Hatch Naturally - Lessons from a Mother Hen 

I wanted to stop by again. I had a 1 yo buff go broody again so I gave her 5 eggs laid on a friday. This past thursday, she has 5 spunky chicks! I didn't get her an outside coop ready in time , too hot for ME to be doing much outside, and she had them in the coop, but I had her nest blocked so no one else could bother her. I did take her out twice a day to eat and drink and take care of other things. She's doing great and the chicks are already mischievous! Currently in a large dog crate, like a cage and out of the cramped nest. Today is rainy so I will move her out tomorrow. Between your vid and her, I and my hubby have learned alot more :) Thank you so much for doing these.

Your my favorite chick channel!

I purchased 10 eggs off a top breeder when one of my girls went broody a second time in October. By November 21st she had hatched 6 chicks; 2 boys and 4 girls. Seeing them grow and having two children under 5 to experience it with, was beautiful. Now I have two boys. Both boys are really good specimens. One is a standard extended black wheaten, the other is a bigger silver (yellow Ss) laced boy. I'm looking forward to breeding (will seperate with hens)and letting my broody girl have another batch. I'm really hoping to get a laced line. I think I have the potential. 😊 This is a fun, hands-on learning experience for us all. My son ran out onto the deck today as the big cockerel crowed (he's getting loud now, the other boy is still soft) and said "a rooster says cockadoodledoo". He's getting the basics from real world experience. 😊

Greetings from Texas. Thank you for posting this informative video. Very helpful!

My buff, first time mum of 4 adopted barred rocks, is doing really well considering they are hooligans!

Nothing like a good broody. I had 8 that went broody last season two twice. I was over run with chooks at one stage had about 30 at various ages. Broodiness is catching.

Nice video. Although, I feel like mom should be allowed to take the chicks out of the coop as soon as she wants. Typically after the first couple days she wants them to follow her around searching for bugs. That's my experience anyway.

Wow chickens can have such phenomenal instincts ❣️ even more than I would have imagined 😊 Thank you for taking the time to put this together!

Hello from Argentina! Thank you, that was very helpful! 🙂👏

Wow, another great video!

Kia Ora from Italy 😉 Very educational! I found all the information I needed. Thank you!

Thank you for that lesson. Have learned something

Great content as usual. Thank you for putting out videos. I have learned a bunch even though I have had chickens before

Wow, that does seem a more accelerated process over human-raising! The rest of the flock seemed fairly chilled with the chicks mingling into the mix. One of my hens is a Buff Orpington (aged about 2 now). She goes broody just looking at the nesting box, and would be an ideal candidate - as well, she gets on well with everyone (these days I have an extremely mild pecking order). I would need to do some work to make a brood/nursery area that is chick escape-proof, but doable. In the past I have gotten my newbies in as 5-12 weeks' old.

Loved this video! TY

Excellent video

fantastic!

Thank-you for this video...much helpful info for my new mama and chicks!!!!

I thought, That must be a roo to wander off like that. This is such a great video.

Do you have a separate run for the chicks and mother hen.

I love your videos, you're so good at timing your videos to be about something we've either just done or are thinking about doing! About 16 weeks ago we bought some Silver double laced Barnevelder eggs to pop under our broody hen (breed unknown, farmhouse special). We couldn't break her, so we popped some golf balls under her until the real deal arrived. I made a candling box and checked the eggs twice... Couldn't see anything. We just left her to it expecting to throw away some dead or blank eggs. Next thing we know, I go to candle one more time and the eggs cheeped at me! Out of 7 eggs we got five live chicks, and two who mostly formed but didn't finish brewing properly. Only two ish weeks later, Gabrielle hit (we're in Napier. I hope you and your flock did ok through that). We're so glad the chicks are resilient. Our coop/cage flooded and almost everything got wrecked. But not mum and babies! I built a box quite similar to yours for mum, and what I found really helpful was putting some mesh tightly on the ramps. The chicks had it figured out by about day 5. It was amazing! We had all the same worries you mention. But nothing to worry about, our broody lady was a brilliant mum, and now they're all 13 weeks old and are no longer mum's babies. We've never incubated eggs before, and after using a broody hen I don't think I could ever forgo the joy of a proud mum with her babies toddling behind 💜 Edit: oh my gosh, I wrote my comment before the video finished... Are your babies Silver double laced Barnevelders too?! Depending on where you got the eggs, our chicks may be genetic flockmates!

