Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread - Page 1213

Okay so I went down to the coop this morning to check on Caesar and she had moved to the floor of the coop....  She tried to do that yesterday with chick #1 but I saw that there was a pip in an egg ..... so somehow I managed to get her to go back and sit on the eggs.  This morning Popcorn was sitting on Caesars nest so I could not see if anymore chicks were hatched.....  

Well Caesar finally got up and there were 4 babies under her!!!        When Popcorn finished laying her egg I went to look at the nest and well there was an egg with a pip....  Caesar had no interest in that egg at all.... she wouldn't come back to the nest and I had to leave for work.... so I pushed the egg towards her new nest on the coop floor .... It rolled in the hole she made when she got up to show chicks food.....  so I am hoping that that little one hatches .....  The nest of course is full of extra eggs ...... those sneaky hens!!! So I guess I can candle and see if any of them are growing and then maybe throw them in the incubator.  Problem is I won't be home until 11:30pm from work .......  This was so much easier this time!!!!  Probably because I was out of town for 10 days of the brooding ... and working 12 hour days after that... So I had no time to worry about the broody hen.... Boy are the chicks TINY next to the mama hen!!!!  I'll try to get pictures tomorrow morning.....

grats Kassaundra!  They're super cute!!!

Ok, I have a bone to pick with everyone here in the Broody Hen thread.  You didn't warn me about how effective these hens are!  I hedged my bets by buying twice the amount of eggs that I needed (I wanted 4 turkeys).  After my miserable failures with artificial incubation, I figured it was totally reasonable.

Turkey number 7 is now pipping, and 6 just finished hatching.  Ack!  Buried in babies!

This has to be the most fluffy and adorable problem that I've ever had.

Can't wait to see pics of them all together with mama.  Congrats!! 

Actually, the hen butts are just on lease from my friend.  The turkeys are being removed as they get strong enough to balance on their own.  I feel bad for doing it, but I've knocked my friend's entire flock of bantams out of egg production with these eggs, and I'm trying to get things back to normal for them.

Number 7 finished hatching while I was typing this post, lol!  Maybe I should change my tag-line to "up to my ears in turkeys"

Here are the last two getting their land-legs:

WHAT? are you saying the hens aren't even yours?  well we have to do something about that.  Poor mama going to all the trouble of hatching and can't even raise them.  So sad 

Haha I know!  You can't imagine how many times I've gone out to my coops and tapped my toe at my Faverolles, but they just innocently look back at me, all un-broody.  And I for sure can't ask my Gold Comets to go broody, I might as well sit on the eggs myself first.

We might let Butterscotch raise one or two of the turkeys, but she's so small that all 7 certainly wouldn't come close to fitting under her.  Heehee.