Broody Chicken: 9 Ways to Care for a Broody Hen
So, you’ve discovered that you’ve got a broody chicken in your flock. She’s not leaving the nest, she fluffs up and screeches like a dinosaur whenever anyone comes near, and she’s barely eating and drinking. After a quick peek, you see that she’s sitting on an egg or two. And if you have a rooster in your flock, you know those eggs are fertile. You’re now faced with a tough decision. Do you let your broody hen hatch the chicks, or do you try and stop her?
If you don’t want a flock of new chicks you’ll need to take steps to break a broody chicken. It’s not always easy but it can be done. However, if you want to hatch chicks at home then there are several steps you can take to support your broody chicken and set her up for success.
The Pros and Cons of a Broody Chicken
So, what’s the biggest benefit to letting your broody hen hatch eggs?
Pro: A Broody Hen Gives You Free Chicks
Your broody chicken will provide you with a new flock of chicks almost free of cost.
Incubators cost $100 or more, depending on the size and brand you buy. After this investment you’ve also got to pay for the electricity to run it 24 hours a day, for 21 days, until the chicks hatch. Once the incubator is running, you’ve got to worry about the electricity going out. If a severe storm hits your homestead and power outage occurs, you’ve lost your eggs.
Your broody hen will keep those eggs warm for free. She’ll turn them regularly, provide the perfect amount of heat and humidity, and, once they’re born, she’ll protect the chicks from the other chickens.
Pro: You Won’t Need a Brooder Box
Another big advantage of letting your broody chicken hatch her own chicks is that you usually won’t need to fuss with a brooder box once they’re born. Momma will do all the work for you.
That said, not all hens make good mothers. You’ll need to watch your broody chicken closely once the chicks are born to make sure she’s taking care of them. If she’s neglecting her duties or seems more interested in rejoining the flock than protecting her young, you’ll need to take the chicks away and put them in a brooder.
Con: Broody Chickens Stop Laying
A broody hen will stop laying eggs while she’s sitting, and she won’t begin laying again until her chicks are three to four weeks old. This means that for about seven weeks, your broody hen is out of commission as far as breakfast eggs are concerned.
Con: Not All Breeds Go Broody
There is no way to make a hen go broody. She’ll either get broody or she won’t.
That said, some breeds are more likely to go broody than others. Some broody chicken breeds include Silkies, Orpingtons, Sussexes, Cochins, and Brahmas. These breeds are known to have a streak of broodiness in them, so if you’d like to have your own broody hen purchase one of these breeds.
Caring for a Broody Hen
If you decide to let your broody hen hatch chicks, take these steps to help ensure she stays safe and healthy through the incubation period.
1. Make Sure She’s Safe
Hopefully, your hen decided to nest in the coop where she’s safe and close to food and water. However, broody hens are known for being eccentric at times, and yours might have chosen a nesting site that’s the opposite of safe.
Case in point: we had two Speckled Sussexes go broody last fall. One of them chose a nest in the coop, while the other chose to nest on the floor of an abandoned barn on our homestead. It was near the forest close to predators, completely unprotected, and far away from food and water.
If your hen is setting in the coop you feel free to do a happy dance. If she’s not in the coop, you’re going to have to move her and the nest to a safe location. You’ll want to do this at night, when she’s mostly asleep and docile. A nighttime move will also lower the risk that she gets upset and abandons the nest.
The safest option is to move her to a private broody box or coop.
2. Give Her a Broody Box
Giving your broody hen a private space to sit on her eggs will keep her calm, and help ensure the eggs are kept safe.
When a broody hen is sitting on eggs in a communal nesting box, other adult hens can jump on the nest when she leaves to eat and drink. They might smash some of the eggs when they go in and out. The Momma hen will also defend her eggs fiercely if another hen is poking around, which can lead to some serious in-fighting and injuries.
Another problem is that if there are several nesting boxes with eggs, your broody hen might forget which nest she was sitting on when she comes back from eating and drinking. If she goes and sits on the wrong nest, the original clutch will cool off and die.
Last, eggs are at constant risk from predators such as rats, snakes, and skunks. The risk is greatest when your hen leaves to go find food and water. However, if your hen is in a broody box she and the eggs will be protected from most predators.
So, a private broody box can help keep Momma relaxed and boost your odds of a successful hatching.
There are an endless number of options for a broody box. Some options are:
- A chick brooder box
- A dog crate or kennel
- A small portable coop
- A large box or plastic tote
- A fenced off section of the main coop
The broody box or nesting area needs to be big enough for the nest itself, and for the hen to be able to walk around and relieve herself. It also needs to be large enough to hold food and water.
