Best Broodys!-ends May 27th

[aoxa]

Name: "Momma hen"
Age: 1 year (has gone broody 3 times already, the first time at around 6 months-old)
Breed: Barnevelder
Catagory: hen with chicks

She REALLY wants to be a mom, so I gave her a bunch of babies that just hatched last night in the bator. She's sooooo happy!


There's around 20 babies under her.

How long was she sitting before you gave them to her?

I have a silkie that's been broody for 2 weeks - and I can't get her to take on any babies. She is sitting one one egg - and it's developing well, but before that I tried to give her chicks. Not interested. Tried at 1 week broody, and every day thereafter. One chick pecked her right back. Good thing she has awful aim. She hasn't actually succeeded in pecking them yet lol.

 

[aoxa]

Name; Janet Breed: Partridge Cochin (standard) Age: Unknown - anywhere over 8 months. Could even be 2 years old. I got her in November, she laid her first egg (for me anyway) in February.

None of Janet's eggs hatched due to mistakes made by us :/ Anyway.. We gave her three two week old chicks and she took them on without skipping a beat.

After a bit, she took on the rest of them! Super mom! I also have: Name: Olive Breed: Buff Orpington Age: 1 year

Olive raised five barred rock chicks I gave her at day 21 of her sitting on a golfball. After Janet's eggs did not hatch (most likely our fault) - I decided not to give her eggs. She took to them almost right away. At first she was suspicious as to what we put under her, but after five minutes, she started calling them to food. We were thrilled! Less work for us to worry about. Her babies are six weeks old now, and she taught them how to sleep on the roost.

 

[Rachy]

Name: Pearl
Age: 9 months
Breed: Pekin
Category: Broody on eggs

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[RhodeRunner]

Name: Momma Buckeye
Age: 1 year
Breed: Buckeye
Category: Mom with Chicks

 

[missinmee11]

ENTRY FORM:

Name: 'Hotwings' & her New Brood
Age: ?(Not Sure about Hotwings' age, but her brood is about one or two days old in the first pictures)
Breed: Wellsummer
Catagory: Newly Hatched Chicks & Mom With Chicks

Here's my friend 'Hotwings' and her new brood of eight chicks about one day after they hatched.

Even at one day old Hotwings takes her brood with her everywhere she goes, rain or shine. Whenever they start chirping just a little louder, she'll spread herself about twice as wide and cop a squat to keep them warm. No matter when or where, she does her job-- This incubation session needed to happen right on the front walk on top of some of the food I had out for them.

A couple little toes, and the tip of a little beak poking out her backside, is about all you can see of the entire brood of eight.

​

As you may have noticed, I called her "my friend" Hotwings, oppose to my chicken, etc.... Hotwings,her mate, which I've dubbed 'Original Recipe', the big Wellsummer pictured here to the right, and a few more hens are actually wild chickens..
My wife and I, big city dwellers all our life, moved to what we consider a smaller town a little over a year ago. We've enjoyed the somewhat rural setting of our neighborhood, and even though we live in an apartment our street is a mixed bag, including some older homes with property, and some vacant land as well. We noticed these chickens going where they please all over the neighborhood, but had initially assumed that they belonged to someone and they just let them roam. Initially we enjoyed their antics from afar, but soon developed a friendship with the chickens, as we threw them snacks and treats in an attempt to have them come up to us. It didn't take long before Original Recipe started knocking on our front door looking for a treat! I immediately gained a ton of respect for these birds, and set out to learn more about them..
As we came to find out, these chickens actually belonged to nobody, and live in a field across the street. We took an interest in their well-being and noticed when Hotwings did not come around for days. She finally came running over one afternoon in a frenzy, gobbled up all the food she could and went running off again. This got me curious, so I started to learn a little more about chickens and I surmised that she was brooding.
Sure enough, a few weeks later, she came back followed by eight little chicks which were no more than a day old. So, of course we've been looking out for them too.
Her brood of eight actually hatched on April 1st or 2nd, and we've been enthralled watching them grow up, and observing Hotwings' as the perfect mother hen. It was such a sight to see how she would actually walk around with them and point out food for them to eat, literacy with her beak, and even speak to them with different noises, while she found different things to eat. When she went back across the street with them, she lined them all up in front of her, and appeared to count them before she marched them across. On one occasion I heard an unfamiliar sound from her, and noticed her head completely sideways with her eye pointing to the sky. I followed her line of sight, and was barely able to see a bird circling way overhead. I had to get my binoculars out, before I was able to see an osprey way up there, no doubt eying her chicks for lunch.
Just as quickly and efficiently nature had switched her motherly instincts to 'ON' the moment she became broody on her clutch of eggs, it was switched to 'OFF' with the same brutal efficiency. For about the last two or three days, she has been treating every chick in her brood no different than she would treat any other chicken. Instead of pointing to the food for them, she pecks at them if they get to close to her food. Or, she even chases them away entirely. They no longer follow her, and it even appears that they are not welcome around their regular nesting area in the lot across the street!
My wife found the whole scene sorta' sad and depressing, and gave Hotwings a lecture or two on being a Mom. I don't really see it this way, as I believe she performed her Mom duties perfectly, and gave them all they need for a thriving life. I'm sure she had nothing else to give them, and it makes sense the 'Mom' switch would be switched off at that point. I'm guessing guys can appreciate this a little more than gals. I could name a time or two when I wished my Mom would shut off her 'Mom' switch too..
Since these were nobody chickens, and I had heard horror stories from my neighbors that several years ago the wild chicken population got so bad, they were causing traffic jams. Apparently, the city had to come in and exterminate them. I didn't want to see that happen again, so yesterday I placed an ad for free chicks and found them a really good home! I spent most of today catching them, but they are now in their new home, and no longer Homeless. Below is a couple pictures of them I took yesterday, beautiful birds - Great Job Hotwings!!

 

[farmerChef]

Name: Butterbean
Age: 2+ years
Breed: DorkingX
Cat: Broody (this was after I kicked her out of the coop to collect eggs, before I gave her eggs to sit on)


Name: Butterbean
Age: 2+ years
Breed: DorkingX
Cat: With Chicks



Name: MsFuzzy (RIP, was killed by a snake whle brooding a few turkeys)
Age: (then) 2+ years
Breed: Silkied DorkingX
Cat: Broody on Eggs

 

[Whittni]

Name: Tula & Pancake
Age: 11 months
Breed: Phoenix & ?
Catagory: Hen with chicks

 

[Disco Hen]

We need more people to enter!!!

 

[Whittni]

I will have to get some pictures...I just had a golden sebright hen and a splash silkie go broody at the same time!

 

[Disco Hen]

Quote:
Thats good! One of our broodies eggs have started to hatch