Broody Hen Thread!

[idontknowsquat]

5 hatched 1 millie d'uccle (died) 2 cochin and 2 dixie rainbows and somehow there are still eggs ..... i think my son let her steal more!

 

[LaurieA]

My first Broody girl. This is Claire. The love of her life is a male guinea fowl named Screech.

 

[PortlandHen]

Soooooo, I don't think my girl left her hatching box for 3 days. I went to check on her (the door/latch is behind her back) and there was a ton of poop under her butt. That girl just sat there and pooped (no idea if this is a normal thing). We've been giving her food and water on little plates near her face, so I guess she decided to NEVER move. I had to push her out to clean that up. So stinky.

Good news, I was able to candle those 3 day old eggs and 4 of them have veins, our Maran egg and green egg were too dark to see anything. Yay! Man, it's so true… you will know if those eggs are growing. Those veins are so visible (especially on our blue egg). Yay!

3 of our eggs (I adjusted the images in Photoshop so I could see the veins better):

 

[abserbean]

So our broody's coop mate that we are trying to integrate into our other flock is driving me crazy! She spent the day with them fine, but wouldn't lay her egg anywhere but her preferred box (the one my broody is on). I finally decided to try and move my broody to a hatching/brooding pen (her current box is off of the ground). As soon as we moved her, the other girl jumped into the box and laid her egg. All was well, but the broody wouldn't imprint on the new nest. She knew when her time limit was up, and became frantic trying to get back to her box even though we showed her the eggs in the new spot. So I moved her and the eggs back to the nest(and suffered about ten vicious pecks to the hand, she wasn't happy), and she settled in fine. So frustrating! I wish I wouldn't have moved them at all, with this being the outcome. Do you guys often move eggs? I'm hoping we didn't mess things up. It is pretty warm here, and she was only off for about 35 mins or so. I'm just going to leave her from now on, and when it's time to hatch I'll block the door off halfway to her box. After hatch is over, I'll move mom and babies to the broody pen. And her coop mate will just have to figure things out, she's going to be in with the other girls full time starting today, and will have to lay her egg somewhere.

 

[egg4dinneragain]

Well, I've now got 2 hens sharing 13 eggs. I have a silkie and an O Shamo both broody.
I collected a couple of days eggs and stuck them in a large hutch and sure enough both birds found them.
They are sharing duties on sitting, usually together but sometimes one will run off for a drink and some food. I haven't seen them both of the best at the same time since they started sitting.
At least 9 eggs are fertile and hopefully more (couldn't tell with the brown eggs).
With some luck they should start to hatch on Wednesday.
There will be some interesting birds anyway all being well..father is a lovely big O Shamo...the Shamo x silkie will be strange.haha

Dad..

Mothers...

 

[egg4dinneragain]

I couldn't resist 1 more pic....

 

[Sirracha]

Well, I've now got 2 hens sharing 13 eggs. I have a silkie and an O Shamo both broody.
I collected a couple of days eggs and stuck them in a large hutch and sure enough both birds found them.
They are sharing duties on sitting, usually together but sometimes one will run off for a drink and some food. I haven't seen them both of the best at the same time since they started sitting.
At least 9 eggs are fertile and hopefully more (couldn't tell with the brown eggs).
With some luck they should start to hatch on Wednesday.
There will be some interesting birds anyway all being well..father is a lovely big O Shamo...the Shamo x silkie will be strange.haha

Dad..

Mothers...

That mix would be a sight to see. Good luck.

 

[egg4dinneragain]

Cheers..I'm hoping to be posting a few pics mid week.

 

[fisherlady]

So our broody's coop mate that we are trying to integrate into our other flock is driving me crazy! She spent the day with them fine, but wouldn't lay her egg anywhere but her preferred box (the one my broody is on). I finally decided to try and move my broody to a hatching/brooding pen (her current box is off of the ground). As soon as we moved her, the other girl jumped into the box and laid her egg. All was well, but the broody wouldn't imprint on the new nest. She knew when her time limit was up, and became frantic trying to get back to her box even though we showed her the eggs in the new spot. So I moved her and the eggs back to the nest(and suffered about ten vicious pecks to the hand, she wasn't happy), and she settled in fine. So frustrating! I wish I wouldn't have moved them at all, with this being the outcome. Do you guys often move eggs? I'm hoping we didn't mess things up. It is pretty warm here, and she was only off for about 35 mins or so. I'm just going to leave her from now on, and when it's time to hatch I'll block the door off halfway to her box. After hatch is over, I'll move mom and babies to the broody pen. And her coop mate will just have to figure things out, she's going to be in with the other girls full time starting today, and will have to lay her egg somewhere.

Do you have room to try setting an alternative nest box in beside where your broody is? My hens love to use a cat carrier for laying, something like that, set very close to the broody's nest, with a couple of golf balls in it might get the other hen to try the new spot. Turn the new box in such a way that the broody doesn't see the golf balls.

 

[Morrigan]

Another question --

My broody hatched 2 chicks, 2 days ago, and as far as I can tell she is showing no interest in leading them off the nest. I've been leaving the door to her dog carrier open, for a hour or two at time morning and afternoon, to give her a chance, but no interest.

There is water and food inside the carrier, placed so mom can eat/drink without leaving the nest, and that's what she has been doing. I assume/hoping the chicks are getting some too, but not sure, since they are too small to reach it without climbing out of the nest.

Yesterday I removed the 2 unhatched eggs from the nest, hoping that would change things. When I was removing the eggs I had to lift mom off the nest. She briefly shot outside the coop to take a huge poop and then raced back in.

I'm reluctant to leave the kennel door open when I'm not around, as I fear other chickens cramming themselves into the kennel to get to the chick food and squashing the new ones.

Not sure what to do. Remove nest box from kennel and place it in a corner of the coop? Leave door to kennel open all the time and hope for the best? Keep doing what I'm doing? They need to get out of that kennel at some point so mom can start teaching them chicken business.