Broodies on eggs? Broodies with babies? Post here.

[Attack Chicken]

I really want a silkie so she can hatch eggs for me

You all are so lucky to have broodys

 

[chicks for better health]

I saw wire mesh in front of your broody. Is she caged in there all the time? How does she get food and water?

 

[gckiddhouse]

I wanted to update for any who are interested. We had a great hatch. Unfortunately, we got mostly roosters. Darn.

But they are loads of fun to watch. I have been trying to get some video of the little guys sparing! It is hilarious!

They were born on March 6th.

Here are some pics of the growing chicks. How are everyone else's babies doing???

Here are the babies with the momma chicken - Penny. There are 6 GC Marans, 1 Ameraucana, 1 Amber Star, and 1 Salmon Faverolle.

Two hiding babies! Aren't they cute!

This is our little Marans rooster. He is the biggest with the most yellow. His name is General Mustard.

Here they are dust bathing with momma Penny

At 4 weeks old, they decided to start roosting with the other chickens in the hen house! They are growing up so much faster than if we had them in a brooder. I am learning a lot. They are tough little guys. I was worried about the other chickens, but the other hens have never offered to hurt them and the Rooster protects them valiantly. So here they are roosting with mom at 4 weeks old. The Ameraucana likes to roost under momma Penny.

Now at 7 weeks, the little roosters are showing quite a bit of dominance. They have taken over the hen house and most of the hens are now roosting outside the hen house on the perches.

Here is the little Faverolle. He will be beautiful someday, but NOT today. He has got to be the ugliest little guy on the planet right now. Talk about an awkward stage!

The Ameraucana - the only one we don't know the sex of, and one of my Marans pullets.

We have enjoyed them immensely! We have only named the 3 we know we are keeping. The other roos will most likely end up as dinner some day.

Hope all your babies are doing well! Anyone want to update?? Would love to hear how they are doing and see pics. How are those ducks???

 

[computer_chicken]

My MOM hen "Ruffy" just started laying again and she is now roosting with her chicks and my other 3 hens. Although one of the hens seems to be very nasty to the chicks pecking them when they perch next to her. I have 4 Americuana chicks that are now 5 1/2 weeks old. Originally 6 eggs hatched, one died at birth and 1 died last week (it had a big lump on its head).

 

[gckiddhouse]

I also wanted to let you all know that Momma Penny laid an egg when the babies were exactly 4 weeks old. She now spends very little time with them. She has rejoined the other hens and they roam the yard. The babies seem to instinctively stay a little closer to home. They can usually be found no more than about 30 feet from the coop. They stay under bushes and out of sight. It is like I have 2 flocks.

 

[my1stchicks]

Here's a pic of my standard cochin and the serama baby she hatched. Unfortunately once she left the crate 3 days later she didn't want anything to do with the baby so..baby and 2 new bantams are in the house.

 

[Gloria]

Finally, I get to join this thread!!

I've been watching my Buff Orp hen for months hoping she would go broody. She just turned 1 year old 2 weeks ago and so far nothing.

While I was concentrating on her I found my Black Australorpe pullet turned into a pancake! YAY!!! She was sitting on 5 eggs, some were little pullet eggs and most were covered in egg yolk.

I have two Black Stars that like to break the eggs on me. Anyway, I switched them out for some large fairly clean eggs. This girl didn't miss a beat.

Do they not notice if they aren't setting on the same eggs? She didn't seem to notice and is now setting on the 5 eggs I put in the nest plus a couple more.

I put the new 5 in yesterday morning, so do I count that as day 1? This is my first time and her first also.

I have read this whole thread and I still don't know when or if I should move her out or not?

Any tips from you experts for the first timer would be great! Thanks!

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
Ours was a first timer, too. We let her sit on some of our own eggs for a week before I got my ordered eggs to switch.
It was during that week that we moved her to her "apartment" in a large dog crate inside the coop area. It took her a day or two to get used to that. At first, she refused to sit the eggs. She wanted to get back to her nesting box. So I had to baracade her in the new nest overnight so that she would sit on the eggs. That was all it took. She was fine after that.

Once the new eggs came, I went out at night, lifted her off the nest and had DD hold her while I did the switch. She never noticed. Just went right back on the nest and sat.

So, the location was more important to her than the eggs. I found that interesting.

Once I put in the new eggs, I started the count down of 21 days.

We decided to move our broody for a few reasons:

1. The other hens kept kicking her out of the box and laying more eggs in there. She had 18 by the time we moved her.
2. Our nesting boxes are only 12x12 and they are 18 inches off the floor of the hen house. We figured the babies would fall out and there would be no way for them to get back in.
3. We didn't know how the other hens would react to the babies.

If you don't have very many hens, or your broody is at the top of the pecking order, they might be fine where they are. Is the nest up high or near the ground?

If you are going to move her. Do it quick. You don't want to wait until halfway through the process and have something go wrong.

Hope everything goes well for you!!

 

[Gloria]

Quote:
Ours was a first timer, too. We let her sit on some of our own eggs for a week before I got my ordered eggs to switch.
It was during that week that we moved her to her "apartment" in a large dog crate inside the coop area. It took her a day or two to get used to that. At first, she refused to sit the eggs. She wanted to get back to her nesting box. So I had to baracade her in the new nest overnight so that she would sit on the eggs. That was all it took. She was fine after that.

Once the new eggs came, I went out at night, lifted her off the nest and had DD hold her while I did the switch. She never noticed. Just went right back on the nest and sat.

So, the location was more important to her than the eggs. I found that interesting.

Once I put in the new eggs, I started the count down of 21 days.

We decided to move our broody for a few reasons:

1. The other hens kept kicking her out of the box and laying more eggs in there. She had 18 by the time we moved her.
2. Our nesting boxes are only 12x12 and they are 18 inches off the floor of the hen house. We figured the babies would fall out and there would be no way for them to get back in.
3. We didn't know how the other hens would react to the babies.

If you don't have very many hens, or your broody is at the top of the pecking order, they might be fine where they are. Is the nest up high or near the ground?

If you are going to move her. Do it quick. You don't want to wait until halfway through the process and have something go wrong.

Hope everything goes well for you!!

Hi thank you for you quick response!

There is 7 hens and 6 pullets, one roo and 2 ducks out there in the same coop/pen. She is one of the 6 pullets. So I figured I would have to move her out of there. I do have a large dog cage/carrier I can put her in but I didn't know when I should move her.

As of right now no one is bothering her really. Other than they are pushing her off to lay their eggs in her nest. So I guess that would be considered bothering her right?

I went out this morning and there was another hen in the main nesting box. She is in the one next to the main nest. So maybe she has quit taking new eggs?

Should I just go ahead and try to move her tonight then with the straw and eggs she has in her nest? Also how many is a good number of eggs for an Australorpe? I don't want her to collect to many in there.

I made the switch Sunday morning, so that would be considered day one, right? Yes, the nest boxes are up a couple of feet. So I was worrying about that too.

Thanks for your help. I was thinking about waiting until almost the end to move her. I'm so glad you chimed in here.

 

[slightlyscrambled]

move her soon. my bantam went broody with 4 eggs. when we moved her she had 14!! never saw another hen in there but evidently they were laying eggs and she just "took them in". day 21 for me is Wed. the 29:yiipchick