a little story of my first broody hen experience (pics)

[missnu01]

I wish it didn't take my broody so long to stop brooding her chicks though. She literally just stopped brooding her last clutch and they are almost 5 months old...ridiculous!

 

[3acres]

One of the pullets I raised looking at yogurt for the first time this evening.





Might look too much like poo for them to eat it...

. Only one of my hens would try it.






Oatmeal was a HUGE hit though this evening.








I put ACV in the water too for the first time this evening.

 

[3acres]

I wish it didn't take my broody so long to stop brooding her chicks though. She literally just stopped brooding her last clutch and they are almost 5 months old...ridiculous!

That's funny! My hen is nasty to her chicks....but they spent time apart though. I'm going to put momma and babies all back together with the flock at the same time next time if I can get this to happen again. I'll probably be sayin what you just said then....

.

The chicks were getting pretty big when I seperated them. They loved to get on their moms back as chicks and it was funny to watch momma when they'd try when they were pretty big....

 

[Garrisonkidsduo2]

Well I have 18 days left out of 21 I look at her about 4 times a day to make sure she has eaten something and drank something, she really don't like when I clean up her poop area but she deals with it. I can't wait I would like to candle them in a couple more days to see if they are good or not but I am not sure if I should. Any suggestions.

 

[3acres]

Well I have 18 days left out of 21 I look at her about 4 times a day to make sure she has eaten something and drank something, she really don't like when I clean up her poop area but she deals with it. I can't wait I would like to candle them in a couple more days to see if they are good or not but I am not sure if I should. Any suggestions.

On the first clutch this hen sat on...I tried candling. I tried all kinds of home diy methods and didn't see anything I was suppose to be seeing on different days through the process.....about hard boiled one egg, about burnt a box up, etc....and all the while just irritating the hen like you mentioned cleaning around yours does. There were two of 10 developing in that group all said and done. The roosters were just starting to breed then. I didn't candle the second group of 10 at all. 5 developed in that one...just one didn't get all the shell off. Now that they are with an older rooster now....and chances are better there should be something developing....I'm just going to leave my hens alone and whatever happens, happens. That might not be the thing to do, but I'd probably leave them all anyway in case I was wrong. I seen somewhere it's bad to do it too much also. I'd like to have a small incubator some day....and I'll practice candling on those eggs some maybe....because I would like to get good at it....then maybe check an egg or two under a broody if I felt the need at that time. That's just me personally at the moment. Man, I'm getting excited for these chicks to hatch like it was me doing it....lol.







It's heart warming to hear everybody so excited about chicks coming and being hatched and all that! I can't wait until my first ever hatchery order comes and I bring some chicks home from the feed store again this spring!

Oh, and I got my hens to eat yogurt...had to sprinkle cracked corn on it to get them to try it...now they like it....

 

[missnu01]

my chickens were somewhat skeptical of yogurt, but when in doubt peck it...

 

[roostersandhens]

love the pictures

 

[3acres]

my chickens were somewhat skeptical of yogurt, but when in doubt peck it...

That's funny!...

love the pictures

Thanks!

 

[Garrisonkidsduo2]

On the first clutch this hen sat on...I tried candling. I tried all kinds of home diy methods and didn't see anything I was suppose to be seeing on different days through the process.....about hard boiled one egg, about burnt a box up, etc....and all the while just irritating the hen like you mentioned cleaning around yours does. There were two of 10 developing in that group all said and done. The roosters were just starting to breed then. I didn't candle the second group of 10 at all. 5 developed in that one...just one didn't get all the shell off. Now that they are with an older rooster now....and chances are better there should be something developing....I'm just going to leave my hens alone and whatever happens, happens. That might not be the thing to do, but I'd probably leave them all anyway in case I was wrong. I seen somewhere it's bad to do it too much also. I'd like to have a small incubator some day....and I'll practice candling on those eggs some maybe....because I would like to get good at it....then maybe check an egg or two under a broody if I felt the need at that time. That's just me personally at the moment. Man, I'm getting excited for these chicks to hatch like it was me doing it....lol.







