I have heard those stories too but I haven't yet experienced this yet. Broodies typically do eat 1-2 times a day along with their bathroom breaks, mind return to their feeders but they also have always brooded in the nest box for me (fortunately). Several of my birds have found 'secrete'...
What exactly do you mean but rescue the eggs? Putting them in an incubator? What I have done in the past is let a chicken sit on fake eggs and incubate others and before lock down or anytime after I know the chicken is committed to the effort I slip the eggs under her at night. Similarly, if...
They will explore the coop day 1 and 2 with the hen typically, depending on if the hen is still trying to hatch more eggs or not. Out and about in the yard will depend on the weather and how easy it is for the chicks to make it in and out. Often within the first week in in my experience...
Oh, and I have had several hens brood in the dead of winter, snow on the ground and they go broody. . I even let one of them raise chicks, she did very well despite the cold!
Sometimes just removing them from the nest boxes and putting them in the run with the other girls several times a day will break it. It depends on how dedicated she is. The most successful method I have found is the wire bottom cage method or 'chicken jail' as you put it. This method breaks...
This is often even done without it being intended as well. If you think about a commercial chick business where eggs are incubated artificially and NEVER hatched naturally, those hens with the least brooding instinct will have far more off spring because they are not taking several months off...
Has anyone tried integrating incubator hatched chicks into a clutch of chicks under a broody hen that hatched several days earlier? Will the mother hen adopt them into the chicks that are a few days older?
I haven't heard back on whether or not my hatching eggs are going to be shipped but i...
In the case of my broody, this will be her third broody cycle (I broke her second attempt and she started laying eggs again 1-2 weeks later) and she will be 1 year old on May 5th. She is like a super broody, and she came from bloodlines that aren't known for broodiness which is odd. She...
Thank you both for your responses!
I will have to browse through the Old Fashion Broody thread again it seems as well!
The eggs from my own flock I am hatching I am worried about integrating with the shipped eggs because the shipped eggs are pure bloodlines. If I cannot tell 100% who is who...
I had a question about hatching with my broody hen. I am planning to hatch shipped eggs and eggs i already have from my flock - I was wondering if I should put the shipped eggs in the incubator and then day of/after hatch sneak them under her to trick her into thinking they are her little...