New Day 16 – A Broody Hen and Chicks

After all this time not writing in the blog you’d think I’d have something else on my mind than chickens. But no – chickens (or one hen in particular) has monopolized my focus lately.

This posting should have been done in stages, but I didn’t have time to write this in blog appropriate pieces. Here it is – all in one fell swoop. Please note: The images belong to the last part of the writing, but rather than put them all at the end, I scattered them throughout. They’ll make more sense if you look at them after reading (assuming you actually read the blog).

Here’s Audrey settling into the new coop

Audrey went broody – or so I was informed when I mentioned to my chicken raising neighbors that I had a hen who was sitting on her eggs all day, and how sad it was that she didn’t know nothing was going to come of it (no rooster on the premesis).  My neighbors hastened to assure me that she’d eventually give up.   

But she didn’t. Audrey sat for three weeks, all through the heat. I never saw her out of the nesting box. I assumed she had to be eating and drinking at some point, but I never saw it. I took to giving her a separate dish of whatever I was giving the chickens for their morning treat, as she never got down to fight for her share.

Her favorite snacks around her

After three weeks or so, a friend I hadn’t talked with in a long time, called me out of the blue to ask me if I wanted a rooster – she had a friend who was looking for a new home for one of hers. I told Arlene that I really didn’t want a rooster as I’d had a bad experience with my neighbor’s, but that a few weeks ago, one of my hens might have been happy to have one around. I explained about Audrey sitting on her eggs for the past weeks. “You have to do something,” Arlene said, “or you’ll loose her. Some hens starve to death sitting on their eggs.” She told me about her broody hen and the not-so-young-chicks she’d brought home in the hopes her hen would take to them. Well, it was more a case of the chicks taking to the hen. Arlene said they rushed right over to her, and disappeared under her feathers. Then after a bit, three little heads poked out.

The chicken wire A-frame area and access from the second level

Arlene’s call was obviously synchronistic. After our conversation, I immediately googled baby chicks for sale, found a site that I liked, and immediately ordered four day-old leghorn chicks – female. [Lets hope I don’t end up with 4 roosters!] No date was specified for delivery – I’d be sent notice when they would be shipped.

Good – help was on the way!

Favorite hangout for bath taking – right beside the new chick area

But then I started thinking about just exactly how this peep thing was going to work. My nesting boxes are up high – not really suitable for chicks. It slowly dawned on me I had no idea what I was doing. Back I went to google searching for how to introduce baby chicks to a broody hen. Fortunately there are a LOT of people writing about this on the web. The most challenging information I learned was that the hen needed a separate coop away from the other chickens, and the hen and chicks needed their own outdoor run.

Then I read that when you move the hen, you have to hope she doesn’t stop being broody. Oh great! Just my luck she’ll decide to quit. Perhaps I should have done a little research before ordering the chicks!

Well, there was nothing to be done but get cracking!

Sweet Pea watches from only a few feet away

The next morning I received notice that the chicks were being shipped the next Monday – I had three days to get ready – four on the outside.

After wandering around, tossing about lots of ideas, I decided to convert the porch on the playhouse which was currently accessed by the cats, into a chicken area. I’d build the nesting box and feeding annex first, and worry about how to give them access to the outside second. Because the porch was a screened porch, I needed to make the boxed area secure from predators.

I managed to build the coop out of remnants – very nice to save money. The nesting box is very roomy. There are two doors that open separately, a solid door covering the food and water area, and a screened door with hardware cloth for the nesting box area. When the doors are closed the chickens can still go from one area to the other.

View of second level through the screen from outside

Once this was completed and lined with hay and pine shavings, I decided to move Audrey in. This was the scary part. I really didn’t know how to do this. I was hoping to scoop her, the eggs, and hay all up in a bundle and move it to a plastic bin and transport her that way. I was afraid she might get aggressive if I took her off the eggs.

So…I got a big plastic bin and headed into the coop. To my horror, she was not on the eggs, and not even in the coop! Oh good grief – she’s given up.

