Broody Hen Thread!

[StarMeKritten]

I've got a standard cochin who is acting very upset that I took her babies to put in the coop (she's a house chicken.) Her 18 week old babies. She has NEVER stopped mothering them! One of her two "daughters" (she hatched someone else's eggs) is going to lay her first egg any day now by the looks of it, and her other one is rapidly catching up, yet this is their first night not sleeping smooshed under mom and getting called to + fed half the tastiest treats. She's been laying since they were 6 weeks old but never chased them off or started treating them differently. Not even when "dad" quit - he's a tiny rooster who she HATED, but he insisted on sharing brooding duties, even warmed the babies while they still fit under him. I figured I'd just take them when she was done, but at this point it looked like she never would be.

Anyone else have moms that have done extended tours of duty like this?

My silkie cochin mix hen tends to raise her chicks for a long time. She hatched a single chick back in January. She treated him like a chick even after he started mating with her. He went to a new home shortly thereafter.

 

[Danielchicken]

Both moms sharing the 5 chicks.

 

[sex links]

Ok my hen gave up on her 5 week old chicks and went broody again. She took my other broody hens 11 eggs that are about 2 weeks in. And one of my other hens took up the responsibility of keeping the chicks safe from the other chickens bullying them.

 

[pcappy2]

Just looking for advise here. First time with a broody hen. She was doing very well until she started to eat the chicks in the eggs right before hatching? Does this happen from time to time?
I will never let a broody sit without the bator running just in case.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Just looking for advise here. First time with a broody hen. She was doing very well until she started to eat the chicks in the eggs right before hatching? Does this happen from time to time?
I will never let a broody sit without the bator running just in case.

Any thoughts?

It does happen, yes - was this *her* first time brooding? While mothering instinct would seem a no-brainer, the fact is that this sort of behavior happens across species and the exact cause(s) are not always immediately evident, but one theory is that the mother animal is confused/upset by the whole process (the noise the young make - even chicks with peeping from inside eggs, the sudden appearance of these "things", if humans are present/involved that can add a level of stress to the mother animal, etc) that she just reacts. Some folks are of the "one and done" camp and if a mother animal reacts badly to the arrival of her young they do not breed her ever again (or let her set for a hen) - others will give them another chance to see if the initial incident was due to the shock of a new experience - the tricky part there is that the inclination is to monitor the mother extra carefully to be able to intervene, but that very close monitoring and interference can actually cause a bad reaction in a mother who otherwise might have been fine the second time around - it's really a matter of choosing a path that you feel comfortable taking for you/your animals.

 

[Pongocup]

My eggs are officially at 25 days, so I candled them this evening to see what's going on. One was definitely dead...there was way too much empty space in there for this late in the game. 3 of them looked right, although I didn't see any movement. At least I don't think I saw any movement. And the last egg was completely dark. I couldn't see anything...not even the air sac. I don't know what happened with that one. Anyone know what could be going on with the completely dark egg?

 

[Skink]

My eggs are officially at 25 days, so I candled them this evening to see what's going on. One was definitely dead...there was way too much empty space in there for this late in the game. 3 of them looked right, although I didn't see any movement. At least I don't think I saw any movement. And the last egg was completely dark. I couldn't see anything...not even the air sac. I don't know what happened with that one. Anyone know what could be going on with the completely dark egg?

I would think it's probably filled up with bacteria and other detritus from a long-dead embryo. The ones that look alright, you should try water candling them.. they're probably dead too, at this point. If you didn't see/feel movement and there were no active looking veins up to the lip of the air cell. It's odd to have so many embryo deaths so late in the game, something to look in to the cause of for sure. Sorry about your eggs

 

[yyz0yyz0]

Well tomorrow is day 21 and we're getting pretty excited.

Yesterday the broody started to clean house, I came home to find an egg outside the broody crate in the run. when I picked it up it was immediately obvious that it was a "bad" egg. Even through the shell I could smell the BAD in it, threw it into the compost pile and it was just black goo inside. So I guess she senses that its almost time for them to hatch and she's getting the bad eggs away from the others. Must be getting close........

 

[Texas4T]

What does candling mean???

Candling is when you use a light source, like an LED flashlight, to look through the shell and check development of the embryo inside.
Here is a link:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pictures-and-videos-of-candling-chicken-eggs

 

[Pongocup]

OK. I did the water candling. Confirmed that all were dead. I opened up all five eggs to find five fully formed chicks that never absorbed the yolk. So sad. What would cause the yolk to not absorb? It had been really hot here like 110 almost every day. I was wondering if that could have messed with things.