We have our first broody hen for the season at our house. It is this particular hen’s first time to become a mother. Her name is Baby. She’s a year old this spring and I’m always excited about new chicks coming to Holt Homestead.
Having a broody hen just means a female chicken became a ‘sitting hen.’ She’s decided she wants to be a mother and is sitting on a nest of fertilized eggs. Because we have roosters, all of our hens are fertilized. Other hens will lay with her in her spot and add to the clutch of eggs, so not all of the eggs are hers biologically. To know when the chicks will hatch, the farmer will count 21 days from the day she begins to sit and move her to a private place where no other eggs can be added to her clutch. At hatch time it’s typical for more than one chick to break through on the same day. Other times one chick will hatch per day. We’ve hatched up to 10 chicks in a clutch. Typically, not all of the eggs will come to fruition.
For me to watch Baby become a mom is fascinating. She shows behavior very similar to an expectant human mom. She becomes testy and wants to be alone most of the time. She doesn’t move around often but sits patiently. She likes to be served—so you bring food and water to her so she doesn’t have to get up—and she’s content. If you bother her more than needed she will blow up and become twice her size, feathers sticking out everywhere. I don’t know how she does this. It’s like she takes a deep breath and everything expands and it seems as if lightening flashes from her eyes. I remember feeling this way when I was expecting, too.
Once the chicks are hatched, be very careful because she will charge at you with a vengeance. You don’t want to disturb her baby chicks. If you do, she'll attack with her razor sharp beak and you'll pull back a bloody nub. The chicks belong to her and no one else. She keeps them underneath her to keep their body temperature regulated and protected from any type of predator, including the hands that feed them. When visiting the nest, you will see a tiny chick’s head pop out from beneath her to see who’s come to call and then poof! The tiny face is gone back underneath the protective heat source. It’s very charming.
The mother hen will take her clutch out into the barn yard to teach them about life: How to scratch for food, who to stay away from and who’s their friend. She’s not keen on any other hen trying to barge in on her chicks and steal them away. She will fight to the death.
We saw a hen fight once in the yard when this happened. There was a lot of pulling and pecking with beaks: pulling cones, feathers, wings and bringing blood. We had to break it up carefully. It was like a fight in junior high school or perhaps a cat fight. It wasn’t pretty.
Broody hens are strong chickens. The docile, friendly laying hen becomes a master of reproduction within one day. She is fierce and knows what she needs to do to bring life into the world. She will kill to protect every single one of her clutch or die trying.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Broody hens and baby chicks