But…in through the chicken door came Audrey – clucking at me. Oh yes, I thought this is a good sign. Quickly, before she had time to sit on the eggs, I scooped the hay and eggs up and put them in the bin. Then I picked her up and set her down in with her nest. Then I picked up the bin and started for the door. Audrey was most alarmed and flew out of the bin.

 Well, I just carried on and hoped for the best. I took the eggs and nest to the new coop, and set them in at the back of the nesting box without disturbing the eggs. Then I went back for Audrey. She was up in one of the other boxes sitting on someone else’s egg, clucking – probably not a happy chicken. I picked her up, and immediately realized how much weight she had lost. She went peacefully to the new coop in my arms, and as soon as I showed her the nest with her eggs, she settled down. I gave her a small dish of blueberries (her favorite treat) to help make the connection that she gets blueberries when she sits on her eggs. Then I left her alone for a while to settle in. 

 I went off to buy some chicken wire. I knew that whatever sort of run I made, it would have to be chicken wire as the baseball netting that I used for the other chicken pens wouldn’t keep the chicks in.

 During the next two days while Audrey got used to her new surroundings, I built a very crude but utilitarian A-frame chicken run.  I decided to dismantle the cat bridge to the porch, and use the same entry way for the chickens. That way I would not have to cut holes in the porch wall. This meant I’d need to build a ramp up to an upper level in the coop area so they could access the exit bridge.

Chicks via USPS

Tuesday morning the post office called to tell me my chicks had arrived. Bo and I went off immediately to pick them up. It’s bizarre to think day old chicks are shipped all over the country. But there they were in a little box with holes, peeping away.

Four peeps

The research I had done said the best way to introduce the chicks is to put them near the hen where she can hear them but not see them, for several hours. That triggers some hormonal thing that bodes well for bonding. Then they suggest waiting until night, at which time you cup your hand over a chick, slide it in under the hen and remove an egg. You do that until the chicks are under the hen and there are no more eggs. Interestingly I ordered four chicks, and she was sitting on four eggs – which I knew only on the day I moved her. The idea is that in the morning Mama discovers the eggs have hatched, and she’s a happy hen.

I moved the chicks to a plastic bin with shavings, water and food. They actually ate, and drank. How do two day old chicks know to do that? I placed the bin in the annex of the coop, and immediately Audrey started making chortling noises. For the rest of the morning I finished the interior, building a ladder up to the upper level, and edges to the ramps to keep the chicks from falling. I will confess that I ended up pretty pleased with how it all came out. Then for the rest of the day I left them alone, only checking from time to time to make sure the chicks were still alive. 

Inside view of nesting area

Mid afternoon a thunderstorm threatened, and the air grew cool. I decided it was time to move them in. I figured if I was a chick I’d want my mama in a thunderstorm. So I did the switch with one chick. Audrey was clearly intrigued. I’m pretty sure she knew I was the conveyor of life, but I don’t think she cared. She immediately peeked underneath and settled in to coo at the chick – little Mama noises. Within fifteen minutes all four chicks were under the hen and I had four very warm eggs in my hands.

I left them in peace, but listened from time to time from outside. I could hear the chicks peeping.

First sighting the next morning

I wasn’t convinced Audrey had any idea where the food and water were, so I moved the water and food to the front of the nesting area so she could see them. Then I closed her and the chicks in and hoped there would good news in the morning.

Wednesday was the first full day. All four chicks were alive and well, and Audrey seemed as if she was going to be a good mother. About half way through the day I went to check on them, and Audrey had moved to the food and water, and had the chicks with her eating. She was blocking the water dish a bit, and I wondered if she knew to let them have water too, but as I watched one little chick went all the way around to the other side of Audrey and had a drink of water.

Mama checking out the intruder

So far this has been a great success. Now I will wait to see, as the chicks grow, if they can navigate the upper level and get outside. Audrey has not explored any of this, so I have a feeling the chicks will show her the way.

At the end of day 3