Nutrition and gender, and inducing broodiness

[AmyLynn2374]

Not for us. We'll be leaving before that proposed 7 yrs of supposed peace...any time.

And I thank the good Lord for it!

That is true, rapture happens before the 7 years of peace. Blew my theory out of the water.

 

[northeastfla]

I don't know if I missed your post...

Did you have any success inducing broodiness?? If so, how???

Any help is appreciated!!!

Thanks

 

[lazy gardener]

I don't know if I missed your post...

Did you have any success inducing broodiness?? If so, how???

Any help is appreciated!!!

Thanks

No, I did not have any success with that endeavor. However, I did have one hen go broody. I let her sit golf balls for a week, moved her to a broody coop, and since my hatch was imminent, I removed her golf balls that night, and put some pipping eggs under her. She sat on them, had one hatch by morning, and there was one that had most of the shell picked off, but entire membrane was intact. I brought in the membrane baby and finished it off with assist in the bator. I went out a bit later to find that she had abandoned the one hatchling. Left him flat on his back, screaming bloody murder. He was quite chilled. She was in love with the idea of being broody. Quiet little golf balls were just dandy. But a screaming chick with actual needs? Not her cup of tea. Later this summer I did have a successful broody. Both girls were Dominiques.

OK, that's kosher.

But we haven't had 7 years of peace in the middle east yet, so we got time, right???

Amy, the way the news is going, those labor pains are getting closer and closer together. Every thing is in place for building the temple and resumption of sacrifices. The line of Levi has been traced with DNA testing, there are herds of red heiffers ready and waiting. IMO, it's imminent. I don't want to be a "dooms day type of person" and really I'm not. I view coming attractions to be a good thing, not bad. And believe it to be imminent.

 

[Beekissed]

I was able to induce broodiness by letting eggs remain in the nest at the appropriate time of year and that worked with 4 chickens, one of which didn't really need any inducing, but the other three were all only 6 mo. old and brand new layers, so it's a little unusual to get that many broodies from such a young group.

Right now I have a bird showing signs of lingering too long on the nest and reluctance to get off the eggs in the evening, but I'm not going to let her pursue that thought...I'd like to get all my layers in a cycle in which they go broody in the spring and no other time....don't know how successful I'll be with that.

 

[northeastfla]

Thanks for the replies... I think I may have "induced" my blue laced red by asking the question!!! She has been on the nest all day and squawks when I go in the coop. She can't have but MAYBE 1 or 2 eggs under her. Will she keep laying (if so, won't the eggs start to incubate???) or will she stop laying as she IS incubating??? Can I slip some other eggs under her or should I just leave her be????

 

[lazy gardener]

Start collecting your hatching eggs now. Tomorrow, take the ones she is sitting on, and give her some fake eggs or some golf balls. If she spends several nights and days on the nest, you can then take away her golf balls and give her real eggs. You need to have her in a location that the other hens can't drive her off the nest, or sneak extra eggs into her nest when she gets off to eat or drink. When you give her the hatching eggs, be sure you mark them all so you will know if some one adds a new one. Don't give her more eggs than she can completely cover at once. Be sure to give her all the round ones!

Good luck!

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks for the replies... I think I may have "induced" my blue laced red by asking the question!!! She has been on the nest all day and squawks when I go in the coop. She can't have but MAYBE 1 or 2 eggs under her. Will she keep laying (if so, won't the eggs start to incubate???) or will she stop laying as she IS incubating??? Can I slip some other eggs under her or should I just leave her be????

By the time they get to the broody stage where they are sitting on the nest all day, they have already laid all the eggs they would have laid for a clutch and shouldn't be laying anymore. That's the hard part about broodies and coop laying if one wants the broody to lay and sit her own eggs, as usually we have been gathering up her contribution to a clutch each day and by the time we notice she is broody, she has already laid all she will lay.

 

[chicapee]

This is a great experiment. Enjoyed reading about it. On my first hatch I had 5 out of 7 hatch and they were all girls. My temperature was around 98.7.

 

[lazy gardener]

I think I have read that lower temps tend to favor girls. The boys die under those conditions b/c they are not as tough. Now, if I did the egg shape selection, followed by slightly lower temps, I wonder what would happen???? Personally, I think a higher than 99.5 temp actually results in a better hatch. So, I'd have to really think about it before dropping my temp.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I think I have read that lower temps tend to favor girls. The boys die under those conditions b/c they are not as tough. Now, if I did the egg shape selection, followed by slightly lower temps, I wonder what would happen???? Personally, I think a higher than 99.5 temp actually results in a better hatch. So, I'd have to really think about it before dropping my temp.

That's my problem. I have great hatches with the temps averaging 100-101 (in forced air). Of course the reason it averages that high is cause I use an LG

I don't know if I'd want to play with that variable or not.