Breed a Broody Hen and Raise at Least 6 Chicks - PEP BB animal.straw.breedhen

How do you even get a picture of a hen on eggs? They're either covering them or not sitting. ;) Here she is the day the chicks hatched though! We had to bring her indoors to care for her as we had two broodies within a week of one another and the one outside kept stealing her eggs! She was also getting beat up by the rooster. :T You can see her back feathers growing in again really well in this picture. She was broody in a XXL dog crate. They both hatched 8 eggs each.
Chicks in the brooder! No heat in this brooder since mom was in there, but enough space for them to get cozy with mom before moving outside so there's no confusion about whose brood is whose!
Health check!
Split into three groups! Boys for eating later, girls from one hatch (all 12 weeks) and girls from another (18 weeks) in a tractor before getting sold!

My broody hen hatched out 7 little nuggets one week ago on May 28.

Here are some pix/videos:

The first one is one of her with one hatchling (the left of the photo) and one yet unhatched egg under her left wing.

Here is a link to the first two hatchlings still in the nesting box. Other eggs are pipping.




Here is a video I took today, of Mama and her brood:

Below is a series of picture of Silkie Hen broody, hatching and raising baby chicks.

My favorite aspect of Silkies is you can keep Roos in with the babies. I've learnt this help so they don't fight as much!

-Justyn

We had a couple of broody hens at the same time, one hatched 7 chicks and the other hatched 6.

Here are their pictures. 😊

We currently have an abundance of chickens. It was floppy chickens first time seting eggs and she done pretty good. Would've had a lot better hatch if we didn't get cold rain right at the end, but. So far she has only lost one chick.