How I got my chicken to go broody and hatch eggs naturally

If you just want to cut to the chase then scroll down to the picture of the baby chickens, if you want to know more of the background story then read on.

2 years ago I moved onto a property with roughly 2 acres of untamed gardens and started the process of turning it into something more user friendly and manageable. Part of that process involved getting chickens as the do a great job of mowing the lawn and provide healthy food that saves on the number of trips we must do into town.

At first I got myself 4 hens and 2 roosters in a hen house large enough for 20 or so that opens out onto an orchard where they are able to free range during the day. I was happy with the number of eggs we get but I did wonder when or if any of the hens would go broody.

I searched online as any good netizen would do and found all sorts of suggestions but only needed one really, and it was actually super simple.

Once I tried it and it worked so easily I was kind of dumb founded that I hadn't actually thought of it myself.

The solution that was so simple?

DON'T COLLECT THE EGGS!!!

What?!?! yes that's right, here I was wondering why my chickens wouldn't go broody and I was collecting the eggs almost every day. Once I stopped collecting them it didn't take long before I discovered that one of the hens had decided to sit down and there she stayed. Three weeks later, 11 healthy chicks.

This video is day 4 and the first day (that I know of) she's brought them out of the chicken coop and got them catching worms already. In the first shot you see the outside of the hen house, the second is the chickens scratching outside and third is inside area were they hatched.

The other things I did that may or may not be a good idea. Before my hen went broody I would check on the eggs each day and write the date on them. When there was 10 I would take the oldest ones but always left 10 then. I had 10 there for maybe 3 days max before my (Now) favourite hen sat on them. I say it may or may not be a good idea because if I had not done it she may have actually hatched a few more, but then the fact that all 11 hatched and are healthy kind of makes me happy that it was not a bad idea.

Also no idea if this was or is entirely neccesary but after she went broody I actually made a second hen house behind this one and put the other 5 chickens in there so she and the babies didn't and don't have to compete with them just yet. I'm not sure when then will all be introduced to each other so let me know in the comments what you think.

Does anyone else have experience with chickens they would like to share?

I'm so proud of my baby chicks and look forward to seeing them grow.

Also if anyone is interested in my chicken houses and how they are designed I'd be happy to share some ideas with you. My second chicken house was built from scrap and I think it's awesome :)

Thanks for stopping by to see my chickens :)