Broody Hen Thread!

[16 paws]

Ok,
Here we go.......

Announcing the official countdown for Puff, the silkie brooder machine. At 5:00 California time Puff finally got her forever eggs.!

I feel really bad because for a couple weeks I was taking her eggs away. I had plans to give her feed store chicks and let her adopt them. Today I found out that the chicks I wanted wont be here till March 19th. So plans have changed. I had tried to move her into a safe coop so she could be alone with her chicks and that didnt work. She went right back to the main coop to continue to sit on 0 eggs there. She deserves her own eggs to hatch and now she has 7 beautiful blue Lavender Americana eggs and 2 assorted bantam Cochin eggs for a total of 9. She is a first timer so we shall see how she does. She has been getting up to eat quite regularly so I think her health is good enough to go for 3 more weeks. I will keep a close eye on her. If any of the other girls decides to go broody I may give the eggs to them and get her the feed store chicks.

Anyone else set eggs today or close? Would love to follow along with someone else. I am so excited! I just wish I knew how many @#$%^&*darn roosters were in those 9 eggs!

Anyone have a crystal ball????
Marie

 

[microchick]

Your lucky microchick to have the dogs guard your chickens.
We have been having a bobcat come to visit here and has been taking a couple chickens here and there. I have 6 Yorkies and would not dare to let them out there to guard anything!
The chickens have been in lockdown now for a few days and they are not happy. They still have a lot of space that is fenced in and above but they miss free-ranging in the afternoon. That bobcat is very bold, comes in broad daylight. I am thinking of getting a nursery camera to check on them as well.Last time I caught the bobbie here I had just glanced down at the coop from my deck when I saw this bobbie look up at me with my roo in his mouth! The roo made it but he had killed a hen right before that. Very bold and very fast....
Marie

Marie, that is horrible news. I don't know how things are where you live but around us, if wildlife is threatening you or your livestock, you can take it out. We have Bobcats, luckily, none have been seen on our acreage but they are around. We also have cougars. One was killed about 5 years ago 1 1/2-2 miles away from us and we have heard 'talk' that another was seen even closer. So far we have found no big cat sign on our property. The cougars are protected in MO but the Amish hunters who shot the one 5 years ago reported that the cat never ran from them, held it's ground and snarled at them. They do a predator hunt every January around us just to clear out the coyotes and other predators before spring lambing/calving season happens. The game commissioner said it was a legal kill. They used to say that there were no cougar in MO that the ones that were being seen and killed were bachelor males coming down from Nebraska and the Dakotas looking for new territory until recently. There have been enough seen with kits following them that they have revised their stand on the subject. Now they say that black bear are working their way up state from the Ozarks. Great.

Our biggest problem is airborne predators. My husband gets out his biggest RC planes two or three times a week to scare off the eagles and hawks that have been circling our barn and coop all winter. There are a couple of hawks that like to sit in a nearby oak tree and watch the coop. We have it netted over with bird netting so the worse one could do is get itself tangled up in the nasty stuff. I love birds of prey but not around my chickens. I asked DH what we would do if one got tangled in our netting and he said call the game warden and tell them to come and take care of their problem bird.

Could you set up a game camera, get some pics of the fox then call your own game warden with the proof and ask him to take care of the problem for you?

Broody Report. Our girl hasn't budged for two days from her nest and is now wearing a look of complete contentment on her little feathered face. I'm not hearing any peeps or seen any fuzzy heads peek out but something has definitely changed with her. Tonight when I locked up I checked her compound for signs of broody poo. None. No change in water or feed. still locked down. Instead of avoiding any eye contact with anyone, she set looking out of the nest box softly clucking. I asked her if she had a secret she wanted to share and she just kept softly clucking at me. Her whole demeanor has changed in 36 hours so I'm hoping this is a good sign.

Being a nurse for 40 years has made me an observer. Unfortunately everything I want to observe is hidden under a locked down hen at the moment and driving me out of what little sanity I have left!

 

[Jessorr2]

Ok,
Here we go.......

Announcing the official countdown for Puff, the silkie brooder machine. At 5:00 California time Puff finally got her forever eggs.!

I feel really bad because for a couple weeks I was taking her eggs away. I had plans to give her feed store chicks and let her adopt them. Today I found out that the chicks I wanted wont be here till March 19th. So plans have changed. I had tried to move her into a safe coop so she could be alone with her chicks and that didnt work. She went right back to the main coop to continue to sit on 0 eggs there. She deserves her own eggs to hatch and now she has 7 beautiful blue Lavender Americana eggs and 2 assorted bantam Cochin eggs for a total of 9. She is a first timer so we shall see how she does. She has been getting up to eat quite regularly so I think her health is good enough to go for 3 more weeks. I will keep a close eye on her. If any of the other girls decides to go broody I may give the eggs to them and get her the feed store chicks.

Anyone else set eggs today or close? Would love to follow along with someone else. I am so excited! I just wish I knew how many @#$%^&*darn roosters were in those 9 eggs!
Anyone have a crystal ball????
Marie

I just set 48 tonight and I'm just finishing a hatch of 40 right now
These are my 1 day old babies

 

[snlconner]

Ok,
Here we go.......

