Skills For The Modern Homestead - #5 & #7 - Broody Hens and Hatching Chicks

The first skill we tackled was chosen for us by the fact we already own chickens and 2 of them became broody mid December.  

A website I use for my information is Fresh Eggs Daily.  I suggest using that for information rather than my blog post; I am very amateur at this yet!  This is just a record of what we did.

To recognise a broody was actually rather easy!  They just didn't get off the nest...at all...!  To care for them was fairly easy too.  I gently picked them up off the nest every morning and took them to the food and water, filled their nest with small amounts of dried herbs (mint, lemon balm and calendula) to deter pests and make it smell nice.  

Our first clutch of baby chicks were hatched in a friends incubator.  We have 4 little cuties and they have been such fun to watch them grow and explore the world.  I feel a bit sorry for them not having a feathered mummy to protect them but they seem pretty tough and so curious about everything!  I am their mummy for now.

Glass pebbles in the water bowl to prevent smaller chicks from drowning.

Chick Crumble for young chicks

Out for a walk with me

Tucked away safely for the night

 Our second clutch of chicks were hatched by our hen Mary Poppins.  She laid one of these eggs and I left her with some others laid that same day from our other hens.  She proved to be a very stubborn lady and is a wonderful protective mother.

She started her nest in the roosting house where the eggs are laid daily.

The recommendation is to not move a broody hen once she is sitting on eggs,

so I left her where she was until her chicks hatched.

Then I moved her to a quieter spot where her sisters would not bother her.

She has 4 adorable babies, the softest things I have ever felt!

 Our third clutch of chicks belong to Susannah.  She is a gentle, quiet lady.  She has 4 little chicks.

Susannah also decided the egg laying corner was a perfect spot to be broody.
This time I blocked her in with a cardboard box and a net curtain
to stop the others laying their eggs with her.
I moved her to a more private location once her eggs had hatched.

The incubator babies are now 8 weeks old and we can tell that there are 2 hens and 2 roosters.  They are so lovely and come running when they see me!  <love>  It was on the homesteading skills plan to kill, pluck, and cook the roosters...but they are much to adorable to do that to them!  So I have found them a home each close by so I can visit them periodically.

Mary Poppins has integrated her chicks into the flock.  I wondered if there would be some fighting involved, but no... 

Susannah has also moved her chicks into the night area with the rest of the flock without any fuss.  

It is so fascinating to watch how they manage their babies.

Incubator Babies - 9 weeks

Mary Poppins with her 2 surviving babies - 5 weeks

Susannah with her 4 babies - 4 weeks

~Lorna