Broody Hen Thread!

[fisherlady]

Our latest broody hatched hers all a day early, 6 out of 6, she is half silkie and spent her entire brood time in the coop in her chosen nest, which thankfully was in a cat carrier so it made her easy to move after hatch. This morning i moved her and chicks to another area for a few days. 3 of the chicks are silkie, 1 is a silkie mix and 2 are light sussex. They aren't venturing very far yet, so better pictures later but did get a few.

And Mindy hanging out on the porch with another broody and her 6 week old chicks, who enjoy using her as a comfy and warm roost.

 

[WildHens]

Our latest broody hatched hers all a day early, 6 out of 6, she is half silkie and spent her entire brood time in the coop in her chosen nest, which thankfully was in a cat carrier so it made her easy to move after hatch. This morning i moved her and chicks to another area for a few days. 3 of the chicks are silkie, 1 is a silkie mix and 2 are light sussex. They aren't venturing very far yet, so better pictures later but did get a few.

And Mindy hanging out on the porch with another broody and her 6 week old chicks, who enjoy using her as a comfy and warm roost.

That last picture is adorable. .my pittie is the same way ♡♡ She is convinced she's their mama..

 

[Huggerlady]

Has anyone had 2 hens sharing a clutch? Not sure what to do here. One gets off the other goes on. The sussex was on all night, she got off and the Blue Maran got on. When big mama blue came back, she just sat right next to speckles. No quarreling but I do believe it was hers first.

 

[WildHens]

Has anyone had 2 hens sharing a clutch? Not sure what to do here. One gets off the other goes on. The sussex was on all night, she got off and the Blue Maran got on. When big mama blue came back, she just sat right next to speckles. No quarreling but I do believe it was hers first.

Personally, I've never but I've heard of it..
I'd either remove them both and give them both their own nests, or just remove the one u think will be the best broody and give her an area alone

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Our latest broody hatched hers all a day early, 6 out of 6, she is half silkie and spent her entire brood time in the coop in her chosen nest, which thankfully was in a cat carrier so it made her easy to move after hatch. This morning i moved her and chicks to another area for a few days. 3 of the chicks are silkie, 1 is a silkie mix and 2 are light sussex. They aren't venturing very far yet, so better pictures later but did get a few.





And Mindy hanging out on the porch with another broody and her 6 week old chicks, who enjoy using her as a comfy and warm roost.

What a nice menagerie you have...all chicks are cute, but I must say Silkie and Silkie mix are especially cute.

I LOVE Mindy...good girl Mindy.
The dogs I have had have either been afraid of the chickens

or have wanted to chase them

I've never had one be so laid back as to actually mother them....I sure if our first GDB project who we ended up keeping as a career change had been raised around them, she would have wanted to mother them, but we got them when she was older and she never knew quite what to think.

I keep working with my little Rat Terrier mix from rescue...I've got it so he won't blatantly chase them indiscriminately, and is pretty good on recall, most times. Leash work and a lot of cheese. In time he will just ignore them, but I have no hopes of any mothering.

So nice to know you've got her as back up and to make sure all the chickens are doing well.

LofMc

 

[fisherlady]

Has anyone had 2 hens sharing a clutch? Not sure what to do here. One gets off the other goes on. The sussex was on all night, she got off and the Blue Maran got on. When big mama blue came back, she just sat right next to speckles. No quarreling but I do believe it was hers first.

We have had them share a clutch and co-brood the chicks after hatch and also had them brood/ hatch in separate nests but then join the clutches to co-raise the chicks. Sometimes cooperation is a wonderful thing but it takes very unique hen personalities to make it work. Broken eggs or injured chicks are 'worst case scenarios' but have to be acknowledged as possibilities.

From last fall...

 

[fisherlady]

What a nice menagerie you have...all chicks are cute, but I must say Silkie and Silkie mix are especially cute.

I LOVE Mindy...good girl Mindy.  
The dogs I have had have either been afraid of the chickens   or have wanted to chase them 

I've never had one be so laid back as to actually mother them....I sure if our first GDB project who we ended up keeping as a career change had been raised around them, she would have wanted to mother them, but we got them when she was older and she never knew quite what to think.

I keep working with my little Rat Terrier mix from rescue...I've got it so he won't blatantly chase them indiscriminately, and is pretty good on recall, most times. Leash work and a lot of cheese. In time he will just ignore them, but I have no hopes of any mothering.

So nice to know you've got her as back up and to make sure all the chickens are doing well. 

