Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[satay]

Hey Fancy .. I am sorry to hear you ended up in hospital but glad you are back home now and hopefully feeling much better That feeder is gorgeous! Love it! Hey locknest4 you made the right decision for yourself which is what you needed to do. As we all know, keeping chickens is not an exact science and I am grateful for all the advice I receive. RodneyRooster got my fingers crossed for you MyHaven “I can't keep up with the posts when I'm well. ” Eeew appps that is a first I am not looking forward to Put me down as a vote for letting a broody do all the work Speaking of Broody’s .. got Blondie and KiKi broken on the weekend And, the big news … drum roll ………. After just over 6 months of recreation leave, LuLu laid an egg yesterday

Good job on breaking your broodies for now lol Yay LuLu... Glad to see you return from long service leave lol.

 

[Teila]

Good job on breaking your broodies for now lol

Yay LuLu... Glad to see you return from long service leave lol.

Tee hee satay yep, definitely "for now" .. tomorrow may be a different story .. no broody's one day; four the next

 

[RodneyRooster]

Thought you guys would appreciate this.

My favorite form of recycling .

Hahaha! I love querky diy recycle jobs this is awesome! Doesnt really give it the 'off the ground protection' but u likely dont need it anyway, looks so cool!

Thanks for all the well wishes and opinions on broodys guys, did love handraising the chicks as my own little babies but didnt like the exra electricity they were using and all the effort and electricity involved in incubating eggs... Havent tried it but stuff that. Not for me lol.

Will definitely keep a regular update dont u worry about that! Heres my first..

Miss Vonte is happily sitting on her eggs in the brood pen still, the dog is very interested however, hope he doesnt harrass her. As for the others WELL..

As I let them out this morning one of the girls was in the nesting box, cool, laying an egg, good girl. Next minute she lifts her wing up and moves a visible egg right underneath her and puts her wing back down, nice and comfy. ???! Omg have i got another broody!?! LMAO i love spring! The boys made end up with no one left soon enough!

Which brings up another question, can i have multiple broodies in the same pen? I know egg pecking when hatching was mentioned earlier surely if they have their own chicks to be worrying about a new mum isnt going to go pecking someone elses. Although i dont know if the sitting one seen knew chicks, whether shed assume theyve hatched and get off hers? I officially have absolutely no idea on that

 

[Ashburnham]

Yes I abandoned the idea too years ago..we used them for cat trees. Even wrapped in carpet, I was too paranoid about arsenic leaching. I will have to get up pics of my big ol gum tree branches. I get all my wood thru scrounging. I also meant to mention, in building a new pen, I used a staple gun and some heavy bits of wood to secure the bottom, ground level wire. Usually I dig a little trench and put the wire in it, but didn't have time for this one

Treated pine is not treated with arsenic compounds these days. It is perfectly safe.

 

[Teila]

Hey RodneyRooster I am pleased Miss Vonte is staying put!

I have read many stories of successfully hatching with two broodys and an equal amount of not so successful hatches.

I have a friend whose two broody’s co-parented their hatches at the same time but another friend who lost a couple of chicks in a turf war between the two broody’s

I believe a lot depends on your flock and your set up. Knowing my flock and my set up, I would not risk it but that does not mean it is not worth a try .. if you do decide to go down that path, I would ensure I had a Plan B ready to go if it does not work out.

 

[MyHaven]

Tee hee satay yep, definitely "for now" .. tomorrow may be a different story .. no broody's one day; four the next 

Absolutely, for twelve months I have been hanging out for a clucky. Not even my Silkie or Australorp Fraidy would get in the mothering way. Fraidy normally lay 12 eggs, goes clucky, wait six weeks, lays 12 eggs, goes clucky, wait six weeks - you get the picture. But for 12 months they all said nope - now I've got two out of my dwindling flock of 5.

 

[Teila]

Absolutely, for twelve months I have been hanging out for a clucky. Not even my Silkie or Australorp Fraidy would get in the mothering way. Fraidy normally lay 12 eggs, goes clucky, wait six weeks, lays 12 eggs, goes clucky, wait six weeks - you get the picture. But for 12 months they all said nope - now I've got two out of my dwindling flock of 5.

