Broodies on eggs? Broodies with babies? Post here.

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

Ok...here is one I have never experienced before. I usually leave my broodies alone to do their own thing. Yesterday however...I moved Georgie off her nest because I haven't seen her budge in 17 days. The reason I made her stretch is because she had soiled her nest 3 times. Too stubborn to move off her eggs I guess. She has soiled it before but I usually just scooped that part out and replaced it with fresh shavings without making her move. Anyway, she stumbled around like she had sea legs...poor thing. She took two - three bites of food, one drink of water and wanted back on her nest. It barely gave me enough time to clean the poo and candle the eggs. She is on 12 eggs and 11 of them look nice and full. I will not disturb her or the eggs again from now until Saturday.

Come on Saturday!

 

[gwennym]

My broody hen, Charlotte, has been sitting for a little over a week on her eggs. My other hen is most likely adding eggs to her clutch, as I haven't found any in the coop. Is it OK to move my Mamma hen at this point? I wasn't sure if there was a time limit as to when you should just leave them alone to finish the hatching job.

thanks -- Gwen

 

[smom1976]

Ok no more eggies.. the last one died and the egg popped this morning.. I am getting a little 2 day old chick from a person here in pensacola tomorrow.. any suggestions on how to stick it under her? The eggs she is on now are not fertile..I have candled them after a week and nothing..

suggestions on how to get this chick to her..

 

[pasofinofarm]

Go out in the middle of the night. Take the eggs out put the chick under... It's that simple but the chick needs to be less than three days old or she will know.

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
I am so sorry to hear that!!!

 

[Catalina]

Whew! I finally made it thru all the pages! What a great and interesting thread.

Congrats to all the new chicken mommas!

To the people that had eggs that didn't hatch.

And

to the ones still waiting.

I don't even have eggs under my broody yet and I've already had a mini disaster. My EE bantam is broody all the time!
She's very faithful to her golf balls.

I ordered some silkie eggs and built her a broody hen pen https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=137869 , but I think it is too cold in the garage. The coop is a lot warmer. After 24 hours in the pen, she was fussing, complaining and getting off of the nest. So, now she is inside in a dog cage. She's settled down.
I warmed up the golf balls to encourage her to set and I guess it worked.

I wish the eggs would get here!!
Then I could worry about them!

 

[gckiddhouse]

Well, as predicted, we caved and candled our eggs tonight!! I feel pretty good about it as it was a great experience for my homeschooled children. They thought it was pretty cool to see the little chicks in there wiggling around.

I had 16 eggs under my broody. 12 Marans, 2 Ameraucanas, and 2 mutts from my flock.

We found the two Marans eggs that had been booted from the nest. They had blood rings and must have died during the first week, or when they got cold outside the nest.

One of the Ameraucanas and one of my mutts were non-fertile looking. We did crack them open. the whites were clear and the yolk was largely intact, so I don't think they were fertile. I am shocked that any of my eggs would not be fertile. My rooster is a very busy guy and I have yet to crack any eggs in my kitchen that were not fertile.

So, we are down to 12. All 12 seemed to be at the same stage of development. I took that as a good sign. Some were wiggly and some were fairly still, but since they were well veined and full, I left them. They could have been sleeping. They do that, right?

I was pleased with our results. We are not doing too badly!! Although, I am very disappointed about that Ameraucana egg. With my luck, the remaining one will be a rooster!

We put the broody cage on a piece of wood today and put 1/2 inch mesh around the bottom 12 inches. There has clearly been a small rodent sharing Penny's food and water. Hopefully, it won't be able to get in now. We'll see.

I took pics of the candling. Don't know how good they came out, but as soon as I can get them uploaded, I will check and see if any are worthy of sharing. Tried to video the wiggly ones.

Gotta love my broody!!! She is doing a great job!

 

[equus2]

Catalina - have your silkies arrived, yet??

I'll check again, tomorrow!!

Lisa, Utah

Edit : scratch that. I see that they have not. I hope they arrive tomorrow!!!!

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
Wow! Nice brooder! Can you just take the bottom of the cat box away and set the lid right over the nest on the floor so that the threashhold is lower? I would never have thought to use a cat box, but it is perfect isn't it?

Your broody is so cute!!

 

[Catalina]

Quote:
I'm glad they didn't arrive today. We are having a horrible snow storm! I was worried I would come home from work today and find them in my front door.
I have tomorrow and Sat. off so I'll watch for the mailman and

they won't get too cold!