Broody Hen Thread!

[fisherlady]

Well all 7 of Rosie's eggs hatched... 6 happy and active, last one was shrink wrapped though (we found it nearly out of the shell but with a bunch of membrane dried to it) and had just a bit of hernia on it's back end. We put a spray of Blue-kot on it to prevent it getting pecked at and reduce infection risk and tucked it back under her to dry out, mother nature will decide if it makes it or not, it wasn't easy to leave it but I don't think we could do anything better for it than mamma hen, and she will be better able to control temp and humidity that will give the chick it's best chance.

A few pics to warm up a cold February evening....

 

[Chicken-Man]

Hey guys! First time broody hen hatcher here!
My family and I are letting one of our bantam blue ameraucanas sit on some mixed eggs- some her own, some orphington, and with a black ameraucana rooster I'll bet we'll get some fun mixes!
She's on hatch day today and we've already seen one black chick when she got up this morning for food (we've since isolated her in the coop with some food/water). Its all quiet for now, but hopefully I'll be posting some pics of the other chicks soon! Wish smokey and me luck!

WOW!! that's awesome!! congrats

 

[fisherlady]

~~ I picked up my SPR hatching eggs today also, was 6 hours round trip but now 2 more broody hens are happily setting on them, and we now have another Pencil who started sitting yesterday (finally committed and plucked her chest, so I'm pretty confident she is going to stay put). If she sticks to her nest for 2 more days we will give her 8 or 10 eggs and by the first week of March we should be chick happy and then some!

I have 5 Silver Pencil Rocks from a broody hatch last May... 3 of the 5 are now broody at 9 months old. I'm hoping they continue their broody ways because it is nice to be able to fit 12+ eggs at a time under a hen... Our other broody hens are priceless to me, but they are small birds so 6 or 8 at a time is max.

 

[fisherlady]

Hey guys! First time broody hen hatcher here!
My family and I are letting one of our bantam blue ameraucanas sit on some mixed eggs- some her own, some orphington, and with a black ameraucana rooster I'll bet we'll get some fun mixes!
She's on hatch day today and we've already seen one black chick when she got up this morning for food (we've since isolated her in the coop with some food/water). Its all quiet for now, but hopefully I'll be posting some pics of the other chicks soon! Wish smokey and me luck!

Hope Smokey and little ones do great! Looking forward to pics, they should be adorable!

 

[PimentoPlymouth]

Yea mine decided she needed more eggs also. As long as she can cover them they should be good to go. Hopefully you get all hatched and there heathy little chicks.

 

[coltcogburn00]

How can you teal if a hen went broody.

 

[Chicken-Man]

How can you teal if a hen went broody.

first off,

great to have you here!!

She will be in the nesting box (or where every they usually lay) a lot! and when u go near her she will stick all her feathers up to make her self look bigger and she will growl. Some hens get very aggressive and some just try to look intimidating. she will also start plucking her feathers out of her belly, where they eggs are.
I have a broody hen at the moment too
what breed is you hen that is broody? send tome pics of her.

 

[Chicken-Man]

Yea mine decided she needed more eggs also. As long as she can cover them they should be good to go. Hopefully you get all hatched and there heathy little chicks.

to you too!!!

 

[Chicken-Man]

Well all 7 of Rosie's eggs hatched... 6 happy and active, last one was shrink wrapped though (we found it nearly out of the shell but with a bunch of membrane dried to it) and had just a bit of hernia on it's back end. We put a spray of Blue-kot on it to prevent it getting pecked at and reduce infection risk and tucked it back under her to dry out, mother nature will decide if it makes it or not, it wasn't easy to leave it but I don't think we could do anything better for it than mamma hen, and she will be better able to control temp and humidity that will give the chick it's best chance.

A few pics to warm up a cold February evening....

AWWWWWWWW THEY ARE SO SO SO SO SO CUTE!!!!!!!!! WHAT BREEDS??

 

[fisherlady]

AWWWWWWWW THEY ARE SO SO SO SO SO CUTE!!!!!!!!! WHAT BREEDS??

Thank you... they are Barnyard mixes, actually... we have many breeds and mutts all together...
One rooster is a mostly gray BY mix with barring or cuckoo marks visible, the other is a Australorp, at the time the eggs were gathered there were also 2 other barnyard mixes in the coop...
Hens are barnyard mixes, barred rock, black giants and silver pencil rocks.

I don't know what they will grow up looking like, but all should be good brown egg layers... will be interesting to see how they turn out.