Be sure the nests always have plenty of clean nesting material that's thick enough to provide a nice cushion for the eggs so they don't break. Be sure there's ample feed and water close by to your nests. A broody will be more apt to go broody and sit on the nest more of the day if she doesn't have travel far to eat and drink. You want to make it convenient for your hen to sit, so be sure to move some feed and water closer to the nest, so your hen can still easily get up off the nest to eat and drink without venturing too far.
If you are successful, your broody will begin to spend nearly all her time on the nest, leaving only periodically to eat, drink and defecate. She will begin to pull her breast feathers out, literally "feathering" her nest, and growl and fuss if you try to move her. Slip some fertilized eggs under her and with a little luck, in 21 days, she'll hatch some chicks for you. But just be aware, you could start an epidemic Get everything you need to hatch chicks from our friends at Brinsea!
Articles may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy. Want a chicken to sit on eggs for you to hatch them? Here are five ways to encourage her to go broody for you. Which of course you can not predict. Some of the top breeds known for going broody are Orpingtons, Silkies, Cochins, and Brahmas.
The majority of my successful broody moms are Wyandottes, Marans, and Easter Eggers. Blind Chicken was a BLR that raised a clutch for 6 consecutive years, she only stopped when she went blind. The hen that took over my mail-order guinea keets is also a BLR. Read more about Easter Egger Chickens.
Sit on some eggs, hatch some babies. Seems easy right? You need all of these things to happen without the prospective mother killing any babies. One of my Brahmas goes broody like clockwork but I have to break her every time. The first time she went broody I let her sit, she did a great job and then started killing the chicks as they hatched.
I can say that I have better luck letting the hens take charge, a lot less shrink wrapping, and overall healthier chicks. Hatching is hard business and there will always be some potential for fatalities.
On the other hand, I have chickens that deserve gold medals. That Wyandotte I mentioned earlier was sitting on a nest and hatched one chick the same day my guinea keets came in the mail.
I moved her to a small pen with her chick and carefully snuck the keets in a few at a time. She took them all over without a second thought. I have an 8ish-year-old bantam EE that has never shown interest in sitting but this year she raised 6 chicks and even tried to steal a few from another hen. Hens stop laying when they go broody so they actaully have lower dietery needs. I have a pretty loose policy on keeping my laying hens out of the broody nests.
Usually I sacrifice 2 or three boxes to the broodies and let them take turns sitting. Now what? One option is to do nothing. You can leave mama and babies alone and see what happens. This was my old method but unfortunately, you tend to lose more baby chicks this way. I have one straight black EE that absolutely will not raise a black chick. The only reason I could come up with was her first back of chicks was all light and she thinks the others are imposters.
My preferred method of dealing with a new mom is to scoop up her and her babies and stick them in a pen on lockdown for a few weeks. I free range all of my birds and giving the chicks some time to grow and eat lots of chick starter before they have to compete with the big birds for food gives them a head start.
All of the pens I use have wire sides so the birds inside can see the ones outside and vice versa. Keeping them locked up in a smaller space also keeps the moms more focused on the babies. I have never successfully moved a nest. Most of my chickens seem happy to have nests in the barn, the few that have tried to nest outdoors have given up when I tried to move them. After candling, I just slip any viable eggs under whoever else is sitting at the time and move on with my life.
But in theory, it can be done. Hawk Hill has some advice about moving a broody hen and nest that you might find helpful. There are a few methods to breaking a broody hen and they go from simple to more extreme. There are some hens that give up and move on and others that are so stubborn it seems impossible. This article addresses how to break up a broody hen.
Either a hen is broody or she is not- one cannot make a hen broody. However, a hen that is already in the mood to brood may be encouraged to set if she sees a nest full of eggs or another hen brooding as the state seems to be contagious. Serious breeders have dedicated coops or broody pens for the purpose of housing broodies. A broody does not need much to do her thing: a dark, cozy spot for the eggs, a food and water station and a location in which to relieve herself.
After three weeks, the chicks should hatch and she will keep them warm, show them where the food and water is and protect them from intruders. The bottom of the nest should be soft so to protect the eggs.
The weight of the hen, the shifting of position and jostling of eggs on her way into and out of the nest for 21 days can cause eggs to crack and ultimately kill any live embryo inside. To limit the impact to the eggs, I recommend nest box pads and liners either alone or with chopped straw or shavings on top.
Scratch can also be offered to the broody hen as the high carbohydrate content will provide extra calories during her three week crash diet. Keep the food and water close to the nest to ensure that less adventurous broodies avail themselves of at least one meal a day.
Fresh, cool water is critical to the health of a broody hen and should be made available at all times. A dehydrated hen can die very quickly. A hen can manage to cover and keep warm approximately 12 eggs proportionate to her size, meaning: if she is a bantam, it is reasonable to expect that she can care for 12 bantam sized eggs, fewer if the eggs are from a larger hen.
If the broody is a large fowl breed, she can handle eggs of the size she would ordinarily lay, more if they are bantam eggs. Much more about acquisition of and handling of the hatching eggs, here. Some broodies are more attached to their chosen location than others and will protest mightily while trying to return to it if moved. Moving a broody hen is best done at night when she is less likely to be upset by the change of scenery.
The feed, water and makeshift run should be in place before the move is made. The egg candler used in the photo below is a Brinsea Ovascope. Candling eggs should be done after dark if at all, so as to limit the stress to the broody. When I candle broody eggs, I do it twice at most, at day 10 and By day 10 any egg that has not begun to develop will be obvious and should be removed. After day 18 the embryo begins to assume the hatching position and should no longer be moved, so I like to candle on day 17 at the latest.
The photo below shows what an embryo three days away from hatching looks like from the inside left and when candling from the outside right. Contrary to popular belief, a hen does not necessarily kick bad eggs out of the nest. Sometimes eggs found outside the nest are viable and sometimes she continues to sit on rotten eggs until the bitter end.
I wish I had a nickel for every rotten egg I have discovered in the nest after a hen has left it to care for her brood. I have also rescued more than one developing egg that a broody has kicked out of the nest. Rotten eggs can often be detected from a considerable distance and must be removed from the clutch so as not to jeopardize the entire hatch.
More on rotten eggs, here. Accidents do happen from broken eggs to poop and soiled nests should be cleaned upon discovery to limit the exposure of bacteria to the eggs. Nine out of ten times I miss a broody taking her daily break, but I always watch for broody poop in the yard or coop to be sure she is eating. Some broodies must be physically removed from the nest in order to ensure they are getting the minimum daily intake of water and food.
A broody who does not poop has not eaten, which is a hazard to her health. Sometime it is necessary to rescue a chick from a broody hen either because the hen attacks, rejects, or abandons them. I always have a brooder set-up ready on hatch day in the event of rejection by the mother hen. The mother hen will bring them to the feed and water and teach them to eat and drink. Chicks do not need grit to digest most commercial starter feeds.
Starter feed is designed to be digested by saliva with no need for further grinding with grit in the gizzard. Any time chicks are given treats or fibrous foods or whole grain feed, they should be provided with grit, however. The hen will need layer feed approximately a month after hatching since she may begin to lay eggs any time after 5 weeks.
It is at that point that most broodies begin to distance themselves from her babies, although there are exceptions. Ideally a broody hen will have a private space in which to hatch eggs in peace, but practically, that is not always possible and often broodies hatch eggs in the coop nest boxes. The challenges of caring for a coop broody CB are significant.
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