Chick Adoption…
I recently had a broody hen (the first of this year) and none of her own eggs hatched but many did from the incubator, so it got me to thinking about this post!
We all want a broody chick or two, but often it’s not as simple as nature intended when we have farm animals. We try to replicate nature as much as possible, especially being regenerative farmers, but it’ll never quite be the same thing!
Often a hen will sit on eggs way past the 21 days it usually takes them to hatch, in the hope she ends up with babies. However sometimes the eggs are not fertile, or she’s been disturbed too much by other chickens/humans/outside factors, or she’s young and immature and not quite got the hang of ‘the process’ yet and the eggs don’t hatch.
The hen will keep sitting, becoming more malnourished and a bit of a mess as she prioritises her potential babies over her own health.
So, you have a couple of options here:
Take the eggs away to break the broodiness (I’ve never done this myself as I find it a little sad, but it’s an option) and she’ll go back to ‘normal’ life again.
Or
Get her to adopt someone else’s chicks, either some from another mum who’s just hatched successfully or from your local farmers market, friend, or incubator.
This works great if you follow some basic ‘rules’!
Chickens are a bit daft, but they are you still need to convince them they hatched the chicks themselves.
Babies to be adopted shouldn’t be more than a couple of days old.
You must put the underneath the hen yourself and not next to her. This is best done at night when she is sleepy and not very with it and won’t be moving around much, but I have done it successfully during the day too.
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