Last, consider investing in nesting box liners for your broody hen. This liners help cushion the nest and reduce the risk that eggs will get cracked or crushed over their 21-day incubation period.
3. Provide Food and Water to Your Broody Hen
Your hen will likely only leave the nest once or twice a day to eat and drink. Providing food and water right by the nest will encourage her to actually get up and eat.
Keep in mind that because your hen is no longer laying, she won’t need the high calcium-rich layer feed the rest of your flock is on. You should feed her high protein chick starter. This ensures that the few times she does eat, she’s getting a lot of what she needs.
Giving your broody hen her own food and water means that she won’t have to leave the eggs for a longer period to walk to the feeder. This lessons the chance that a predator will snatch the eggs while she’s away.
4. Mark the Eggs
Once your hen is settled on the nest you’re probably going to add fertilized eggs over the next few days. Use a permanent marker to write the date you put the egg in the nest, as well as which hen laid the egg if you have a mixed flock. Remember that eggs are porous, so don’t use a water-based marker or anything with erasable ink as these might soak into the egg and damage the chick.
Make sure you don’t add too many eggs for your broody hen to handle. Most breeds can accommodate around 10 to 12 eggs, and large breeds can cover 12 to 15 eggs.
5. Keep Her Cool In Extreme Heat
In most cases, a broody hen will be able to stay cool and comfortable while she’s on the nest. However, if your hen is sitting in high summer you might need to take steps to keep your hen cool in extreme heat. This will help her avoid heat stress and keep her healthy.
Consider installing a small box fan near the broody box to keep the air circulating. You can also put ice in your hen’s water dish, or try and tempt her with frozen fruits like watermelon or blueberries. It’s unlikely she’ll leave the nest even for these, but she might eat them out of your hand if you offer them.
6. Keep the Nest and Broody Box Clean
It’s important to keep the nest and nesting area as clean as possible. Dirty bedding can breed bacteria, and if enough bacteria builds up and gets on the eggs it can cause them to go bad.
This bacteria growth can happen quickly since your broody hen is only getting up once or twice a day to relieve herself. Broody poop is huge and smells terrible. Change the bedding every couple of days, and make sure your broody hen isn’t defecating in the nest itself. If she is, change the nest bedding out as soon as possible.
You also need to check the eggs daily and remove any that are smashed, cracked, or leaking fluid.
7. Candle the Eggs
Candling is a technique that allows you to check the growth and development of eggs during incubation. With candling you can identify infertile eggs, as well as any embryos that have died before development is complete. You can then remove these dead eggs from the nest.
To candle an egg, shine a bright LED flashlight through the bottom of the egg (the widest part) at night or in a darkened room. You can also use an egg candler to do this. You want to check the size of the air sac, as well as blood vessel and embryo development.
Egg candling is a bit tricky when you first start doing it, because you’re not sure exactly what you’re looking for or what a “dead egg” looks like. This brochure from Brinsea has some great pictures to help you learn what to look for. There’s also a great article with pictures at Backyard Chicken Project.
8. Don’t Micromanage
The hardest part with caring for a broody chicken is stepping back and letting nature take its course. Yes, you need to care for Momma while she’s on the nest but you don’t want to interfere. If you bother her too much, she might abandon her nest. So, keep an eye on her to ensure she’s eating and drinking enough (and remember, some weight loss in hens is normal when they’re on the nest), keep the broody box clean, and then stay out of it.
9. Keep the New Family Separate
Once the new chicks hatch, it’s important that they stay in the broody box for the first week, at minimum, as long as there’s enough room for everyone. Keeping the chicks protected from the flock means that Momma won’t have to worry about protecting them when they’re most vulnerable. However, you must make sure that the chicks have enough room to stretch their legs. If the broody box is too small, you’ll need to move everyone to larger accommodations.
You can introduce new chicks to a flock when they’re around two weeks old, as long as Momma is around to protect them.
Last Word
Letting a broody chicken hatch her own chicks is really exciting, and it’s definitely an economical way to increase the size of your flock or raise chicks to sell later on. And if you’re wondering how to make a hen broody, wonder no more. You can’t. Hens either go broody or they don’t.
There are several broody chicken breeds like Silkies, Sussexes, Orpingtons, and Cochins. If you wind up with a broody chicken breed, take steps to isolate your hen and monitor her health while she’s sitting will help set her and her future chicks up for a successful future.
