Broody Hen Thread!

[TinaM13]

Well it's been just over 3 weeks since Lady went broody with one egg and I stuck 3 more under her that I took out of the fridge. Yesterday morning as I went to check on her, I heard a peep under her! Took a look and found one egg with a little hole starting.
So I quickly had to set her up in a new nest and her own room. As I moved her she had 2 chicks and 2 eggs..1 of which was halfway opened.

I checked on her this morning and she has 3 chicks and still one egg. The 3 chicks are from the eggs I took from the fridge! They were laid during the week before she went broody (the last week of Feb -begin of Mar). and the one she had started with was laid Mar 5 and has still not hatched or shows signs yet. These are my very first home-grown babies!!! I'm so excited and so far Lady is being a great mom! Hope to have more pics later today!

 

[LovedMyAlydar]

My little bantam English game hen is sitting on about 10 eggs. That is fine with me as she is the broody lady of my coop.

The problem is this. She is nesting on the floor in an out of the way corner, which is fine, but now she is going up to the nesting boxes and smashing certain hens eggs and then jumping down and getting back on her eggs. Any idea why she would decide out of the blue to start smashing only certain hens eggs?

 

[HarrietB]

It's called chicken math! No biggie if you have the room. How many eggs do you have all together? If it's not too much you may be able to slip those chicks you are hatching under her when they are done.

I bought 6 and set three of them in the incubator on the friday ( I only have a tiny bator), on the sat morning i put the left over 3 under my newly broody hen.Then I bought 11 more eggs and put them under Sunday evening. So there will be a bit of a staggered hatch.

 

[chicken farmer]

I was leaving her eggs in the lower nestbox and she finally went broody!!!

She had her first clutch last spring and hatched out 3 from her 5 eggs (pictured) But anyway I'm super glad she's broody again this year and she's on 6 of her eggs so I'm hoping she gets a bigger hatch rate and hope her second time around goes great as it should,she was a really protective and great mom.....can't wait for April 19th!!!!!!

 

[PortlandHen]

Well, we wandered away from the house for about 6 hours. Came home to check on our broody hen and she was in the non-egg nesting box. I touched the eggs we had under her and they were cold to the touch. Is this normal? Are the eggs ok when left alone/cold for so long? We just put them under her 3 days ago. I pushed her out of the wrong box and she's still doing her broody/poofy dance. She's wandering around outside scratching and walking.

She's in a little enclosed area in the coop, maybe we should block that other box? Hmmm.

 

[foreverlearning]

Well, we wandered away from the house for about 6 hours. Came home to check on our broody hen and she was in the non-egg nesting box. I touched the eggs we had under her and they were cold to the touch. Is this normal? Are the eggs ok when left alone/cold for so long? We just put them under her 3 days ago. I pushed her out of the wrong box and she's still doing her broody/poofy dance. She's wandering around outside scratching and walking.

She's in a little enclosed area in the coop, maybe we should block that other box? Hmmm.

Eggs are fine, let her sit again. Block her in a little area like an isolation pen with just the one nesting box and food and water in view of it.

 

[PortlandHen]

Eggs are fine, let her sit again. Block her in a little area like an isolation pen with just the one nesting box and food and water in view of it.

Thanks. She'd in an enclosed area, but there were 2 nesting boxes. Maybe she got confused? I blocked the extra box and she's back to laying on the eggs.

 

[foreverlearning]

Quote:
yes, they sometime get confused with extra nesting boxes.

 

[PortlandHen]

yes, they sometime get confused with extra nesting boxes.

She's a VERY sweet girl, but not really the... smartest.

Love her.

 

[hereorthere]

Hello everyone! Thought I'd join in.....have an EE that just turned broody a few days ago, but I kept pushing her off the nest box to collect the eggs but she is 1 very determined gal! Anyways, I've decided to let her sit on some adoptees (Welsummers) since yesterday and have just added 4 more. I'm hoping she stays on task as this will be her 1st time - me included!! So I'm kinda nervous about this! She actually let me lightly pet her head and back as I marked, checked, and added the eggs..... the trance thing is weird!! But I suppose it makes sense biologically if their metabolism slows down...... and did someone mention poop?? OMG- the gas coming from her rear end! My nose hairs won't ever recover!!!

Right now, the nesting boxes are sitting 2ft up off the ground. I'm worried about hatching time and baby chicks running everywhere. I've got a larger cat kennel which would sit much lower to the ground and be a better fit for her, but when would be a good time to move her? Now? Or watch for the next few days that she's really serious about her future motherhood, and then move her around Day7-8??

On top of that I've got an incubator full of 24 eggs that is on Day 9. When all eggs hatch - from EE and incubator - I'd love to introduce them effortlessly without too much stress for all, but am I asking too much?? Given that incubator chicks will be at least 1 week older than EE's "babies"?