Advice on letting broody hen hatch eggs

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potato chip said:
Homefarmbmc, I don't think there's any way to predict who will do what (among the chickens anyway, I know nothing about guinea hens). You just need to be prepared with a "contingency plan" if you need to move somebody. In my case, the chicks stayed under one of their mums if they were scared. The mums were very bossy towards anyone who tried to peck the chicks or stop them doing something. They did it in such a "don't touch my babies!" way that even the chooks bigger than them listened. I think you do need to make sure you've got plenty of room for everyone and if it's confined, allocate some space for the newcomers.
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Thanks so much... I do have lots of room and a separate section I can move them to and lock it... the only thing is they don't get access to the run or free range in there.
 
potato chip said:
My silkies were only born in November (or around then). The 2 of them sit in the nest box together all the time. I can see why they'd be good egg-hatching chooks.
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Awwwwww, that sounds cute. :) Mine usually started trying between 9 and 11 months old, and often needed to go through it a time or two to become really good.

If I remember right, my black should be around 11 months old now. She's barely laid very many eggs.

But a few generations of silkies raised the majority of my chicks on the farm. I had one barred rock and one buff orp that would go broody (probably because they were raised by silkies) and a few crossbreed silkies that raised some, but the majority were raised by a few that I got as chicks the first year who grew up and brooded everyone else's eggs for me. I've had other bantams be good mothers as well, but I just love silkies all around. :)
 
I just wanted to mention not to let the broodies have too many eggs at once because I have made that mistake myself. If the broody is sitting in a communal area the other hens will often add to her egg collection and she'll end up with way too many eggs by the time it gets to 21 days. She wont be able to sit on all of them so some will die in the egg without hatching. One way to prevent it is to just mark her original eggs (prefer giving her a set of eggs all at once so they all start incubation the same day) with pencil or marker and then remove any new eggs each day that get added by other hens. Now I just separate the broody using a 4 x 4 kennel fence with roof that is inside the main coop so i dont have to mark and check eggs any more. She gets her own separate food and water in there too.
 

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