broody hens and the chicks they *will hopefully* have

[lintlicker]

Hey Yall,

Have a couple of broody hens, 1 is a black silkie, other is a buff brahma, seems like they will take turns sitting on the same clutch of eggs on and off, but mostly the black silkie.

Not gonna lie, Im a pretty big and burly man whos in LE, and seeing this little silkie pilfering eggs around her and rolling them underneath her with her tiny little beak and sitting on a MOUNTAIN of eggs at least 2 layers deep is pretty darn adorable...

Question is, in nature, they will raise them themselves...should i supply chicken starter/grower in a feeder next to where they hatch to eat so they dont eat chicken layer? Or perhaps take them out of the coop and move them inside the house? Id like to give these girls the opportunity to raise their own young as I think that would be a great experience for everyone involved and maybe the hens would like it too.

Mainly dont want the hens to go to town on the grower/starter and vice versa...currently theyre under the nesting boxes in a corner of the coop.

 

[50-45-1]

Yes. You need to get some chick starter so the chicks have that avaliable after they hatch.
It will not harm the adults to eat it.
If the eggs in the nest are double layer, that means the bottom eggs are not keeping warm and will likely not hatch. Since all the eggs will be rotated by the hens moving around, that means all the eggs at one point or the other may chill and die.
Your silky hen should be able to cover 10 or12 eggs. I wonder just how many eggs we are talking about here.
Also if fresh eggs are being added to the clutch each day, that means you are talking about a staggered hatch. (Not all eggs hatching at the same time) this is bad!

 

[lintlicker]

ive thought about the staggered hatch and will address it once we see some chicks and yes we will supply some grower/starter, just dont want the adult hens trying to go to town on it at the moment, something we will have to adjust and figure something out as well!

 

[lintlicker]

Yes. You need to get some chick starter so the chicks have that avaliable after they hatch.
It will not harm the adults to eat it.
If the eggs in the nest are double layer, that means the bottom eggs are not keeping warm and will likely not hatch. Since all the eggs will be rotated by the hens moving around, that means all the eggs at one point or the other may chill and die.
Your silky hen should be able to cover 10 or12 eggs. I wonder just how many eggs we are talking about here.
Also if fresh eggs are being added to the clutch each day, that means you are talking about a staggered hatch. (Not all eggs hatching at the same time) this is bad!

going to try and see how many eggs are underneath her as theres a bunch of bedding involved, ill thin the eggs out into a second clutch as there is another hen thats gone broody as well, currently about 4-5 broody hens but we are only letting hte 1-2 down below hatch eggs out atm. worst case scenario we have one of the other ones sit on this new pile of eggs and see what happens