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

[3acres]

THEY ARE ALMOST HERE!!!! I CAN HEAR THEM PEEPING!!! I CAN'T WAIT I WILL CHECK IN A COUPLE HOURS WHEN I GET HOME FROM WORK!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!

THAT'S AWESOME!

 

[Garrisonkidsduo2]

THAT'S AWESOME!

You know what is more Awesome?! I HAVE BABIES!!!! I have 2 right now but 1 more is almost unzipped and 3 more have peep holes and 1 that I don't know what is going on. I can't candle anything until tonight when it is dark.

NOW PICTURES!!!!

 

[3acres]

THAT IS MORE AWESOME!!!!

and a

. The wait is over and ya got some babies! Congrats to you and your good broody hen! You have some lil' cuties under momma there! I'm jealous...

. I hope the rest made it out alright!

 

[Garrisonkidsduo2]

Okay i know this is late but after everything she had 7 chicks hatch. I am going to get pictures of them in a couple days

 

[3acres]

Good deal! Are you having fun watching them?

 

[gg706]

I got my first broody! She has been sitting for approx. 6 days I am going to attempt candling them tonight or tomorrow night and see if any are growing!
I am very excited about it. However I have created a bit of a problem.....I went and got 6 chicks from TSC 3 weeks before she went broody

And now she is sitting 6 eggs. I cant keep anymore than 6 more females because of the size of my coop. So I guess I will have to pick 6 females to keep and sell the rest??? i am planning on butchering the roosters. Which will also be my first processing so I am a little nervous about that as well.

 

[3acres]

I got my first broody! She has been sitting for approx. 6 days I am going to attempt candling them tonight or tomorrow night and see if any are growing!
I am very excited about it. However I have created a bit of a problem.....I went and got 6 chicks from TSC 3 weeks before she went broody

And now she is sitting 6 eggs. I cant keep anymore than 6 more females because of the size of my coop. So I guess I will have to pick 6 females to keep and sell the rest??? i am planning on butchering the roosters. Which will also be my first processing so I am a little nervous about that as well.

Congrats on the broody! I hope it all goes well for you! I hear ya on the hen max number limit. I wish they weren't so neat to have around...

Yeah....

....I just butchered my first ever roosters.....the two that I raised that are part of this thread.....RIR/Barred Rock crosses. I hunt and fish, but still had a hard time attempting it. It brought back harmony to the coop and was needed. The meat tasted so great, that I am not really looking forward to doing the butchering part again per say, but will have a lot less of a problem next time. The meat seems to taste so much better and it was a really gratifying experience to eat something I raised when it was all said and done. I have 31 meat birds coming April 1st because of all this to try.....and won't mind getting roo's from hatching out eggs now.

Good luck on the broody!

 

[gg706]

Thank You SO much! I am glad to hear I am not the only one! I am such a WIMP!

I have come to the realization that if I am going to keep chickens, I will have to butcher some...or my flock will suffer! So I am resolved at this point to cull all roos. As I already have a very good, well behaved roo in the hen house. So all others MUST go! (trying to talk myself into it!

) Although I can't wait to taste the difference and get over the first experience!
I did candle tonight, with some black construction paper wrapped around the flashlight, to hopefully constrict the light, I did not see anything. Any info ??
is appreciated! They are brown eggs if that makes any difference??

 

[3acres]

Yeah, I wish everything to do with caring for and managing animals was all pancakes and sunshine....lol. I'm going to give the stuff I am going to eat the best home I can while they are here just like the rest and just roll with it.

On the candling....I didn't candle the second batch of eggs that the hen hatched at all. I did try it on the first. I didn't see anything either, but thinking back I might of grabbed all unfertilized eggs to do it. I didn't candle every one and there were 8 of the 10 that were unfertilized. ??? So I'm no help with the candling....lol.

I was reading up on it awhile ago and found this helpful.... https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101 ...if you haven't seen it already. There's info on candling on down the page a ways.

I wish I knew more to help ya! ....and someday I will be more knowledgeable on it!

 

[Eggnog101]

What a sweet story! thanks for sharing!