Announcing the official countdown for Puff, the silkie brooder machine. At 5:00 California time Puff finally got her forever eggs.!

I feel really bad because for a couple weeks I was taking her eggs away. I had plans to give her feed store chicks and let her adopt them. Today I found out that the chicks I wanted wont be here till March 19th. So plans have changed. I had tried to move her into a safe coop so she could be alone with her chicks and that didnt work. She went right back to the main coop to continue to sit on 0 eggs there. She deserves her own eggs to hatch and now she has 7 beautiful blue Lavender Americana eggs and 2 assorted bantam Cochin eggs for a total of 9. She is a first timer so we shall see how she does. She has been getting up to eat quite regularly so I think her health is good enough to go for 3 more weeks. I will keep a close eye on her. If any of the other girls decides to go broody I may give the eggs to them and get her the feed store chicks.

Anyone else set eggs today or close? Would love to follow along with someone else. I am so excited! I just wish I knew how many @#$%^&*darn roosters were in those 9 eggs!
Anyone have a crystal ball????
Marie

My bantam hen began sitting on eggs yesterday... Her first time. I have no clue how many are under her or anything. I'm just hoping for the best

 

[the poppster]

Your lucky microchick to have the dogs guard your chickens.
We have been having a bobcat come to visit here and has been taking a couple chickens here and there. I have 6 Yorkies and would not dare to let them out there to guard anything!
The chickens have been in lockdown now for a few days and they are not happy. They still have a lot of space that is fenced in and above but they miss free-ranging in the afternoon. That bobcat is very bold, comes in broad daylight. I am thinking of getting a nursery camera to check on them as well.Last time I caught the bobbie here I had just glanced down at the coop from my deck when I saw this bobbie look up at me with my roo in his mouth! The roo made it but he had killed a hen right before that. Very bold and very fast....
Marie

Trap or shoot the bobcat...it's a danger to you birds, obviously....and your dogs, and any small children or animals...it's not NORMAL bobcat behavior, to boldly hunt your chickens in daylight so close to your home...it may be sick, very young or very old...but even if you live in the woods...it's still not normal for a bobcat. It's strange behavior. Most people who work for a lifetime in the woods have never seen a bobcat. So having one visit your yard in broad daylight, with dogs around...even little ones...on a regular basis is not normal. Sorry for you and your birds to have to worry about something like that.

 

[RubyNala97]

I need some advice. I recently had someone on CL contact me about getting a couple fertile eggs. They have a broody hen. She has been sitting on eggs for about 6 days but they checked the eggs last night and they were infertile. They are wondering if they can put new eggs under her today or tomorrow? Or since she's already been sitting for 6 days, if that will be to long for her to sit? Thanks!

 

[lazy gardener]

No, it should be fine, but I wouldn't want to stretch it out much further. When I had a broody hen, I just gave her some scrambled egg now and then, in addition to her fermented feed. I figure it couldn't hurt, as long as you don't give her anything to make her poo looser than normal.

 

[microchick]

I discovered this morning when I went out to let the flock out that our girl had been up this morning to eat and relieve herself after two days of being on lock down. I wondered what the devil was going on so I took a chance, gently felt around her, and didn't find anything small and fuzzy under her, just eggs. So I carefully slipped my hand under her and hoisted up her backside. Sure enough, there was one Welsummer egg with an obvious 'pip' mark on it. I did't fuss with her any longer. she settled back down on the eggs and I left her alone. Hopefully that egg will hatch today or tomorrow. We had calculated for today be the first day for potential hatching so she is pretty much on schedule. I expected there to be some sort of lag due to the weather so hopefully things will begin to happen this weekend.

Is it normal for a hen to break 'lock down'?

 

[fisherlady]

I discovered this morning when I went out to let the flock out that our girl had been up this morning to eat and relieve herself after two days of being on lock down. I wondered what the devil was going on so I took a chance, gently felt around her, and didn't find anything small and fuzzy under her, just eggs. So I carefully slipped my hand under her and hoisted up her backside. Sure enough, there was one Welsummer egg with an obvious 'pip' mark on it. I did't fuss with her any longer. she settled back down on the eggs and I left her alone. Hopefully that egg will hatch today or tomorrow. We had calculated for today be the first day for potential hatching so she is pretty much on schedule. I expected there to be some sort of lag due to the weather so hopefully things will begin to happen this weekend.

Is it normal for a hen to break 'lock down'?

My hens sometimes get up late, they seem to realize that they are better off getting up to do their broody poo off the nest since it is probably less hazardous to the chicks than holding humidity and broody pooing in the nest. I figure the broody's instincts are more reliable than a silly human's idea of what they have to do.

 

[microchick]

Thanks Fisherlady. It's been so long since I've dealt with a broody that I'm having to relearn everything. My little Bantam hen, Maxine was a dependable little brooder. Since this is Aggie's first clutch and my first in over 50 years I'm biting my nails here and just praying that everything goes well for her. She has been such a good little broody girl.