Broody Hens & Baby Chicks
There’s a lot of ideas around adding baby chicks to your coop properly. And the popular question, Will a broody hen accept other baby chicks? I have tried a few things, and some have worked better than others.
As your chickens age the egg production goes down, so they either become pets or then become soup. This is the reality and if you hobby farm for food, most likely it will become soup.
I’ll be sharing my experience with the question every chicken owner has at one point. Can I put them under a broody hen?
Here’s what’s worked for me.
Easiest Way to Adding Baby Chicks to Your Coop
The easiest way to add baby chicks to your coop is when you have a broody hen, and you have a rooster that is doing his job. Then letting that broody hen hatch her own out is so easy. The hen does all the work. You just need to supplement some food for the baby chicks and water that baby chicks can reach. Try to not keep any deep dishes of water around as baby chicks can drown very easily in shallow water.
On common question that comes up is, do you need to separate them from the rest of the flock? This will vary depending on the space you have. If you are free ranging during the day and your flock isn’t super aggressive, no. If your flock is super aggressive, I would change your flock to a more docile breed personally. But you do what is right for your farm.
You will need to closely monitor them to make sure the broody hen is protecting her baby chicks. They can be very aggressive, but that is a very good thing, she’s a good mama.
If they have a small space, you may need to separate them. Just make sure they can see and hear each other, or you will need to do a whole reintroduction to the flock. And chickens can be brutal to newcomers.
Will a Broody Hen Accept Other Baby Chicks?
This is a loaded question, will a broody hen accept other baby chicks? And if it was 100% yes, all the time. WOW would this be easy! However, it’s not, some will accept them yes, and some will kill them. Here are a few tips I use to judge if it is worth the risk.
- What’s the past experience with the hen? Has she been a very caring mother hen in the past? Has she been accepting of other hen’s baby chicks before?
- What is her temperament typically when broody.
- Do the baby chicks have a safe zone that the broody hen and other large chickens cannot get into, which includes a heat source, food and water?
- Lastly while watching closely what is her temperament when around the baby chicks, does she peck them or mother them?
She is still a chicken and even with the most precautions it can still end badly, so only you can decide if it is worth a chance and if you have covered all the steps above as well. There are no foolproof methods to guarantee success, unfortunately.
What Works for Me
I use a dog kennel on the floor now for my brooder. For those details about that, here’s my post Adding New Chickens. This summer the first batch I bought, which are pictured above, never tried to even escape. When half of them were about one month old and the others were about two weeks, I carefully watched and tied the kennel door open. Just enough so only the baby chicks could get in and out. That worked fantastically.
Again, nothing is foolproof but for me it worked out great and all survived. As they became adventurous, they ventured out farther and farther. And my chicken’s free range so they are not in the coop during the day. And my flock is very docile. So, this will not work for every situation.
My Second Group of Baby Chicks
So, my second group of baby chicks, were always escaping. So, I had to put boards along the sides to try to keep them in. Well two more escaped and I found them in with this mother hen who was sitting on her nest of eggs. See the little black chick in the picture? I was very surprised, and she was mad that I took them and put them back with the other baby chicks.
Then the next night the same thing happened. And that morning she left her nest full of eggs. So, I decided to see if the chick’s intuition on this hen was correct.
I carefully watched how she handled them all. And I followed the steps from above. She was my best broody hen and helped mother other hens baby chicks.
She is very docile, except when she has babies, then she is very protective. I made sure they had a safe zone to go to.
For me, it has turned out fantastic. However, I did add a few more a couple days later. Three where whiter colored and the rest are black or gray. She isn’t accepting the white ones.
The darker colored ones don’t matter because she can’t tell them all apart.
It is working out alright anyway since I have 17 baby chicks and she can only fit about nine under her to warm at once, so the others go to the safe zone. And the whiter ones have just learned they can warm under her, but they sneak approach and stay away from her beak, so she can’t peck them. Animals are smart, even chickens.
So, the answer to will a broody hen accept other baby chicks, is yes sometimes they do.
Conclusion
There’s no guarantee this will work out every time. But for this time, it did. I think it can be a success if you carefully follow the instincts of the chicks and trust your own instincts. And also follow with some great precautions as well, you will have a good chance for success anyway.
My broody hen is now teaching them all how to find food, although that is very instinctual. My first batch showed me how well the search for bugs and goodies to eat, along with chicken feed too of course. They have taken up roosting by my pigs. I mean if you are the smallest, might as well hang out with the big guys for protection.
As far as her nest full of eggs this hen was sitting on…. I sent them home with a friend to put in her incubator. And most of them are hatching right now.
Lastly this all will depend on the temperament of the flock, and the amount a space you have to give everyone enough room. My barn has plenty of room and hiding spots for the little ones to escape too. And their instincts do the rest.
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Good Luck & Enjoy the journey!
