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  1. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    I don't know if I've shared this with the Broody group before (I know I mentioned it on the Silkie group), but did you know that when DDT had decimated the Peregrine falcon populations and they were on the brink of extinction, Silkies and Cochins were used to hatch out the falcon chicks? Falcon...
  2. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    I think the most important thing you can do is to not appear as a predator. You also need to allow them a choice, to be able to choose not to allow you close.
  3. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    Great advice! Being captured causes the greatest fear response you can get in a prey animal. Every time you grab a bird and frighten them, they practice being afraid of you. One thing that I've never seen discussed on any chicken discussion group is that a chick being raised by a hen is...
  4. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    The tamest chicks I've ever had were hatched and raised by a broody. I have no idea why they are tame--I really didn't do anything to tame them other than I gave them live meal worms a few times.
  5. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    I don't know the answer to that question, but I think it is important to realize that egg-laying chickens are very far what nature designed. In nature, a bird will lay in a given season and will not lay outside that season regardless of the natural lighting. Wild birds usually lay one or two...
  6. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    I have some Silkies that always seem to be in some state of broodiness. I check nest boxes several times a day, and I pick up any I think might be thinking of being broody and put them outside near the food and water. I don't really try to break them since they never seem to lose condition...
  7. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    Put her back on the nest and hope all is well. You may be okay.
  8. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    If the chick didn't make it there might have been something else going on. Infection in the egg often manifests itself several days later. Poor hatch rates, chicks that pip but don't hatch and chicks that die soon after hatching. The chick doesn't need any food or water for a few days. They...
  9. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    If the clutch is too big for the hen to cover, the whole clutch, egg by egg, rotates through a chilling phase during incubation and you can lose the whole clutch. I don't know if that is why you lost so many eggs. Shipped eggs is the other possible explanation and probably a more likely...
  10. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    Sometimes if there are too many eggs, you can lose the whole clutch because they don't all fit under her. She'll pull them in under her, but then another gets pushed out chilled. I don't know if fourteen eggs is too many for a large fowl. (Is she a large fowl or bantam?)
  11. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    Well, that wasn't fun, was it? It doesn't take much to chill them. I had a Silkie hatch a chick in the little coop I keep the little chickens in. The other Silkies were piled in to the same nest box. One-day-old baby fell out and not one noticed. Three Silkies in a nest box trying to sit on...
  12. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    Bearded Silver-laced Polish. I keep her top knot up off her face with tape so she can see. Without her top knot pulled up she would be basically blind. I wanted to name her Dahlia, after the flower. My son wanted to name her Walter. I lost. Here's a picture taken the same day as my...
  13. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    I'm glad I've been of some help. Normally, I would take this off list and correspond with you privately, but I am too much of an advocate for these kids and their parents. They and their caregivers need the rest of society to understand some of the extreme difficulties these kids and their...
  14. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    Gosh, does she ever look like Gramma!
  15. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    A little off topic... Oh, Blooie, do I know the challenges of autism. My eldest was your classic Aspie kid and just a horror to raise. He's turned out to be a wonderful, good, kind person. He works at Google, so he is right at home with all the other autistic computer geeks. Keep in mind...
  16. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    Blooie, I have an adult Aspie son and another that is on the fringe so I understand some of the autistic issues you are dealing with. I think it is important for every child, autistic or not, to have an understanding right at the outset that things don't always turn out well. I think this is...
  17. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    I doubt the chicks died because of empty shells blocking their pipped hole. If they are strong enough to break out of a shell, they are strong enough to move a piece of broken shell. It is highly unlikely that a broken shell would create an air-tight seal anyway. Remember, they've been living...
  18. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    I left my Silkie in the coop while she brooded two eggs there was a lot of musical nest boxes being played. I had piles of Silkies rotating through the nest, sometimes three at a time. Sometimes she was in the wrong nest, sometimes the eggs seemed as if they were neglected and cold. Of the...
  19. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    You can break a broody by simply changing their pens. If they stay broody, move them again. Broodiness is not something the hen really chooses.
  20. jajeanpierre

    Broody Hen Thread!

    Broodiness is a hormonal condition. It isn't something you have a lot of control over. When you "break" a hen from being broody, you basically stress her so that she abandons a nest. Think of it like a wild bird that leaves a nest they are sitting on because you got too close. You won't stop...
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