Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[shepan2]

Sigh...I was expecting chicks to hatch Thursday (the 8th)...so far not a peep, from 10 eggs...I know their fertile and even if my count was off something should have happened by now. I'm thinking I should wait until at least this weekend before tossing...hate the thought of tossing too soon, but sure don't want a bunch of bad eggs. My hen has been really faithful to her clutch...just no progress.

If the happy day happens I'll be out there with my camera to capture the precious little darlings. Please send good thoughts to the Bluebird Lane girls....

 

[slurrywidow]

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Thanks for sharing! It helps those of us first timers with broodies remain patient (okay, okay, SORTA patient) seeing the prize at the end.

Wow! You're at sorta? You are doing great!!

Great pictures Heatherkh! And congratulations!

Weeeelllll, I'm SORTA at sorta.

I've finally stopped staring at her for hours. Wasn't really making progress doing that anyway. All she did was stare back.
But I did candle the eggs again today. Had 4 empties (out of 8) so per advice from here I tossed those. She's still sitting tight on the remaining ones. We're at day 13...getting closer!

 

[slurrywidow]

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Sending you really strong, tremendously powerful, good hatching vibes and thoughts. Fingers crossed for you too.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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Sending all good thoughts to the Bluebird Lane girls ....

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Sending all good thoughts to the Bluebird Lane girls ....

x2!!!!

 

[Fuffy]

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Sending all good thoughts to the Bluebird Lane girls ....

x2!!!!

x3

 

[Chicken Chat]

It's taken me days to read all the posts, but I have to say, really, really interesting! Love all the pictures. I haven't had good luck with using a broody in the past but I am convinced to give it another try. My sweet little silkie, Puff, has been wanting to be a mom for awhile now, so I'm giving her a chance to be a mom. She's sitting on 5 eggs I gave her on the 12th, from my own flock. One of them has already been going for a week in my incubator. The bought eggs I put him with had a really rough ride via post office (dented box, 3 cracked eggs). Anyway, the air cells on them are destroyed, no developement. So I have one little guy that will be a bit early. I'm going to put the other 4 back in the bator when he hatches and hopefully she will adopt them when they hatch.

Good luck on all the hatches!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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Good luck to you too, Chicken Chat! Lookin' forward to seeing your pictures too!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Good luck to you too, Chicken Chat! Lookin' forward to seeing your pictures too!!

X2 and I bet being a silkie she'll take those little fluff balls off your hands.

 

[Chicken Chat]

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Good luck to you too, Chicken Chat! Lookin' forward to seeing your pictures too!!

X2 and I bet being a silkie she'll take those little fluff balls off your hands.

Thanks Barngoddess and Miss Lydia. I've tried twice before and not good results. One was a bantam cochin broody with one egg. She got off of it when it started chirping inside the egg and didn't want anything to do with it. I got home from work and it got cold and died in the shell. The second time was a seabright mom. She hatched her baby and then tried to kill it a week later. I'm going to try to leave them with the flock and see what happens.