Unsure about broody

[chickenfan]

I have a broody hen that seems a bit clumsy with her feet. If she treads on a chick and it cries, she doesn't seem to move off the chick. I found the last-born chick dead, which may have been trodden on, and another chick is cheeping and struggling to keep up, perhaps because it has been trodden on. She has 8 chicks. I'm not sure whether to remove some of them to an electric hen. I normally use Pekins that make very good broodys. This one is a Barnevelder bantam and I'm just not quite sure how good a mother she is. She is intent on scratching for tit-bits, but is not so good when the chicks are tired.

 

[chrismahon]

It will have been a wasted exercise if they get trampled or are not reared properly. Add the complication of irreversible injury and I wouldn't hesitate to take them all out Chickenfan.

 

[chickenfan]

Thanks Chris. So difficult to judge whether I just had two weak chicks (from bought in eggs) or whether she is in fact a bad mother. I've tried putting some under an electric hen, but they hate being away from their mother and cheep continuously. Perhaps it would be better if I moved the whole brood tonight when its dark. Or Is a better alternative is to give them all to another broody hen sitting? They are coming up for a week old. Or do you think if the whole brood is under an electric hen they will adapt?

 

[dinosaw]

Chris is right, better safe than sorry. Get them all under your brooder and they will adapt soon enough.

 

[chickenfan]

Thank you very much Dinosaw. I'm glad you think they will adapt. So tomorrow Mum will be outside the coop, but she lives in the same area of garden. Or perhaps I'll keep them in my house for a couple of days until they have forgotten her. Very sad to have lost the youngest chick that died. It seemed to be finding things overwhelming. Do some chicks just die shortly after birth, or is it nearly always due to the mother hen?

 

[chrismahon]

The first week is when they are most vulnerable Chickenfan is what I have read. They certainly take the most looking after although we've never actually lost one in that period. In fact we've never lost a hatched chick, although we did lose one at 6 months to what appeared to be a heart attack -she came out into the run in the morning and was dead an hour later. We had one caught by mothers' claw when scratching and badly injured but, remarkably, she recovered.

 

[chickenfan]

Thank you Chris. That's really helpful. So you raise more often without a broody?

 

[chrismahon]

We never use broodies now Chickenfan, preferring to hatch and rear the youngsters artificially and separate, which prevents any spread of ailments and minimises risk of injury. However French standard practice, as I've said before, is to hatch in an incubator and transfer the chicks to a broody. This is considerably less work for them and far less strain on the broody and is probably the best approach if your broody is experienced and reliable.

 

[chickenfan]

Interesting. Although I wonder if you don't get stronger chicks when they are incubated by a hen with daily cool-offs, exposure to more germs etc.

 

[Marigold]

Yes I suppose nature knows best about survival of the fittest. We strive to get 100% hatches and survival rates, but there has to be a reason why chickens and other ground-laying birds lay and incubate such large clutches. The more likelihood there is of a wild bird ending up on the menu for someone higher up the food chain, the more youngsters are needed to carry on the line - and these will be the strongest and fittest.

 

[chickenfan]

I think chicks are definitely happier with a mother hen - firstly in her soft feathers, having loving 'choogs', and learning about the world with her. I started the whole business of breeding because I wanted my hens to have natural lives, and because it is so lovely to see a hen with a brood. You mentioned earlier about them being more socially adapted too, which I'm sure is true, and I should have thought they would be more resistant to disease having being exposed to everything from a young age. But we aren't rearing in the wild, so I'm very glad to have removed all the smallest chicks from the broody that wasn't doing well with them (probably from unnatural breeding for egg-laying). The one that was so small and struggling is hail and hearty now, and I would probably have lost it to no good purpose.