Broody Hen Thread!

[Shellz]

Sorry to hear of the chicks attacked by the broody.

My source for Malines hatching eggs has offered me 18 more! I had such a bad hatch in my incubator with them last month. Now I hope for a better hatch with my broodies! I'll have to switch out the mutt eggs under one broody. I've got 6 BLRW eggs under the other broody. What to do? One hen can't handle 18 XL eggs. Technically, I could take the 6 BLRW eggs & put them in my bator, but hubby has had enough of that! Oye, the dilemma!

 

[ChicwannaB]

This is Pearl!

A white Chantecler who is already broody for the 2nd time this summer, is this normal?

Her first one happened after she'd only been laying about 2 months, one day she just wouldn't get off her egg and never laid any others, so I put 3 under her. One disappeared, haven't a clue where it went and another ended up on the floor outside of the nest so I tossed it. She hatched the other 2 and about 5 days later I snuck 7 new babies under her from the incubator. She did a beautiful job of raising the whole bunch.

Today it's exactly 9 weeks since she hatched the first batch. At about 5.5 weeks along she abruptly pushed the young'uns away and would have nothing more to do with them, in about a week she began laying again. Now this, 11 more eggs!!

Will she keep doing this??

 

[Jharper]

My BA has been stomping on her chicks and killing them. She killed my only SL polish chick and my last BTWJB and one of her other chicks.

 

[Shellz]

Ack! That's horrible! Some broodies just don't make good moms, I'm afraid. Sorry about your chicks.

 

[CAjerseychick]

First time I'm going to let my Astrolorp sit on eggs. I'm only letting her have three from my flock. She just went today. Advice please. Do I have to move her? Can I just leave her with the rest of the flock?

Still time to add more eggs-- I would do at least 6-8-- theres a bit of attrition and you will have more "wiggle" room to have losses offset...
I just leave mine be (where is she?) but you will get more chicks if you move her to a private nest (even an open dog crate )-- mine 2 broodies just wouldnt set when moved so the first one hatched out 4 in a nest box (1 died day 6 post hatch, I think d/t residual trauma d/t and accident it had a few days before, got its head stuck in a crack in the coop and was there for awhile before I rescued it)...and they hopped down just fine, she started off on 11 eggs but a couple got broken early on and 2 right on day 18 with beautiful chicks inside, a couple were "bad" and the last 2 were waaay behind in development (were snuck in last minute).... I have another one setting right now on 5 eggs in another nest box (there might be a couple more laid a day or so later I am thinking about letting her keep them, as I noticed my last hen sat for 3 days after the last 4 chicks hatched out, so it is possible to do a staggered hatch)....
I do have room to freerange everyone (they have 1 coop and a yard, but the yard has an opening to 2 acres for them to free range) so nonone is crowded (Mama hen is out in the pasture now with her 2 week old chicks but she waited a week to take them out into the free range).. so that is why I feel comfortable doing it this way, it does depend somewhat on your particular situation though....

 

[CAjerseychick]

So sorry to hear about the homicidal Broodies! My condolences to those who lost chicks in such a manner!!!

Also to answer the question about brooding twice in a summer--
my second Broody is actually my first as well -- she started the clutch in June but another hen stole her nest and hatched out the chicks, and a month later here she is again brooding again in a nest box! the hatch date is July 20th !!! and the last set of chicks hatched June 20th!!!!

So I dont know if this is normal.... but it is happening.....

 

[Alwayswantchics]

Went out this morning and found another hen sitting on the eggs. They where pretty cool to the touch. Is it normal for another hen to come in and take over? Would really love to have some hen raised chicks. My other hens are rir mutt and bo mutts.

 

[Zombchick97]

I risked life and limb for this one haha she is setting on 11 eggys haha ;p

 

[ronikins]

I have a BO that's been broody for about 4 weeks now. She had her first batch eaten by a snake 3 days after she started sitting on them. Then I knew shortly after that that the new batch was unfertilized. So I slipped a mille fleur egg under her. I am not sure if this one is going to hatch either. It's been a rough summer for my poor flock. (Snakes and raccoons...)

My question is, I have a week until I know If the last egg is going to hatch. Should I go ahead and put some more eggs under her? Or just wait and see if this last one hatches? If it doesn't, will she break from the broodiness eventually?

 

[Jharper]

My BA is a horrible broody!!!! I had to take all her babies away from her. She has killed 4 in the past couple of days. I'm in GA so it's been raining a lot and she has been smothering and crushing them. She had them on the cold wet ground soaking wet and 3 of them were stuck in between the wooden fence and the chicken wire. I had to get them loose, one was hung in there so I had to cut it out. One of them is almost dead and the other one is just fine.