Broody Hen Thread!

[Joski1995]

Ya

It's not funny.  Not when you only want & build for 5-7 and end up with 8+/- and then enable a broody to hatch 9 more.  It took two years to finish our darn chicken coop, I wanted 5 hens, 3.5 months after I get my 5 hens I ave 17...   Nope not funny at all.  You should (never have to) see the contraptagon of coop/brooder/run/day run with makeshift separations and backdoor to the nest boxes.  Might have to change the name from Gallerino de Basura Blanca to El Vertedero.
 
And all I can think about is all the other breeds... 

I got a mixed breed lot some rare I got a dorkens I really like her and my red sex link are beautiful I need ten sepperated coops so I can raise different breeds lol

 

[luvmypets]

We started with six now we have thirty some with more coming!

 

[Joski1995]

We started with six now we have thirty some with more coming!

oh my!! lol I have about 40 hens and they haven't started laying yet. If they start hatching baby's I hope I can sell some. But I still can't wait for baby's ......

 

[luvmypets]

Trust me its worth the wait!

 

[n3kms]

My first chicks are just 7 weeks old, 10 of them. I also have 14 two week olds and I read "Broody Hen Thread" religiously and worry about whether or not I have one that will get broody next year. How crazy is that?

 

[BLT79]

Thinking back I do believe it could be staggered. I will try to candle tomorrow.

 

[Mah1Mah1]

Chicken math! I fell victim to that almost immediately when I started!

All my girls are broody breeds but I only have one that's brooding. She just started, so it's too early to tell if she'll set off the others. I have chicks that I hatched artificially (because no-one was in the mood) and they're outside during the days. I think seeing the chicks is what got the one hen going, but they haven't affected the others yet.

My chooks go broody quite often, usually in annoying places! At one point, Storm went broody under the house & I had to fetch her, I had to crawl in commando-style & drag her out, she wasn't too keen though. I found about 20 eggs under her, she had quite the stash! Other places of broodiness include; In the shed (in their lil nest they made), behind the gate on the deck, between a pair of boots (no joke they sat on them & laid between the boots), in Cloe's nest (she went through a faze where she wanted to build a nest for baby rabbits), under the coop, behind some flowerpots, in the ivy & in the coop. These girls are crafty

 

[Junibutt]

It's not funny. Not when you only want & build for 5-7 and end up with 8+/- and then enable a broody to hatch 9 more. It took two years to finish our darn chicken coop, I wanted 5 hens, 3.5 months after I get my 5 hens I ave 17... Nope not funny at all. You should (never have to) see the contraptagon of coop/brooder/run/day run with makeshift separations and backdoor to the nest boxes. Might have to change the name from Gallerino de Basura Blanca to El Vertedero.

And all I can think about is all the other breeds...

I feel you. I started with 4 chicks in March last year. Thought it would be a couple of hundred dollars expense for the coop once they are older and everyone will be happy. I was so wrong!
Please consider the fact that I live in Chicago, on route 41 with heavy traffic. The backyard is concrete and can't have the coop in the front yard. so chicken math is a little tougher in this circumstance than just having more chicken than you planned for.

So one of the chicks turned out to be a rooster which we were forced to give away in August. To recover from his loss, we got 3, 13 week pullets (YES 3 to replace 1). Wife was not happy and neither were the older pullets. One older pullet got stolen in October and "coincidentally" a week later someone wanted a home for their 2 x 20 week old pullets and I was happy to provide one. Since this happened at the feed store, I decided to pick up 2 more pullets from the feed-store as well thinking dear wife is going to kill me anyways so why not 4 instead of 2. So then all hell broker lose. My home became a war-zone as well as the coop that was only good for 4 hens. By the time dear wife became normal, it was 1st week of November, I was shuffling the chicken between the coop at night, one group in a dog-cage and another group in a dog pen in the front yard during the day and it was getting cold, really really cold. I was happy though that I was getting 8-9 eggs out of my nine pullets and the neighbors love it too.

