The Momma Hen

The first broody hen we had setting on eggs hatched out 4 chicks.  We do have another broody hen that is setting on 7 eggs.  Just yesterday, we saw that she hatched out 4 chicks.  Evidently 5 hatched out originally but 1 died and two eggs must have been not fertilized as nothing hatched.  We'll wait until those chicks are a few days old before moving them.

Since the meat birds are in the freezer, our chicken tractor has vacancy.  It's a perfect place to move the first momma hen and her four chicks.  It is interesting to watch her instinctively teach her little biddies to scratch to look for bugs, worms and seeds.  They are all very active.  We did have to put some guards so that the chicks couldn't get out.  Two had gotten out by squeezing under the bottom the other day.  Had Ginger, our cat, seen them, well, it would have been disastrous for the two chicks.  For Ginger, it would have been a great day for a two piece chicken dinner.

The momma hen is a good mother.  If I walk in the tractor, she perks up, fluffs out her feathers and makes ominous, threatening noises.  Her little chicks huddle nearby and she provides protection like any good momma would.

I watched her as she methodically scratched at the grass.  Then she pecked and pointed with her beak.  She had unearthed a beetle and the little chick that was paying attention scored a nice meal.  The is teaching them life lessons that they'll need to survive.  These chicks likely aren't even hers.  She was broody and we just grabbed a few eggs and put them under her.  She sat on them for 21 days, hatched them out and now cares for them as if they were her own.

Yesterday, we had driving wind and rain that came through in the late afternoon.  I went out and held the chicken tractor down.  Once the winds subsided, I went back inside.  A little later I thought of the chicks.  Oh no!  If they get wet, they'll get hypothermia and die!  I went out to check on them and all were just fine.  The momma hen covered them with her wings.  She was soaking wet, but her little chicks were warm and dry beneath her, safe from the storm.

It would be nice if the little chicks were all pullets, but normally about 50% are pullets and 50% are cockerels.  We will probably get 2 little hens out of this batch to replace those that were eaten by minks.  For the roosters, well, they'll end up in a pot for supper in about 6 months.

In a few days we'll move the other broody hen with her four little chicks into the chicken tractor.  We'll raise the little ones in the tractor until around 20-24 weeks old.  That's when they'll lay their first eggs and we will move them out to the barnyard in the general population.  By then the momma hens will have taught them everything they need to know.

Fine Feathered Friends

 “I dream of a better tomorrow where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Three weeks ago yesterday we put 10 eggs under a broody hen.  If she wanted to set, well, we'll let her set.  We need to make up for the 30-something odd hens we lost to the minks.  Fortunately, since we've been locking them up every night behind a hardware cloth lined cage, we haven't lost any.  We have about 30 hens left.  

Yesterday after church, Tricia said, "Hey, it's been three weeks.  I wanna go check and see if the broody hen hatched out any babies."  She came back in and said, "Yep, I see three baby chicks so far." 

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!  - Matthew 23:37

That is such a touching metaphor.  You can see how the hen protects her chicks.  When we walk up, the chicks scurry under her protective wings.  She fluffs up her feathers to make herself look larger than she is and makes noises to let you know not to mess with her.  

It's a dangerous world out there for a newborn chick.  There are many predators lurking around on the ground and in the sky.  Rats, Snakes, Red-tailed hawks, minks...  There's even danger from "friendly" animals.  The cows don't look where they are walking and if a baby chick gets under their feet, well, it's not pretty.

Our plans are to move the momma hen and her chicks (however many hatch) into a dog kennel that we'll line with chicken wire and let them get a little bigger before setting the babies free in the barnyard.

We have three other hens that are broody.  We'll let one of those start setting on a nest of eggs, too.  Realistically, we will have to hatch out a BUNCH of eggs to make up for the ones lost to minks.  Some of them will be roosters and we'll butcher them.  But the hens - we'll incorporate them into the flock. Sure, we could put a bunch on the incubator again, but these girls are feeling motherly.  We might as well let them hatch out their eggs naturally, the way God intended it.

Feeling Motherly

It happens every year.  You go to gather eggs in the afternoon and there is a hen sitting on eggs.  You reach underneath her to grab the eggs and she pecks your hand, "bushes" up her feathers to make herself look twice the size she is, and she makes some weird, threatening noises.  What's going on with her?  

