicks are about 10days to 2 weeks old.  She doesn’t do much, other than teach them to eat and drink and keep them warm, so this is a perfect size.
 
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This is the side by side area where I can allow two mammas to brood chicks of the same age or different ages, very handy.  Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.
 
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Hmm....I took out the links to the pictures because something is wrong and the pictures were not showing up in the post, and one had to go to photobucket to see them, too much time involved I think for people to do that, oh well.  Something wrong on the forum?  Also, can't make emoticons cause they aren't there.  Oh well.  Have that awesome day, CynthiaM.

I totally sympathize with the horror of what chickens can do, intentionally or unintentionally.  I have just gone through a difficult time myself, losing 6 to various causes, though none as awful as yours.  Only two were properly hatched by the mother, and we are quite enjoying watching her teach them all about life as a chicken.  Two we had to hatch ourselves, because the mother refused to give a pipped egg room to breathe, and crushed them.  But these are doing well, and I hope will soon be able to join the other two outside.  I have two more broodies, and I am not sure whether to be excited or worried, but I do hope that they are able to get it right.  All my broodies get separated, but I have only had four.  The one lost her mothering job, which makes it easier - less private space to create.  I sure hope your last one goes a lot better.  Must be hard on the boy.

It is so hard when things go wrong. Great posts Higginsrat and cynthia. You have had a load of experience at this game. I also am worried about broody hens. I have two that have decided to be broody in the same spot. That spot is on the floor in a corner on a pile of straw. They are side by side. After reading serjays post I am afraid something bad might come of it. One is due to hatch four days after the other. These are young birds that have never been mamas before. I have built a broody coop with two separate nesting areas. I have never used it because I have never had a problem with them hatching in with the flock. If I do move these two when do I do it and am I running the risk of them abandoning the nest.

ALWAYS move broodies at night, in the dark. And yes, broody hens really need their own quiet private place. They aren't stupid about this; we are.

Chickens have Really Bad night vision, worse than ours. I've had almost 100% success moving broodies to new quarters at night, and about 0% sucess in daylight. Then, of course, you need to keep an eye on them for a day or two - they get confused, and want to go back to where they came from, but if their eggs are in plain sight and they can't escape, it's quite likely that they'll go back on their "own" eggs.