Giving a day-old-chick to a broody hen
About a year into having my chickens, one of them went broody…Oh no!
For those of you who may not know, a broody hen means that a hen is sitting on a nest of eggs trying to hatch them. And it will eventually happen in every flock.
The problem with a broody hen when you don’t have a rooster is that none of the eggs she is sitting on are fertilized, meaning they will never hatch no matter how long she incubates them. She also stops laying eggs while she is nesting and mothering.
The first time I had a broody hen, I scoured the internet for information about what to do. Most people recommended trying to break the brood, or stop the hen from sitting on the nest. I tried several things and nothing seemed to work…she was determined to hatch those (unfertilized) eggs.
“Could this really work?” I wondered.
If it did, that would mean I would have a newer younger bird to eventually replace my older layers. It also would mean I would be able to expand my flock without having to buy a heating lamp and other special equipment for raising chicks. And the mama hen would break her brood and do all the chick-raising work for me!
That sounded like a win-win to me. I was willing to give it a shot.
All of the hatcheries I checked online either didn’t ship in the fall and/or required a minimum number of birds to be shipped, anywhere from 15 to 50. Yikes! I only wanted one chick to try out my idea…
So I called our local stores that sell chicks in the spring and low-and-behold, one of them would be getting a shipment of baby chicks in a couple of weeks. I marked the date on the calendar and prayed that she would stay broody for that long.
Hens normally sit on eggs for 21 days. Mine had already been sitting for 15 or so days. Could her brood last until the chicks arrived?
I waited anxiously and checked her frequently. Still broody, still broody.
When the day finally arrived, I went to the store and was told that the chicks had arrived a few days earlier in the week. Which meant that they were hatched 1-2 days before that. What???
From everything I had read, it was VERY important to get a chick that is as young as possible. Often times, a mother hen won’t accept a chick if it is too old, or the chick won’t imprint on the mother…or both.
Although I knew there was a chance it wouldn’t work, I decided to give it a shot anyway. I bought one chick, some chick starter feed, and a chick waterer that can attach to a mason jar and off we went.
(As a side note, I once tried to give a chick to a broody hen before the sun went down because I couldn’t stand waiting any longer and she tried to peck the poor thing to death. I took the chick out, waited until the sun went down, gave the same chick back to the same broody hen and she accepted it…definitely wait until the sun goes down!)
Once it got fully dark, I slipped out to the coop after it had been dark for awhile with the chick. I spent a few minutes letting the chick peep while still outside of the coop to let the mama hear the baby and start the process of mothering (sort of mimicking a chick hatching from an egg with the mom listening to the peeps while it hatches).
I scooped the chick up and held it in my hand, lifted the lid to the nest box with my other hand, and slipped the baby under the hen’s feathers from behind. The hen looked a bit confused but she wasn’t pecking at the chick or acting strange. She fluffed up her feathers a bit and started clucking and cooing.
I checked a few more times over the next hour and once more before I went to bed…all seemed to be going well.
In the morning, this is what I found.
Success!!!!!!!!!
