I've only had one successfully brood, due to the leghorn issue, she kept stealing everyones eggs cause she wasn't successfully brooding, so won't be much help on that one.
Does anyone have any experience in cold climates: I have several trying to brood and we got 4-6 weeks before Idaho winter...
I think each hen is gonna make her decision, they didn't read the chicken books and my flock free ranging showed me they gonna do it if they want to and they don't gotta follow the what to expect from books lol
didn't seem to matter what breed once I had a barred rock go broody and hatch out everyone wanted to brood at the same time, leghorn became persistent broody due to failure to brood and hatch, she's determined to have chicks to take care of but doesn't have the patience yet for sitting on the...
heck my year and a half olds still do that, lol, my roosters learned to help integrate on the second hatch after being scared of she devil broody, poor guy is mean rooster and was reduced to hiding with the ducks for protection from the broody. now they all seem to get along as they've...
free ranging at first they will stick with their moms but when they discovered other chicks closer to size of them they kinda forgot about mom and wanted to be with the others their size. This is just my flocls experience though and they tend to be more community brooders which I have been...
They do hatch some usually, was saddening that if one goes broody in my flock everyone donates, they think she should be able to sit on 30 eggs and sneek em in while we aren't watching as broody wouldn't let us look. The newest one sitting right now we did get a count and this is closer to what...
Each hen is going to be different according to my flock. I have one that we are going to hatch a few in the incubator and give her chicks, she doesn't have what ittakes to brood the eggs 21 days but might make a good surrogate as she's determined to have chicks to raise, she's looking good but...
well I have a very determined Leghorn that goes broody but doesn't have the patience and haven't figured it out, we took the eggs away from her as she immediately went broody with the appearance of an egg that someone was nice enough to lay early. as we blocked off her nesting box completely she...
I agree with micro, some hens just freak out especially if they are first timers, mine killed the first one to hatch but them was more careful with the others but we were also there until she finished hatching to make sure she didn't harm the others
I got a 2 hens that gotta watch 1 this week...
I've noticed mine will try to community brood and it never turns out good for them someone gets mad or impatient and breaks the eggs, our BR girl we lost was the only one that wasn't having none of it and hatched out 10 babies in the spring, right now they are molting and got another BR that...
Because they build up the nest and sit once they have how many they are going to hatch, When I had that happen brought out pet carriers and put them in there with door open, that helped some of the fighting just didn't have enough for 9 as only had one nesting box that could divide into 2 for...
well this outta be fun, my free ranging flock is on lockdown due to predators and after 3 days of just cat naps and up all night live trapping, got a couple days rest and noticed I got 3 hens all sitting on eggs sometime in the last 5 days.won't even let me peek see how many eggs they got...
gonna see if can get one of the hens to accept these babies that are hatching in the incubator tonight, think would probably be best to use one of the broodies waiting for a spot in brood box, instead of disturbing hens already sitting on eggs but only half way through, we got one of the barred...
ut oh chicken math is catching up , broody with the 6 week olds l, so far 14 chicks out in the pen now by them selves 2 nests got about a week under broodies and hatch is getting ready to start in the incubator