Tee hee MyHaven that is why I made a decision to increase my flock to 6 .. before, when Cilla and Blondie were broody, poor ole non-broody Dusty was wandering around by herself thinking "where is everyone" .. hopefully with 6, unless 5 decide to go broody at the same time, no-one will be left without company

Yep, I get the picture! Cilla is a 10 egg girl

 

[MyHaven]

Hahaha! I love querky diy recycle jobs this is awesome! Doesnt really give it the 'off the ground protection' but u likely dont need it anyway, looks so cool!

Thanks for all the well wishes and opinions on broodys guys, did love handraising the chicks as my own little babies but didnt like the exra electricity they were using and all the effort and electricity involved in incubating eggs... Havent tried it but stuff that. Not for me lol.

Will definitely keep a regular update dont u worry about that! Heres my first..

Miss Vonte is happily sitting on her eggs in the brood pen still, the dog is very interested however, hope he doesnt harrass her. As for the others WELL..

As I let them out this morning one of the girls was in the nesting box, cool, laying an egg, good girl. Next minute she lifts her wing up and moves a visible egg right underneath her and puts her wing back down, nice and comfy. ???! Omg have i got another broody!?! LMAO i love spring! The boys made end up with no one left soon enough!

Which brings up another question, can i have multiple broodies in the same pen? I know egg pecking when hatching was mentioned earlier surely if they have their own chicks to be worrying about a new mum isnt going to go pecking someone elses. Although i dont know if the sitting one seen knew chicks, whether shed assume theyve hatched and get off hers? I officially have absolutely no idea on that

I keep mine separated. Even when they start getting out and about I have had babies pecked by squabbling mums and jealous onlookers. Depends a lot I think on who is the top of the pecking order. Nobody messed with my departed top girl Harriet and her babies - but when poor Splash lower down the chain had a clutch her bubs weren't so lucky. Not hurt, but not nice.ever since then I play it safe. It's more when they hatch I worry about.

 

[MyHaven]

Tee hee MyHaven that is why I made a decision to increase my flock to 6 .. before, when Cilla and Blondie were broody, poor ole non-broody Dusty was wandering around by herself thinking "where is everyone" .. hopefully with 6, unless 5 decide to go broody at the same time, no-one will be left without company 

Yep, I get the picture! Cilla is a 10 egg girl 

Amazingly, Fraidy's made up for it. She's laid nearly every day for 12 months. She is one of the cluckys though.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Hahaha! I love querky diy recycle jobs this is awesome! Doesnt really give it the 'off the ground protection' but u likely dont need it anyway, looks so cool!

Thanks for all the well wishes and opinions on broodys guys, did love handraising the chicks as my own little babies but didnt like the exra electricity they were using and all the effort and electricity involved in incubating eggs... Havent tried it but stuff that. Not for me lol.

Will definitely keep a regular update dont u worry about that! Heres my first..

Miss Vonte is happily sitting on her eggs in the brood pen still, the dog is very interested however, hope he doesnt harrass her. As for the others WELL..

As I let them out this morning one of the girls was in the nesting box, cool, laying an egg, good girl. Next minute she lifts her wing up and moves a visible egg right underneath her and puts her wing back down, nice and comfy. ???! Omg have i got another broody!?! LMAO i love spring! The boys made end up with no one left soon enough!

Which brings up another question, can i have multiple broodies in the same pen? I know egg pecking when hatching was mentioned earlier surely if they have their own chicks to be worrying about a new mum isnt going to go pecking someone elses. Although i dont know if the sitting one seen knew chicks, whether shed assume theyve hatched and get off hers? I officially have absolutely no idea on that

That's the beauty of the chain, it's height adjustable .
I have 5 silkies brooding in one box. If all the eggs hatch within a 24 hour period it can work, but if you have a staggered hatch , it can be disastrous . They will hang around waiting for the stragglers to hatch, but their inbuilt desire to provide for their hatched chicks will eventually drive them off to seek food and water , leaving the un hatched eggs to die.
I separate the broodies into broody boxes ( rabbit hutches ). This also ensures that the others aren't laying more eggs in there for the greedy little egg hoarders.