Broody Hen Thread!

[FaerieChicken]

Look who decided to say "Happy New Year!" It came out earlier and my friend decided to snap a photo of it for me! How cute!

 

[Attila the Hen]

How adorable

 

[fisherlady]

Look who decided to say "Happy New Year!" It came out earlier and my friend decided to snap a photo of it for me! How cute!

Congratulations! Glad she will help recover a few of the lost genetics... so sorry you went through the predator loss, very hard with any birds but certainly seems the best are the ones lost. I hope the rest of her hatch is successful.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Congratulations! Glad she will help recover a few of the lost genetics... so sorry you went through the predator loss, very hard with any birds but certainly seems the best are the ones lost. I hope the rest of her hatch is successful.

x2

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

The Queen Mum is sitting tight during the cold, cold day with her 2 Barn/Cal Grey girls.

The Aunty Banty Cochins kept squeezing through the barrier (somehow..seriously...how did they get through that tight space??? I will have to watch, when it isn't so dang cold, to see how they do it sometime.) So, I took the barrier out and have locked all up in the broody full hutch.

I'm not too worried as The Queen Mum is truly queen of this group and won't put up with any nonsense of the other two banties, and it may help the others see what good parenting looks like as I want to use them their next broods.

I can hear chicks cheeping, and momma has moved them to the other side. I'll keep checking as I keep adding hot water to keep the water free from ice. (Of course hubby used the extension cord to the broody coop last month and I've got no water heater hooked up in it for this short cold snap, so hauling water it is for a couple of days).

It's been a really good test of "hands off" for me after 3 batches of high expense, special breed eggs, with high maintenance of the hatches. I'm back to letting momma and nature take its course, which honestly always gave me the best results.

LofMc

 

[fisherlady]

I snapped this picture yesterday, looks like Lacey ended up with 6 chicks to ring in the new year but she isn't letting them out much for photo ops.
I can just imagine the conversation going on here...
"Now daughter, this is what we call our grumpy broody stare, we use it when the silly human bothers us with the flashy box thing"
"Like this, Mom?"
"Yes, just like that! You will be a great grumpy broody if you keep practicing that stare just like I showed you."

 

[llandry]

Tomorrow's lesson will be how to do the grumpy broody bark!

 

[fisherlady]

Tomorrow's lesson will be how to do the grumpy broody bark!

LOL

 

[RachaelR32]

Can I ask abour candling the eggs under my broody. My husband thinks I should just leave her to it and not try and candle the eggs at all. But i'm worried about exploding bad eggs or if she sits for all that time and none are fertile or something.

Should I candle them? As a first timer, what would be the best time to try and candle them? Can I do it with just a torch? Some of the eggs were quite dark and some were blue and I'm reading they are harder to see. And how do I get them from under the broody without upsetting her too much? I haven't seen her off the nest for the past 4 days (on day 3 now), although she must have got off at some point as there was poop in the run and I think some food has gone.

 

[song of joy]

Can I ask abour candling the eggs under my broody. My husband thinks I should just leave her to it and not try and candle the eggs at all. But i'm worried about exploding bad eggs or if she sits for all that time and none are fertile or something.

Should I candle them? As a first timer, what would be the best time to try and candle them? Can I do it with just a torch? Some of the eggs were quite dark and some were blue and I'm reading they are harder to see. And how do I get them from under the broody without upsetting her too much? I haven't seen her off the nest for the past 4 days (on day 3 now), although she must have got off at some point as there was poop in the run and I think some food has gone.

It's really personal preference. Some people never candle when using a broody. I like to candle one time when using a broody - on day 10 of incubation. At that point, it's quite easy to distinguish developing eggs from infertiles and early quitters. I entice the broody off the nest with scrambled eggs, block off access to the nest box, quickly put all of the eggs into a very clean egg carton (fat side up), and examine them in a dark closet with a very bright, mini-flashlight. It's best if the hen cannot see you removing or handling the eggs, so it's helpful to have a second person to help with this. This whole process takes about 10-15 minutes from start to finish.

Some people do the candling at night, pulling eggs out from under the hen and candling them in the dark next to the nest, then slipping them back under the hen.

Best of luck to you!