She's broody.  That means she's decided she wants to sit on a clutch of eggs and hatch them out.  Her biological clock is ticking and she wants to be a mother.

Right now we have four of them (out of 31) that are broody.  If you take the eggs out from underneath them, they'll still sit there.  They will sit atop a ceramic egg or an unfertilized egg.  Poor girl.  She wants to be a momma so bad, she'll do anything.  Here's another broody hen:

And here's yet another.  She is in full "fluff" mode, here.  She's very protective of the eggs she's sitting on.

Tricia and I decided to let one of them set.  We gathered 10 eggs and put them underneath her in this little cage.  This way, we can lock it up at night so that she isn't eaten by the minks.  As cunning as they are, they haven't figured a way to make it through hardware cloth.

Today when I went to feed all the chickens, this broody hen got off her nest to eat.  There were only 5 eggs remaining.  I don't know what happened to the other 5.  We suspect she ate them.  Hopefully, she'll stick it out for another 3 weeks and hatch out 5 biddies.  We'll wait and see if her motherly wishes come to fruition.

The Determined Broody Hen

 

My hat's off to this old girl.  She is the picture of determination and perseverance.  She's a hen that wants the eggs beneath her to hatch.  When a hen is mature and the days are long, a hen's pituitary gland will release a hormone called prolactin.  She will then sit on eggs.  The motherly instinct is at full throttle.  When you try to remove the eggs from beneath her, she will fluff up her feathers, making herself look larger than she actually is and make a frightening noise.  She'll even peck at your hand with her beak.

To tell you how bad she wants the eggs beneath her to hatch?  Well, I am not exaggerating when I tell you it must be 110 degrees in the henhouse and there she sits all day long.  Chicken eggs hatch in 21 days.  Her hen instincts are guiding her.  She is looking forward to the day when the eggs beneath her hatch and babies arrive.

Why do I keep saying "eggs beneath her?"  They are not her eggs.  They aren't even chicken eggs.  They are guinea fowl eggs.  My neighbor gave me a number of fertilized Lavender Guinea eggs to put under the broody hen.  She accepted them and has been sitting on them for what I figure is 3 weeks.  Unfortunately, I didn't write down the date when I put them underneath her.  

Who knows?  The eggs underneath her may be poached eggs in all this heat.  I'll give her another week setting on them.  If they hatch, however, it'll be neat to see this hen being a surrogate mother to her adopted guinea fowl chicks.  We will check in on her again in the days to come.

What to do with a Broody Hen?

We have a hen in the hen house that is broody.  That means she is in a "motherly way."  She wants to set and hatch out some baby chicks.  Every afternoon when I gather eggs, there she is sitting in the nest.  It's so hot!  I feel sorry for her.  Each day I've been picking her up and collecting eggs and closing up the nesting boxes.  If you don't close them, at night they roost in the boxes and poop in them.  That makes egg collection a mess.  Then you have to clean the eggs which removes the 'bloom' and reduces their shelf life.

When you try to pick her up, she makes agitated noises and fluffs up her feathers.  Lots of animals do this to scare you off and intimidate you.  What to do with a broody hen?  We don't need any more chickens.  I have a number of hens and roosters in the chicken tractor that I'm about to merge in with the flock in the pasture.

Well, my neighbor had an answer for the broody hen.  He has a number of fertilized guinea fowl eggs.  They are lavender guineas.  The eggs should be fertilized.  We'll see if ol' broody girl is going to set on them, hatch them, and raise them as her own.  The day before yesterday, I put all the guinea eggs underneath her while she was setting.  She let me!  Today she got up, but got right back on them once she ate.  Here's all of the guinea eggs:

They are about 3/4 the size of a chicken egg.  I should have counted them, but I didn't.

Guinea eggs have a harder shell than a chicken egg.  When I was growing up, we'd use boiled guinea eggs for pocking.  Pocking eggs is a Cajun French tradition.  On Easter Sunday you "pock" your eggs together to see who has the hardest egg.  My great grandma would always bring them.  I always wondered what "pocking" meant.  Pâques is the French word for Easter.  Maybe that's why?  Pocking is the sound made when hitting two eggs together.  Maybe that's why?  

We will see in a little less than 3 weeks if our broody hen is successful in hatching out some lavender guineas.

