Broody hen pulling feathers? And how many chicks can she comfortably raise?

[aart]

But I really want to watch them hatch

Downside to broody vs incubator.....
....you can't really 'watch them hatch' with a broody,
it's all under cover and best not to lift her while they are hatching.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Downside to broody vs incubator.....
....you can't really 'watch them hatch' with a broody,
it's all under cover and best not to lift her while they are hatching.

Ah that stinks :/

Forgot about that.

I do think it'd be cool for her though too to actually hatch some or do chickens not really know the difference?

 

[cottontail farm]

I vote for just buying her some day old chicks and putting them under her while she's sleeping. That way you get the breeds that you want, you don't waste $ on eggs that might not hatch and (maybe) most importantly she doesn't go through all the work of brooding and have no babies to show for it. It's really sad when that happens. I've put 6 standard sized chicks under a bantam broody and she did great.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I vote for just buying her some day old chicks and putting them under her while she's sleeping. That way you get the breeds that you want, you don't waste $ on eggs that might not hatch and (maybe) most importantly she doesn't go through all the work of brooding and have no babies to show for it. It's really sad when that happens. I've put 6 standard sized chicks under a bantam broody and she did great.

Thanks, that's a good idea! I hadn't thought of the possibility of her hatching none. How sad!

 

[ShrekDawg]

I'm now wondering if this is such a good idea...

She hops off the nest as soon as I bring food out!!

Yesterday I brought a big pan full of veggies out (mostly peppers and spinach with a couple squash and a couple pieces of broccoli) and she ran out and today I just brought out apples, a giant bag of kale, blackberries, and another pepper and squash. Surprisingly, they seemed to like the kale better and didn't go for the apples immediately. Anyway, she ran out when she saw that too.

Now, granted, I don't blame her, fruits and veggies are delicious! And I haven't brought them any in forever.

But still.

My other broody wouldn't get off the nest for anything. Even when I let them out to free range, I had to physically lift her out of the nest box and even then she would run back after a few minutes!

Now, I know it's not fair to compare two broodies cause each chicken is different, but it seems this one might be failing in mothering....

And this is even after I put the 3 fake eggs back in a nest I thinl yesterday or the other day to test her brooding ability. She did go back to the nest and I think stayed overnight and all day today but still. And actually, I'm not convinced she stayed all day today either. There is an egg in her nest and also my 2 Easter Eggers have been laying in the corner but today they laid in the far nest box (there's 3 and she's in the first one) which tells me that they aren't scared to walk past her anymore (maybe she stopped hissing if she was) OR that she left the nest today. Or I guess she could have pulled an egg under her but idk.

So I don't know if she's losing interest and the hormones or if she's just not a great mother or what's going on.

Maybe my taking her 20 eggs made her lose interest?

I wonder if getting her chicks would be better so she doesn't have to do the sitting work? Or if I locked her up if she would sit? But I don't want to force her to hatch or sit on a nest if she doesn't want to and I certainly don't want her abandoning or killing the chicks!!

She is one of the top hens and has always been a greedy food hog so I shouldn't be surprised she jumped out for food and I'm sure the chicks would be protected from the other hens given her high rank but still.

Maybe what she is doing is not bad and I am overthinking it? Or is she unfit to be a mother?

I would be slightly sad if that were the case as I had gotten excited and my hopes up BUT I am also not going to force an animal to do something against it's will and if she doesn't want to do it, I won't force her. But what's odd to me is that she still goes back to the nest and sits on it

 

[aart]

Yesterday I brought a big pan full of veggies out (mostly peppers and spinach with a couple squash and a couple pieces of broccoli) and she ran out and today I just brought out apples, a giant bag of kale, blackberries, and another pepper and squash. Surprisingly, they seemed to like the kale better and didn't go for the apples immediately. Anyway, she ran out when she saw that too.

She's not so broody then...and all that stuff is diluting their feed nutrition.
They need good nutrition when creating eggs for hatching.

 

[ShrekDawg]

She's not so broody then...and all that stuff is diluting their feed nutrition.
They need good nutrition when creating eggs for hatching.

She was at first though so maybe she's getting over it? Or just kinda sorta wants to be but doesn't know how?

And I normally never give them treats, at least not often and definitely not so much at once, but we had a ton of stuff that was on the verge of going bad (but still safe) so I gave it to them. They also have 2 full bowls of food and normally I increase the protein of the food if I give them a lot of treats or let them free range but I haven't had a chance to buy them a new bag yet. But normally all summer they are on an 18% soy free layer feed. They're actually really on it from when they start laying in the spring until they stop in the fall or winter. Then all winter they are on Purina Flockraiser because someone told me too much calcium is bad when they're not laying so I don't feed them layer when they stop. I don't particularly like Purina but I don't know of another comparable feed?

This is the one I feed them most of the year.

https://www.poulingrain.com/products/200/egg-production-plus

Right now though they are on Purina Layer just because I haven't had a chance to get to the other feed store yet to get to the Poulin but the shells were slightly weaker than I wanted despite oyster shell so I wanted to get them on layer ASAP.

I try to take the best care of them of them I can but if the veggies are hurting them I'll stop. I had thought veggies were healthy? Plus the yolks are kind of pale yellow and I wanted them darker.

Does it still dilute the nutrition even on a higher protein feed?

Plus wouldn't free ranging also do that? Or no? I see tons of people free ranging their birds.

Like I said though, if it's hurting them I can stop.

Although random question, a bunch of them seem to have poopy butts for a little while and one in particular is especially bad. Not blocking vent but I thought it was just some white staining the feathers but she's got lots of hard poop stuck. I tried to scrub it but couldn't. She will need a bath I fear.

But ANYWAY.

What would cause that and how do I fix it?

They're not acting remotely sick at all which is what's so weird about it.

Oh and also, they're not laying eggs for hatching cause I don't have a rooster. I would like to eventually but don't want to bother neighbors or get woken up aha

2 of my chickens lay HUGE XL/jumbo sized eggs so I would like to figure out who if I ever hatch but idk how to go about that?

One I know for sure is Bunny my Easter Egger because the eggs are blue. The other egg is like a light tannish color so hard to tell cause I have all brown layers except 2 EEs. But it's lighter than most of my other eggs. Also my other EE unfortunately lays pretty small eggs. I would say medium although the scale says large for weight. But pretty small. Idk if they'd be too small for chicks? Probably. But no roo anyway so it doesn't matter.

But yeah.

They rarely get treats and are usually on a high protein food

 

[ShrekDawg]

She's still broody and won't get off for free ranging yesterday or today without me lifting her off or will get off for a few minutes then go running right back so I think she is maybe getting more serious again but I think I'm going to break her soon just because until we get them moved it's not really ideal for her to be raising chicks in the current set up. Plus I also am still in school so don't really have the time to deal with and raise chicks. I know she'd do the raising but I'd still do the worrying haha unless I let her sit until I'm done and then just buy her some live chicks? Since that'd be about the time her fake eggs would "hatch"? I only have like 2 to 2 1/2 weeks left. Idk.

But she's also really mean to some of my chickens and for example wouldn't let one of my Orpingtons anywhere near the sunflower seeds even though there were plenty and she ended up scratching for worms by the coop after getting chased off/pecked enough times by her and others. So I'm not sure I want chicks learning that behavior.