LofMc 

Thanks, we are enjoying the chicks and the dogs. Dillon is a couple of years younger than Mindy and does well also, but he isn't nearly as infatuated with them as Mindy...he just sees them as 'pretty ok' and something his human wants him to take care of...since he is neurotic about doing things that earn him 'good boy' pats from me he is very conscientious about making sure all is well around the coops. LOL

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Has anyone had 2 hens sharing a clutch? Not sure what to do here. One gets off the other goes on. The sussex was on all night, she got off and the Blue Maran got on. When big mama blue came back, she just sat right next to speckles. No quarreling but I do believe it was hers first.

Yes. That happens quite a bit.

How well it works totally depends upon the flock dynamics and the 2 hens involved.

Talk @fisherlady as she has done quite a bit of co-brooding, or rather her marvelous Silver Penciled Rocks have. She has a number of photos of dual hatching. EDITED TO ADD: I see she has beat me to it and added those photos...do you have the 2-headed Silver Penciled one handy? @fisherlady

A lot of Silkies will co-brood as will bantam Cochins. I have a broody stable that I keep my brooding bantams, who are serial brooders. Right now I've got 1 Silkie and 2 bantam Cochins (sisters) in that stable.

They have all sat on hatches and hatched singularly, but this winter/spring season a co-brooding thing has set in. This year I've had a single mom hatch, then my Cochin sisters hatched 1 chick together, then the Silkie and one of the Cochin sisters went into brood again (grow outs still in the broody pen at 6 and 14 weeks of age!) They were a few days into their co-brood when I had an emergency situation. I set abandoned but nearly developed eggs under them at 14 days development hoping they were seasoned enough to handle the shorter brooding....they have together hatched 1 of those 2 eggs in tandom (one apparently was dead at the rescue point of 14 days development ).

That chick is snuggling with the Silkie who is still setting as well as the bantam Cochin. I'm a little concerned that mommas won't get up with this hatchling, but it is calm in the brooding hutch/grow out pen, and food and water is close by. I tend to use my girls to brood rather than ever try to break a brood as getting a chick is the best way to break a brood. So right now, Silkie has chick, and I gave 2 more fresh fertilized eggs to the bantam Cochin as she won't break until she sees a beak of her own. I'll watch to see what happens.

I'll post a photo below of my first attempt at co-brooding. I set 4 eggs, but only 1 hatched. It went well as to the ladies...they are sisters and got along fine. What unfortunately happened for me was the "no hen zone" formed. Both hens sat superlatively, and they sat very close together sharing the eggs equally. However, there was this zone where a number of the eggs sat and got too cold as they were in the fluff to fluff zone but not really under a hen. Of the 4 eggs I set as a trial, 3 developed to full size, 1 died in hatch, 1 was under developed, 1 hatched and is a healthy chick (which both broodies shared in mothering until 6 weeks of age when one of the mothers went broody again leaving the chick with the other mother).

I may have interrupted at the wrong time checking as the eggs were later than expected (day 22) since they were growing fine but 2 of the 3 fully formed didn't hatch. (Really try to avoid over checking even if you think things aren't going well...I was nervous about my first co-brood).

I have the advantage that I've got a rooster and fertile eggs whenever I want them, plus I've been running some experiments in the main coop as well as the co-brooding in the broody hutch, working in very small batches to see both what my rooster is capable of, what I'll actually get with the breed mixes I'm setting (going for Olive eggers and certain feather patterns), as well as trying main coop brooding vs. broody hutch (isolated) brooding.

So in answer to your question...yes, they co-brood. Quite well if you've got the right hens and flock environment, but you have to know your hens and situation to be successful.

LofMc

 

[fisherlady]

@Lady of McCamley

Yep, the pics of the SPRs are usually easy to find
First pic is a reference one for another thread, just moved it forward on my list...shows an improvised broody area under a shelf.

 

[RachaelR32]

I 'personally' would start small and work up to max clutches. I would just give her 3 or 4 and see how she does. Ive seen numbers mentionrd as high as 18. Personally i think thats rediculous. If you want that many, use an incubator.

Unless you have the room for a large flock, trying to hatch too many would be a headache for you and the chickens. I have a 12x9 coop and 32x9 run with 22 birds and, quite frankly, i think it may be a little crowded.

The lady i got some of my hens from raises them for sale and only keeps them a few weeks in a metal cattle water tub with no mom. She uses a heat lamp like the stores. She doesnt need any space because she doesnt keep them.

I'm hoping to raise birds for eating. We won't use an incubator as we have no mains electric connection. So I want to get them sitting on a decent number of eggs.

Hubby wants to eat both boys and girls, but I suggested we could sell the excess girls if we get a good breed. So my latest broody has 6 brahma eggs, quite expensive as from some showline so she's only got a few of them for this first time sitting.