Young Broody Hen

[Mrs. K]

Mine are peeping today, this is the craziest fun hobby!

 

[gritsar]

Mine are peeping today, this is the craziest fun hobby!

 

[Mrs. K]

ok, final count.... I set 9 eggs, at the 10 day check, one egg had broken. 8 hatched, 7 golden solid color (I would think BO, but I know there were 4 green eggs) One has a little black stripe, very faint. There was a fully formed, dried off black chick in the nest, but it was dead.... might have been too weak from hatching. One egg not hatched, then I recounted...... a layer must have snuck an egg in this last week, haha. That is why you mark them.

All out in the sun, all have been fed a little chick starter, and I while I watch 3-4 of them got a drink, so should be golden.

Several of the layers came in to see just what Butter had done, but did not get too close. As she called her chicks to food, a couple of the ones she raised in the summer came to the call, but she quick persuaded them to go somewhere else.

I let my layers, pullets and juvenile roosters out to free range just to give her more space. Was kind of waiting to see how many chicks actually hatched, but now need to process my young roosters. Good chicken keeping is about adding and subtracting.

Mrs K

 

[donrae]

ok, final count.... I set 9 eggs, at the 10 day check, one egg had broken. 8 hatched, 7 golden solid color (I would think BO, but I know there were 4 green eggs) One has a little black stripe, very faint. There was a fully formed, dried off black chick in the nest, but it was dead.... might have been too weak from hatching. One egg not hatched, then I recounted...... a layer must have snuck an egg in this last week, haha. That is why you mark them.

All out in the sun, all have been fed a little chick starter, and I while I watch 3-4 of them got a drink, so should be golden.

Several of the layers came in to see just what Butter had done, but did not get too close. As she called her chicks to food, a couple of the ones she raised in the summer came to the call, but she quick persuaded them to go somewhere else.

I let my layers, pullets and juvenile roosters out to free range just to give her more space. Was kind of waiting to see how many chicks actually hatched, but now need to process my young roosters. Good chicken keeping is about adding and subtracting.

Mrs K

I've seen that, too. Chicks from a hatch or two previous remember that food call and come running, but momma's having none of it.

 

[ShockValue]

Same thing happens when my mom calls for dinner, even though I'm 40 now

 

[ryan820]

Congrats on the new peeps! Hey when can I candle and expect to see development? I'm on day four now.


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[donrae]

Same thing happens when my mom calls for dinner, even though I'm 40 now

 

[SunnyCO]

Ok I cheated!!! Goldy and I are really on day 6 and when I went out tonight to tuck everyone in for the night I had my halogen spotlight with me and it was dark so I decided to see if I could see anything in any of the eggs. I was suppose to wait until Sunday, but since I was there...anyway, I only looked at 4 of the 12 and I could see the veins and a little flutter of movement in 2 of them!!!! It was really cool and my husband has zero interest so I had to share with someone who would care. I will check all of the eggs on Saturday night and report back.

Goldy has been being a model broody for being so young. She was a really PMS case before I gave her the eggs to sit on, now she's like my best pal. The other 3 hens are being mean to her and she doesn't seem inclined to put up much of a fight so I made her her own broody house from a repurposed dog house away from the others and she's loving it. I go out each morning and before I let the others out of their coop I let her out to have the pen to herself for about 20-30 minutes while I keep the heat lamp on the eggs for her. She struts, digs in the sand hill, eats, pecks at some scratch gains and then flies up and roosts on top of her house when she's ready to go back on her nest. I feel better knowing that she's eating and getting some stretch time in, for the first couple of days she wasn't getting off the nest at all and wasn't eating. She seems to be enjoying her morning exercise and is quite content on the nest whenever I check on her. I was worried when it dropped into the low 30's a couple of nights because she's the only one in the broody house with no others to help her keep it warm. I turned the heat lamp on for a couple of hours before bed and then again about 5 am to help keep her comfortable. I know she isn't eating a lot and worry trying to keep herself and the eggs warm would require a lot of calories she wasn't taking in. Not sure if the light is necessary, but it makes me feel better so it's doing a great job!!!

Cheers to Chicks!
Karen

 

[ryan820]

Good to hear. Tomorrow is our candling day...I found a developing embryo during...err....breakfast last week (GAH!) so I know the roo is doing his job and so is the broody hen of mine. She sneaks eggs under her wings and so when you. Take her off the nest to remove the eggs before I decided to let her sit on the nest, she kept at least that one egg even as she walked around! Weird stuff going on in that coop.

Anyway, wish me luck! I hope to see at least a few developing chicks!


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[gritsar]

I'm pretty much an old hand at this so I'm not quite sure why something didn't occur to me. It seemed like all my banty hens stopped laying the day I gave my cochin her seven eggs. Three days later it finally hit me....check under the broody! She is now back down to the seven I gave her and the ones that were added by her coopmates have been removed.

Congrats on the chicks, Mrs. K