Our Experiment with the Broody Hen

I posted about the Broody Hen a while back.  She is a determined old bird.  She wants to set.  She desires to raise a family of chicks.  Day after day, we lift her up and snatch the eggs from beneath her.  Warm eggs. Eggs holding promise of a new life within.  Instead, we turn them into scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or fried rice or the makings of a chocolate cake.  The broody hen makes noises letting us know she is very displeased with our theft of her progeny.  She fluffs up her feathers as a signal of angst and ire.

At some point we relent.  I have an idea.  I say to Tricia, "We've lost a lot of hens this year to old age, predators, and injury."  Many birds get crushed underfoot by cows who have no sense of compassion or brotherhood for their barnyard companions.  "Let's allow the broody hen to set and raise a clutch of chicks."

Tricia agrees and a plan is hatched.  (Pardon the pun.)  I put hay, a water container and feed into an old dog kennel we have.  We plan to put the broody hen in this cage, so she'll be isolated away from the other chickens to raise her brood.

I moved a number of eggs into the homemade nest and I went and got the hen, set her in her new 'nursery' and... problems ensued.  First, the broody hen was very nervous, clucking and pacing, uncomfortable with her new abode.  Then, Belle, our new puppy, came and paced in front of the cage, making the hen anxious and jittery.  She clucked and paced back and forth.  We decided to leave her for about six hours to get acclimated to her new surroundings.

The hen never warmed up to her new residence.  She never tried to set on the eggs.  What to do?  Well, we decided to put her back into her nesting box.  We put a dozen eggs underneath her and she was all over them like white on rice.  She fluffed out her feathers and gently pulled her wings over the eggs and sat.  Happy, once again.

The broody hen, determined as ever, gets the opportunity to raise a family.  We'll check in on her from time to time.  We marked our calendars that come April 26th, we should have baby chicks hatching out.

A Surprise in the Loft

Most of our hens lay their eggs in their appropriate place in the egg boxes. However, every once in a while we find a nest of eggs in an odd location.  It's always a shame to find them, because you don't know how old they are, so you certainly can't eat them.  One of the favorite 'secret places' for them to lay eggs is up in the hay loft in the top of the barn.  Although it is ten feet up in the air and even though chickens aren't exactly the most graceful flying bird, they figure out how to get up there and lay eggs.

It is for this reason (and also to keep them from flying over the perimeter fence), I take a pair of shears, grab a hen, stretch out one of her wings.

And clip the feathers off of that wing almost all the way down to the skin.  It isn't pretty, but it doesn't hurt them and clipping the feathers on one of the wings like this keeps them off balance so that they cannot fly up into the loft and lay their eggs or fly over the fence.

With a sizable flock of birds, though, it is hard to make sure that you've clipped every single bird's wing.  Unfortunately, sneaky birds with unclipped wings still find a way to evade our attempts to stop them and get up into the loft an lay eggs. Those broody birds sit on the eggs because they want to hatch out some babies.

About three weeks ago when our niece and nephew were visiting us from Texas, they discovered a Barred Rock Hen sitting on a nest of 12 eggs up in the loft.  The nest was hard to see as it was nestled in behind all the bales of hay.  She fluffed out her feathers and made menacing noises to discourage us from coming closer.  We had no idea when the eggs were laid, so we didn't know when they would be hatching.  Every few days we have been checking on her.  No chicks yet.  I began to wonder if maybe the eggs weren't fertile.

This afternoon Russ came and told me that he climbed up in the loft and the hen had 3 little chicks hatched out so far.  I climbed up and threw a handful of rice for the hen to eat and I noticed one of the little chicks came out from underneath her.

Soon three little chicks popped out.  The two on the right are fluffy and the one on the left has fuzz that is still a little wet.  It must have just hatched out not long ago.

As the momma hen moved aside to eat rice, I took a picture of her nest with the three chicks that have hatched and the 9 eggs left.  The hen got back on top of her chicks and eggs and we'll see if any other chicks hatch out in the next couple of days.  There is a good chance that those 9 eggs were laid later and will hatch out later.  However, there's also a chance that those eggs were not fertilized and won't hatch.  We will keep checking on the momma hen and her little brood.