Lovely : )

Oh my I enjoyed this video so much. I went through the same thing with my Ahab and her babies that will be six weeks tomorrow. I can't wait for her to cut them loose so she can go back to being a hen. I have encountered all the same problems you did. That first weeks the chicks refused to go to bed despite mom calling them home. Very rebellious babies. I had to catch them and put them in bed. I have been worried about the chick vs layer crumbles too. So switching to chick only and will give more oyster for the adults. And yes pretty much everything you mentioned. I know now that a stubborn broody will likely make a good mom. So next time I can let Tashtego hatch eggs. The only thing I don't like is I don't know who hatched when and out of what eggs. But there's the whole hatch in the incubator and sneak the chicks in over night trick. Your hen is lovely. EDIT: I just read the other comment. I have barnevelder chicks right now. I'm in Florida and very worried about the heat. I didn't know they were a cold tolerant breed. I hope they'll be ok. I have lots of shade and water on the property. I realized when I saw the babies seemed extra "furrier" (feathery. I know. But looks like fur) than other babies I've raised in the past.

Hello i would like to ask how can i produce a chocolate brahma chicken can i ask what color combination of brahma should i pair to produce a chocolate brown?

Do you have another video showing the transition from the hen box area to the roosting area with the rest of the flock? This was a very good video. I love all of your videos.

💙

안녕하세요 닭이 너무 귀여워요 저도 닭과 병아리20마리 키우고있습니다 저는 대한민국에 삽니다

My husband Jon and I love watching your channel. What breed is that momma? Beautiful!

What do i do about vaccinations and feed? My Golden cukoo maran is vaccinated along with our entire flock and we do not have medicated feed. We have feed from co-op.

Hi, I found the hen is a better mother if she is allowed to raise chick's the first time she goes broody.

Can someone help me?I have a question, hope someone can answer me in detail.Here's the thing, I have a freshly laid hen that laid dozens of eggs and it started hatching a few days ago, today is day 4 if I remember correctly. But what confuses me is that the eggs under the hen aren't hot enough, I don't know if it's because it's her first time hatching eggs, or her body temperature is not good. I noticed that most of them were moving but a bit fuzzy and the blood vessels were dilated. Unfortunately two eggs were eliminated today and when I candling the eggs there was a red ring inside. I was concerned that the eggs would go bad so I decided to replace with another hen who has more hatching experience, is there any chance the eggs will be remedied?

Once my hen hatched her eggs, I just let her deside were to go for food and were to sleep. I provide the food and water but then I'm hands off unless one gets in trouble.

Great videos, I have question Did you ever record recording your australorp hen productivities? Is it true an Australorp lay more than 250 eggs a year ?

Are they wyandottes?

What do I do about letting my chicks out of a small pen they have been living in with Mum - as the main pen has an electric fence - does anyone know how they would cope with an electric fence? They are 3 weeks old.

Kiko is a great mom. Just curious, did you say or know her breed?. I've looked at chickens like that before but forgot their name. My silkies are also good moms and shared the egg sitting duty between 3 different hens. Maybe not truly by choice, one of my hens sometimes stole the others eggs. I had them marked with small numbers to not damage the bloom too much. The fertile eggs hatched and when one didn't, its hen pushed the egg out of the nest when she knew it was no good. 😉 Nice video!

Did she allow you to socialize the chicks or she defended them against your touch?

6:28

You aussies have crazy names for animals

One of the grocery chains in Norway has a slogan something like "The easy solution is often the best" :) At what point did Kiko go back to laying eggs again?

❤❤❤👍👍👍🤟🤟🤟

Do you have a separate run for the chicks and mother hen.