Hatching with Broody Hens: Part 3 Maximising Hatch Rates
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- This season we're going to follow Uno through her brood. We'll show you every point in the process from setting up the coop to her making the chicks independent. Along the way you'll see how we support her broody hens to keep them healthy as well as supporting the chicks that hatch.
In part 3 we cover:
What happens when the broody hen hatches.
How we maximise hatch rates by utilising an incubator in parallel
Introducing chicks to a broody hen
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We grow our own food on our smallholding and endeavour to be self-sufficient. Subscribe to see more of our life including self sufficiency videos, recipes, garden tips and chicken keeping.
We breed Buff Orpington chickens and have kept them for a number of years.
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Opening Music credits: Artist = Earth Tree Healing
Composer = Claudine West
Website = claudinewestmu...
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Awww well done Uno and Jellybean ❤ and of course Fiona and Huge for your dedication on raising wonderful Buff Orpington 🐓
Thank you so much!
Greetings from Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA!
You posted a FB short & I'm here to say hello! & reach out across the world! 👋🏻
I've ALWAYS been fond of chickens & their care. 💛👍🏻 LOVED seeing how you protect & nurture your broody hens to not only extend kind animal stewardship but increase your return. THANK YOU for understanding your flock & sharing videos to help others learn how to "read" their flocks as well.
Seeing that vid gushes happy chicken memories for me:
My late Depression-Era grandma kept chickens in northern MN. I'm sure she'd kept chickens over decades, for eggs, & meat when hunger was imminent. I enjoyed visiting Grandma in her later years when she had 'em mostly for eggs. I was young; I thought Grandma's chickens were her pets [no]. Her chickens seemed feral wild & didn't care much for being picked up, but I still held them. Was probably scolded. I didn't know at that time, that holding a "food" chicken could stress it out.
Alternatively, my aunt dairy farmed in central MN & they kept more chickens, in a larger walk-in coop. Allowed freely outside in daylight; wherever! They got hand-delivered veggie peels & compost scraps. Daily Explored [insects? i hope feasting everywhere] & scuttled nightly back into the closed coop. My empathetic cousin taught me how chickens show feelings with body language/calls & I learned how to understand. We collected eggs & the chix were calm; if we saw broody defiance I feel like we passed over that hen? Don't recall any specific broody hens fluffing up up me, yet I only visited?
2 or 3 of my aunt's chickens back then were docile & it was My Great Joy to pick them up & hold them close to me. 😍
When I was a child, I still remember the Chicken being My Favorite Animal, thinking in exhilaration about holding them: "They're SO Amazing cuz when you pick them up, their feathers are so soft but feel cold. Yet you know they are warm inside!" The thought of cold/yet warm enigma mesmerized me.
LOVE when you're holding a chicken it & kinda moves its neck around yours like its cuddling YOU! 😍
Also learned about tucking a chickens head into its wing & cradling it in your arms upside-down like a baby. My aunt's chickens were socialized often to humans, including children, & some of the friendly hens liked being near people.
Chickens are more fascinating & intelligent than they are given credit for. I've learned that if you neglect a chicken as a commodity, it Will fear you. If you attempt to understand & communicate, it can answer back.
I feel your farm "understands" chickens & THANK YOU for your kindness & willingness to try on video.Thanks for posting the vids where you're showing what you're doing to NOT stress them out more. Chickens can be stubborn & + prolly don't often perform on cue when the video reel says "ACTION" ... but also we recognize that in our children, & we Don't give up on them, either. 😉
💋 Wishing your Family & Farm & Animals ALL THE BEST! Keep up the good work! Appreciating you & seeing you;
from Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
Oh wow! Thanks for your kind comments
Look at those adorable little fluff balls 😄thanks so much for all the detailed information about hatching chicks. Really enjoying , and uno is so gentle , even when you were putting the little chicks under her wing. ❤ Super Mum 😊
She really is very trusting - its something that we work hard to breed for and to encourage
My Rhode Island Red is sitting on eggs and I hope after 10 days we’ll see chicks! She’s a first time mother and this series helped a lot!!
That's great to hear 🙂. Do let us know how she gets on?
They look very cute.
They really are!
Loved this video thank you! Fiona you are like a beautiful buff Orpington only human.
Thank you...I hope my feathers match? 😁
Well done you two, always interesting, Regards Alan.
Thanks Alan!
I'd never be able to afford the kind of set up you have, but what you are doing is awesome, I love my Buff Orpingtons, they've just begun laying, the eggs are quite snall at the start and as they have more eggs the size is increasing, yesterday we got an egg that was misshapen, a flat side on one side, some shell variation color, but still a hard shell, this was the first with a flat spot, but not only that it seemed to have some flecks of what appeared to be blood at one end on the shell,it wasn't an alarming amount but a little for concern to the hens health, none are broody at this point, do you think there's a need for concern, I've not seen any seem stressed, but I'm new at this, so there are some things I'm paying close attention to, our egg count to date from 13 hens is 9, one hen has a paler comb and its a bit flopped over, otherwise she seems fine eating and drinking and desiring to be petted, they cluster around me when I go spend time with them, and their chicken kisses are leaving bruises as the look fir me to give them some attention over paying attention to another bird, they are not being hateful just a little demanding of attention, so us any of what I described need for concern...if so I know you will say so, thank you, enjoying this journey with you fir when I may get a broody hen😊
Hi, one misshapen egg and a little blood is nothing to worry about in a young hen. We often get funny shapes, a few double yolkers & soft shells until they settle down to laying. If it happens a lot for a long time then one hen might have oviduct issues, but right now it sounds normal
@@EnglishCountryLife Thank you, I'd THOUGHT so but you've done this longer so knew you would know,😊👍
@@Damselfly54315 Always happy to answer questions, we don't know everything but have beed Orps for a good while 😊
❤🌹🌹🌹
Thanks
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