Hens ARE Incubators!

9 - Two Day Old Chicks

I don't have much to say about our Mama Hen, except she is one fine mom. First of all she took care of those eggs so well she had to be removed from the nest to eat and drink. Then once the chicks were born, she will not be distracted from their care. I have heard of other mom hens crushing chicks and abandoning them once they hatch, but the nature is strong in this one. It was tough to get pictures of the freshly hatched chicks as they were under a very protective mom, and if we removed the mom, we only had about 2 minutes before mom would freak out, and the excitement of mom being gone makes the chicks move around a lot, causing blurry pics.

We candled our eggs to find 9 viable ones, and they all hatched...except, on day two, we lost one of the chicks, leaving only 8. It was easy to notice, as mama hen moved all her chicks to the other side of the brooder box. After removing the dead chick from the area, she still wouldn't sit there for a couple of days. She settled in and we kept them in the garage for about 2 weeks. Then the weather broke and we took our brooder box out to the backyard. It took some adjustment for mom and babies to get used to the hustle and bustle of our backyard in the spring, lots of noises and we had a smokey fire going as we were burning yard waste. After some adjustment we let them roam around the yard to scratch around for the first time.

I must say its very different having a mama hen around the chicks. When you mail order them they are pretty attached to us humans. We provide the food and the entertainment when no mom is present. A mothered flock of chicks really don't want to hang out with humans very much, they don't eat out of our hand and really don't like being held.

Mother hen will scratch around for the chicks. If she finds a worm, or a pebble of something good to eat, she will not gobble it up. She will sort of toss it aside and the chicks will fight over it. They hover around mom's beak as she pecks and scratches and eat what she digs up for them.

Nick named the brown chick "Chewy"

I think its tough to get your hands on a broody hen, but if you have the means it seems a lot easier than hatching eggs in an incubator. I really didn't have to do much but make sure mama hen was safe and warm and fed...and she did and is doing the rest. The new chicks are out of the garage and living full time in my coop, and the laying hens are now in my 'summer' coop I just built, but that is a topic for another post.

Broody Hens Are Weird

I'm convinced broody hens have magical powers. First of all, to stop eating and drinking, while pooping once every 5 days is impressive. I suppose in the natural world a broody hen would make her way under a secluded bush and disappear from her flock for the 21 days it takes to brood a clutch of eggs, only to emerge later with her chicks under foot. For a backyard chicken farmer, it is fun to see this natural process take place. Our hen is so devoted to her eggs, we make sure to remove her off the nest, and plop her down in front of her food and water once a day. It takes her a minute or two to come out of her zombie-state, pecks a few bites of food, and drinks a bit of water, only to hear the call of nature and return to her clutch within a few minutes.

Speaking of call of nature, one thing I found interesting, is that eggs and mother hens communicate. Scientists have researched this by putting tiny microphones on each egg and observing the hens activity. A hatching egg must be rotated quite often in order for it to hatch, and the mother hen takes care of this with her feet and beak, but what is interesting is scientists have learned the mother hen can hear sounds from within the egg and determine how mature they are. She will naturally move these eggs more towards the center of the nest. Also, close to hatching the chick will peep a bit louder, and signal the hen to get ready for them to hatch.

One thing that is nice about our broody hen is her disposition. Some broody hens can get aggressive when approached and practically attack you if you come near. Our hen allows us to pet her, remove her from the nest, handle eggs and clean up her space without even getting upset. Also, some broody hens are not as vigilant when taking care of their eggs, wandering off the nest for too long and switching nests can be a common thing, but our hen is very committed to her eggs.

We did candle our eggs to find two were not fertile as the inside seemed clear, and another had been contaminated with bacteria as it had the "blood ring", leaving us with only 9 viable eggs in the clutch. Naturally, we removed these from the nest. Candleing eggs is not very easy when you first try it. We kept looking at fertile eggs looking for the blood veins commonly known as the "spider". Seems as these eggs have brown shells, it was very difficult to see, but I never really saw it. What was visible later was the "air sac", and opposite that was a very dark area. As a beginner, this is probably what I should be looking for in an egg after about day 12. I assume I will learn more as I go, but that's what I know from this initial experience. It's important to check the eggs early, as it is recommended not to handle the eggs in the last week of incubation. So, from this point on, it is all up to our hen.