It's heart warming to hear everybody so excited about chicks coming and being hatched and all that! I can't wait until my first ever hatchery order comes and I bring some chicks home from the feed store again this spring!

Oh, and I got my hens to eat yogurt...had to sprinkle cracked corn on it to get them to try it...now they like it....

Okay I couldn't handle it anymore. Since I have been hatching in an incubator for a year and a half now I decided to candle the eggs, I figured it had been 4 days I should be able to see something. Well I set her with 12 eggs in a cage well she broke one trying to move them into her own spot I guess but left the egg alone after she broke it. I am very glad to say she still has 11 eggs and so far I can see all 11 embryos moving. I told my husband that we were going to be grandparents since it is my 8 and a half year old sons chicken that is setting and he laughed at me. But that is to be expected since he didn't want anything to do with chickens and ducks until a month ago when I hatch a duck out and I was planning on raising it for eating purposes until he named it Daffy and made it his pet duck, and he thought I was bad with my very first duck I hatched out and named it oreo. He watches tv with his. I figure he will get more into this hatch closer to Valentines since they are due on Valentines day.

i also ordered chicks and got them on the 17th of this months but we got 1 out of 4 ducks alive and 1 chick out of 6 that we ordered but it was the wrong color, my daughter picked out a Blue Millie Fluer D'uclle and these are yellow bodies and orange heads the wings are orange now that the feathers are in, and we got like 2 or 3 of the chicks they put in extra just for heat. I called and they are going to try again, they are shipping again in about a week to two weeks. YAY I am excited and so is my 6 year old daughter she will finally have chickens that are her size that she can collect eggs from.

 

[Garrisonkidsduo2]

Okay I couldn't handle it anymore. Since I have been hatching in an incubator for a year and a half now I decided to candle the eggs, I figured it had been 4 days I should be able to see something. Well I set her with 12 eggs in a cage well she broke one trying to move them into her own spot I guess but left the egg alone after she broke it. I am very glad to say she still has 11 eggs and so far I can see all 11 embryos moving. I told my husband that we were going to be grandparents since it is my 8 and a half year old sons chicken that is setting and he laughed at me. But that is to be expected since he didn't want anything to do with chickens and ducks until a month ago when I hatch a duck out and I was planning on raising it for eating purposes until he named it Daffy and made it his pet duck, and he thought I was bad with my very first duck I hatched out and named it oreo. He watches tv with his. I figure he will get more into this hatch closer to Valentines since they are due on Valentines day.

i also ordered chicks and got them on the 17th of this months but we got 1 out of 4 ducks alive and 1 chick out of 6 that we ordered but it was the wrong color, my daughter picked out a Blue Millie Fluer D'uclle and these are yellow bodies and orange heads the wings are orange now that the feathers are in, and we got like 2 or 3 of the chicks they put in extra just for heat. I called and they are going to try again, they are shipping again in about a week to two weeks. YAY I am excited and so is my 6 year old daughter she will finally have chickens that are her size that she can collect eggs from.

I will keep you posted and post pictures. Also I built my incubator with stuff I had laying around my yard and garage. It is an old bathroom sink cabinet that I put a board on top and on back and put shelfs in and a small desk fan at the bottom and a desk light with a 75 watt bulb in it and a big bowl of water and a thermometer that reads humitity and started practicing keeping it one temp. After 4 days I finally figured out how to keep the doors slightly ajar that the temp would hold at 98 to 99, I have about a 89 to 96 percent hatch rate. I have had 2 groups of 80 eggs that none hatched but I have set a total of 350 eggs in it at once and had 315 hatch out, the rest were either not fertile or they started and stopped very early. I need to buy one that is small just to hatch quail in since they are very small and get out of my big one.