Broody Hen Thread!

[BullChick]

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[vpatt]

my 1 egg I let my silkie hatch hatched e

 

[microchick]

The rooster that fathered my first brood of chicks died over night. He was only 16 months old. We don't know what happened. He had been sick for about 6 weeks. We tried everything short of stripping nekked, painting ourselves purple and slinging a dead cat over our heads while standing on a hilltop at midnight and nothing helped.

I have three full blooded Buff O cockerels from him. One full blooded Buff O pullet, and three Welly/Buff O cross cockerels that he can claim so a bit of him will live on.

So happy for all of you hatching new chicks. Today I'm celebrating a short life well lived.

I'm gonna miss you, Red.

 

[BullChick]

The rooster that fathered my first brood of chicks died over night. He was only 16 months old. We don't know what happened. He had been sick for about 6 weeks. We tried everything short of stripping nekked, painting ourselves purple and slinging a dead cat over our heads while standing on a hilltop at midnight and nothing helped.

I have three full blooded Buff O cockerels from him. One full blooded Buff O pullet, and three Welly/Buff O cross cockerels that he can claim so a bit of him will live on.

So happy for all of you hatching new chicks. Today I'm celebrating a short life well lived.

I'm gonna miss you, Red.

Now, how am I supposed to tell you how sorry I am, when I am laughing so hard?!
Okay, I will tell you that I am honestly sorry you lost him. He may have had a weak heart. Maybe

Sorry. I was going to say something funny. I want you to know I am sorry though.

Now, you are hilarious!

 

[katatonic123]

Got my first little one!! So excited! She's got 5 more eggs under her... Waiting so impatiently lol

FYI: mom is a silkie, and she's sitting on a clutch of BR hen x with silkies roo (none of the eggs are actually hers) lol these should be interesting! Anyone have a similar cross?

I have 2 little ones who are micro bantam barred rock hen crossed with silkie roo. They are the cutest,tiniest little things. From my reading, a non barred roo over a barred hen should (crossing fingers that it's true) give sex linked chicks. Barred boys and non barred girls. So with that said, the cute little black fuzzy in the pic with no head dot should be a girl. I'm waiting to see how my own hatch develops to give this more than a should.

 

[addarr]

Help.
My poor Cyuga has been sitting for well over a month like a dutiful momma she babies and protects her nest only comes off once a day to eat potty and bath. Will hiss at anyone that comes to close. I candled her eggs about 2-3 weeks ago and they were about 20 to 25 days ish.
I finally took the chance and candled again yesterday and there has been absolutely no progress. One egg is missing I assumed that the one that was rolled away and consumed was for another ducks nest. I was wrong.
Either way she has not abandoned the nest or rolled any more away and won't come off but still once a day. I am not sure how to proceed the poor thing tried so hard.
1) what could have happened so far along? Could it have been the outside heat?
2) how to help her moving forward? Take them and remove her nest? Let her figure it out?
She is only a little over a year old this season her first try at it.

 

[BullChick]

She is not going to figure it out. She will die on the nest instead. That is not to scare you. I am just telling you that she isn't going to figure it out.
It really sounds like you need to get her some babies. It doesn't matter what breed of bird. Just that they be one or two days old. Put them under her at night, and get the eggs out of there. Be careful that none break.
The cause of the eggs stopping their development could be most anything. Yes, that he could have done it.
Good luck!

 

[microchick]

Now, how am I supposed to tell you how sorry I am, when I am laughing so hard?!
Okay, I will tell you that I am honestly sorry you lost him. He may have had a weak heart. Maybe

Sorry. I was going to say something funny. I want you to know I am sorry though.

Now, you are hilarious!

Hey, no problem. Not offended. The Amish man we bought our property from once told us, if you got livestock, you're gonna have deadstock. I try to remember that as I deal with my flock. Still it's so hard not to develop favorites. I retired from nursing last year after 40 years of service. I dealt with a lot of death. It doesn't get easier, you just learn to deal with it and move on.

 

[ShanandGem]

The rooster that fathered my first brood of chicks died over night. He was only 16 months old. We don't know what happened. He had been sick for about 6 weeks. We tried everything short of stripping nekked, painting ourselves purple and slinging a dead cat over our heads while standing on a hilltop at midnight and nothing helped.

I have three full blooded Buff O cockerels from him. One full blooded Buff O pullet, and three Welly/Buff O cross cockerels that he can claim so a bit of him will live on.

So happy for all of you hatching new chicks. Today I'm celebrating a short life well lived.

I'm gonna miss you, Red.

His offspring will remind you of him daily. I hope that helps. He was a beautiful bird and obviously well loved.

 

[microchick]

Thanks ShanandGem.

My favorite memory of him was the day one ot the chicks from Aggie's Feb. hatch got loose. It was 10 days old at the time and tiny. It immediately ran up to Red and stood there looking up at this big rooster. My thoughts were 'OMG, that chick is going to get hurt or worse!'. To my surprise, Red reached down, found a piece of corn on the ground and patiently laid it down in front of the little one several times, chattering softly to it the whole time. The look on the chick's face was almost as if it was thinking "are you my daddy?" The rooster's gentleness towards that chick was astounding.

I had time to scoop the little one up and get it back to momma but not before telling it "yes, that is your daddy".

Sometimes we underestimate our roosters.