A few months ago I mentioned that Red, one of our hens, went broody. She sat in the nest box for several days without leaving. When we opened the lid to take a peek she would growl and hiss at us. These were the signs that she wanted to become a mama. We have been wanting to hatch some eggs. This was the opportunity we had been waiting for. I had just recently read a highly informative article called Working with Broody Hens:Let Mama Do It by Harvey Ussery. We decided to give it a try.
On April 9, 2009 we fixed her a brood box in the outer coop where we could isolate her from the other chickens. Placing 10 new eggs on the nest we moved her in. There she sat for 20 days. Getting up only 1 or 2 times to eat, drink and relieve herself. The eggs started hatching on Wednesday night the 29th. By the next day, 7 of the 10 eggs had successfully hatched. They were all black. The same color as the dominant rooster, LB.
Red and her chicks stayed in the brood box for a few days, but it wasn’t long before she had them out foraging for food. At first we supplied the bulk of their diet. Not wanting to give them commercial chick starter, we provided a variety of foods. Scrambled eggs and milk was a favorite. We ground sunflower seeds, oatmeal, oat groats, corn, wheat berries and lentils, with flax seeds and kelp added to the mix.
The chicks favorite food had to be grub worms. We were in the process of planting our garden. As we dug, we collected the grubs in a jar then fed them to the chicks.
As they grew older, they gradually started to venture farther away from Mama Red. At five weeks of age Red let her babies go and she rejoined the flock.
They are now 11 weeks old. They have their own chicken “click”. It looks like we might have 3 cockerals and 4 pullets. Two of the cockerals look like they came from our Barred Rock hen Barbie. One of them has started to crow. It’s too hard to tell which hen the rest of them came from.
During this time we had 3 roosters. LB was a black Jersey Giant, Rocky was a red rooster of unknown breed and Johnny was…well were just not sure if Johnny knew what he was.
At first, being the oldest, Rocky was the dominant roo. He was very good to the hens. He was gentle, protecting and always gave them first choice at whatever food he found.
As LB grew older and larger he soon took over the number one spot. We noticed that he was too rough with the hens. Some started to get bald spots on their backs and were afraid of him. We knew LB had to go. Johnny was not far behind.
So, Rocky was back and better than before. Just in time too because Bent Wattle, one of the Wyandottes, went broody. On June 6 we gave her 9 eggs to sit on. After 20 days she had hatched 8 babies. There were 7 of various shades of cream and 1 black. I named them the chipmonk chicks cause they had a stripe pattern down their backs like a chipmonk.
Soon after the chicks hatched Rocky got sick and died. It was a sad day. We were very fond of him and miss him. But he lives on in the new chicks. We hope one of them grows into a good leader like he was.
We have all learned from the new chicks. It was a first for all of us. The great thing about all this was that Mama Hen did it all. She sat on the eggs, helped them hatch, protected the chicks and taught them to forage for food. We just helped her a little along the way.
The ducklings look very healthy. They are sticking close to Mama Red and the nest. I have given them fresh water and a home mix of starter feed. In the days to come I’ll be supplementing their diet with milk, yogurt, scrambled eggs, grubs, worms, insects and some other goodies.