The other thing Russ asked me about was "How are the chicks going to get down from the loft?"  That's a good question as it is a 10 foot drop from the loft to ground level.  Somehow they do it.  We had another hen last year that hatched out 3 chicks from up in the loft.  We didn't move them down, they came down on their own.  I can only assume that the little fluff balls just jump down onto the soft hay and it doesn't hurt them.

Another surprise from up in the loft.  New baby chicks - always a welcome addition to our little barnyard.

New Life in the Barn

Last month we told you about a broody hen that was sitting on some eggs in the barn.  Three eggs to be exact.  We marked them with a marker and removed any other eggs from the box.  Over the last three weeks the Black Star hen dutifully sat on three brown eggs only getting up to quickly go eat some rice and drink some water and then she was back on the nest.

Broody hen on her nest

A few days ago Tricia turned to me and said, "You hear that?"  I'm kind of deaf, so I answered, "No." She could hear the chirping of a little chick.  As we approached the momma hen began clucking loudly and fluffing up her feathers.  She didn't want us anywhere near her baby chick.  You can see the little black chick snuggled up next to the mom as momma hen looks down with pride at her newborn.

Freshly hatched chick

Here is the little chick once we moved the mom away from her.  We gave her a few more days to sit on the other two eggs, but no babies ever came out.  I would assume that these eggs weren't fertilized. Even though we have a 1:10 rooster to hen ratio, sometimes this happens.  I was disappointed as I expected at least two to hatch.  The chick is black, with some slight coloration on its wings.  I would guess that this is a Black Star, just like the momma hen sitting on the nest.  A Black Star is a cross between a Rhode Island Red Rooster and a Barred Rock hen.

33.33% hatch rate

Momma hen is very protective over her little one, leading it to safety and clucking loudly.  She will lead her baby to food and water, and we have been watching with interest as she teaches the chick to eat little pieces of food and drink little bits of spilled milk from when we milk the cow.

Follow me, little one.

The focus was off on the camera, so I was unable to get a good shot, but here is a blurry picture of the new baby in the barn.  Mother hen didn't like it one bit that I was holding her baby and let me know it by pacing around my feet.  When I put the chick back on the ground, the hen pecked me hard on the finger.  Serves me right.

A Handful

For the first 3 or 4 days, the hen kept her baby in the barn sequestered from the other chickens and animals.  Today, the hen and her chick ventured out of the barn and walked around the perimeter.  

A field trip

Of course we won't know if this is a pullet or a cockerel for quite some time.  We like to allow a broody hen to sit on a clutch of eggs once a year and we also like to put some eggs in our incubator and hatch out some chicks.  However, this year we decided to go ahead and make an order to have some Barred Rock day old chicks mailed to us so that we can replace some of the chickens that have died over the past year.  We'll show you those birds once they come in the mail.

The Broody Hen

In one of the nesting boxes in the barn, there is a Black Star hen that is broody.  A hen that is broody simply means that she wants to be a momma.  Most hens will lay their eggs, sing a little song, and then it's up and off the nest and out to the pasture to do normal chicken things like scratching in the dirt, chasing frogs and bugs, and taking dust baths.  Not a broody hen.  A broody hen wants to sit on her eggs and hatch them.  She fluffs her feathers up and makes mean noises when you come around. If you try to lift her up to remove the eggs underneath her, she'll peck you with her beak.

Benjamin's job is to gather the eggs each day.  He was tired of getting pecked and asked if we could let the broody hen sit on and hopefully hatch her eggs.  I said sure.  She has four eggs underneath her and I had Benjamin mark the four eggs with a pencil.  He removes any new eggs that may be laid in her nesting box while she's off her nest each day and leaves the existing four eggs for the broody hen to incubate.

The broody hen is very dedicated to the task at hand.  She only gets up off her nest for very brief periods each day to get food and water.  Then she quickly returns, re-positions her eggs and sits back down on them.  Here is a photo of her all fluffed up and giving me the evil eye!:

The Broody Hen

A chicken egg takes exactly 21 days to incubate.  That means that on approximately September 8th we may have some baby chicks hatching and then maybe not. When it is really warm (which it is) sometimes the chicks develop a little faster and may hatch in 19 days.  There's always the possibility that the eggs aren't fertilized. The proper ratio is 1 rooster for every 10 hens in the flock.  We have enough roosters, but you just never know.  We'll keep our eyes open and ears listening for the first signs of little chicks in the barn.