How to Hatch Chicks Successfully with a Broody Hen - Quick Guide

If you use a broody hen to hatch fertile eggs, the hen will do most of the work for you. But there are a few things that you can do to increase your chances of a successful hatch of adorable healthy baby chicks.

- Make sure the hen is really broody before you put valuable fertile eggs under her. They can be any colour eggs.
- Set her up in a warm, comfortable, ventilated, draft-free broody nest that is completely free of red mites.
- Don't have her food and water in reach as she sits. She needs to get up for 10 - 45 minutes each day.
- Have a backup ready in case she abandons the eggs or attacks the hatching chicks.
- You can add chicks to her brood in the first few days, even different coloured chicks.
- Provide chick food (NOT layer feed). The hen can eat it too.
- Provide water in VERY shallow containers. Chicks that fall into deep water dishes can drown or die later of pneumonia.
- Provide insoluble grit for the chicks' digestion as soon as they are eating anything other than chick crumble. 2 - 3 mm. NOT shell grit.

For more fascinating facts, hints and tips about caring for your chickens, and the sheer pleasure of chickens, subscribe to my channel: Chickens in my garden - New Zealand

[vickyannpaintingwithoils]

Excellent. So fun! We are five days in on the 3 egg broody, and you reminded me to get the chick crumble and grit! It has been a long time. Thank you ❤️

[marieb.]

This was a WONDERFUL RESOURCE! thank you for posting.

[vickyannpaintingwithoils]

The Cemani + Production Red Hen, and the Cemani + Cemani/Silver-Laced Wyandotte Rooster that were hatched lastly are so big now! My son named the hen "groovy" and we call the rooster "lil Roo" for now. He is finding his crow and it is so funny. It sounds more like woo-woo-woo. Gideon the handsome rooster is teaching him respectful governance over the hens as we knew he would. Lil Roo is already trying to mate. He has green cascading ribbons in his tail just like Gideon. Groovy knows she is beautiful, with her canary yellow feathers splotched with Cemani black ones carefully placed in patches, and she surely marches to the beat of her own drum. The flock is all happy and extra with their garden free range area inside the electric predator fencing, I often quote your channel. "I have chickens in my garden." haha. Hope all is well. This is shaping up to be a great Fall season for the animals.

[brendacavanaugh]

Thank you for this video. I have a chicken that will be hatching some eggs in about a week and this will help me tremendously.

[garyvee]

So jealous of your incubator..., they don't make the small (IM) cabinet incubators anymore and I can't get a secondhand one for the love of money. 🥰

[UsmanFaraz]

Nice sharing love the way you make this video, nice informative and closer to nature this video. Stay blessed 😊😊😊

[rickhaile]

Very good video! Had one chick hatch from my home made incubator. Have hen sitting on eggs. Eggs should hatch one week after chick hatched. Going to try and get hen to adopt chick even though it's one week older and a bigger breed.

[alisoneisinger]

Could you offer some additional detail about what you advise is shallow enough for a water dish for chicks? In the last image, the water container seems quite deep.

[AdelardRen]

My silkie hen seems to be going broody. She only just started laying a month ago.
I think she'll make a great mother, but she's quite young, and I don't have a broody box for her.

She is doing exactly what I got her for, though! She's a good little hen.

[karolespencer]

I have two questions:
1). How old is the chick when momma starts bringing the baby chick around to meet the flock?
2). And, after sitting and hatching eggs for 21 days, when does momma start to lay eggs again? When will she need the calcium?

[riddhithakur]

My silkie also went broody she laid 12 eggs in 22 days and after the last egg she went broody but she is just 4 months old. She gets up from her nest three times a day for 10 min. I have kept food and water near her so she just gets up to poop. Can anyone suggest her what to feed her which is healthy. It is her first time laying eggs as well as going broody. If anyone have any suggestions how I should care for her pls let me know

[dedikfarm]

thank you sis..the chicken is the same as what I have sis..greeting to meet you sis..greetings laying hen breeders from Indonesia

[thinkgood]

Hi is there a video on your auto closing water contianer, i think. I haven't watched the video yet.

[vargaeszter]

Such a beautiful hen!🥰 I have a question. I had az orpington hen go broody 6 weeks ago. She was an amazing sitter, since orpingtons are usually good mamas. But when the chicks hatched she killed a couple of them. It was her first broodiness. She stepped on them and lifted one up and put it outside of rhe nest( i found it she was cold but i managed to save her life) Others suffered head injuries and it was just horrible.... 😭I was able to save 8 chicks out of 12, and raised them up in the house. Well, it was only 6 weeks ago and now she is broody again. I fear that her body might not be ready for another 21 days of sitting. She is lower at the pecking order and still a bit thin.Should I let her sit or try to break her? Is 6 weeks too soon for a hen to go broody after hatching? Is there a chance that she will be a good mama this time?💜

[CR.]

Question. I have chicks ready to go out what do I put in the run? Thank you

[soham]

what if my hen sat on egg on 6 day and then the hen died and i have sat another broody hen on that eggs after 4 days .is that eggs will hacth or not

[Angela_]

I am really nervous right now and wanted to ask you a question. My chicken Marina has gone broody and I'm very happy. But the thing is that when she went broody last year she killed 2 of her baby chicks and I don't know if I should set her again

[NMAMTB]

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?