Then it hit me that my small coop could not be winterized. So the $325 spent on Ebay on this flimsy structure were not worth it. Did research for 2 weeks trying to find a low cost solution but I could not. So bought some lumbar, borrowed a friends tools and his help to make a coop myself. My landlord was also nice enough to use one of his garages as a hiding point if it got too cold for the ladies. Ended up spending about $300 in materials and 20 hrs of 2 man labor to build a 7 x 8 ft and about 6 ft high coop outside which is connected to a 7 x 5 elevated coop inside the garage. They are both connected through a window like opening that stays open. Here are some pics of the coop under construction & completed.






Boy oh boy, I was so happy with my 9 pullets enjoying the coop, me getting 8-9 eggs a day, wife was happy, Xmas season was good for my Amazon business and then boom, there came the arctic blasts. While the coop was very nice, I had not prepared for frozen water and also not thought of any supplemental heating. Changing water 3-4 times a day in that brutal cold was not fun at all. So by late January, I had to spend another 100 bucks or so on a heated water plate, a galvanized waterer to place on the plate and a thermostat control power switch. After a lot of research, I decided not to provide any supplemental heating. While the chicken may have suffered in those brutal blasts, my heart was bleeding every night. Even dear wife suggested we bring them in to our basement bathroom for a couple of days. I seriously thought about that but then decided against it because then they would have a hard time acclimatizing again. Anyways by the middle of March, these pullets had developed what I think is cabin fever or some very strange behavior:

1. Scarlet, the GLW had started plucking and eating feathers off others and from the coop floor. I saw her swallow a whole wing feather- Gave her away
2. Mable, the SLW was constantly going after Flyer (a bantam) and Channel (a huge Australorp). I could not break her habit despite many incentives. She would even stop eating treats to back in the coop and harass them. Gave her away.
3. Channel was almost bare-naked because of a combination of molting and being picked up- Gave her away.
4. Brownie the RIR, acted broody (yes she only acted) througout winter and had lost weight significantly because of that.-Gave her away as well.
5. Tree-Trunks, another RIR (from my original flock), had decided to become a rooster in the absence of one and started mating with her fellow pullets. I even saw her trying to spread her seeds (even when there were none) and trying to crow. I could not bring myself to give her away especially because kids love our original flock.
6. Marcy and Tree-Trunks (both from original flock), had become hooked to social feather picking albeit only to each other's necks. Marcy is also from original flock plus she is an egg machine, so did not give away.

A very long story short. I decided to cut down my flock to 5 and promised wife will never do it again without her approval somewhere around 3rd week of March. Guess what, yes you are right and I was wrong. Ordered 4 Light Brahma chicks very next week. Since they were not going to come in till April 11th, I decided to hatch some and give the children some hatching experience via an incubator. Ordered a Brinsea incubator and set-some eggs on April 2nd. Meanwhile the 4 Brahmas came in on time. 7 of the incubator eggs hatched on April 24th. Wife forced me to give up 4 of those 7. I set-up my old coop again so that chicks can go out when they were 5 weeks old and after all this incubator stuff, my Australorp KoKo goes broody second week of May. How could I not have my own broody, my own Koko not have her own chicks. Promptly ordered some fertilized eggs from a fellow BYC member.

So Koko is now sitting on 13 eggs, 7 of them are CCL and 4 of them are Blue Laced Red Barnevelders. Its day 16 for her, 11 of them are at least good for now. Still need to figure out her arrangement in the coop once chicks are hatched and here comes the icing on the cake. A fellow BYC member has decided to close her Chocolate Orpington project (in addition to some others). She has 4 hens and 6 babies that are 10 days old. How can I not have the Chocolate Orpingtons. I have been trying to get them at a reasonable price for ever. They should be mine, I need them, hold on, I think I want them, need is just a better adjective. Doesn't matter that there is no room for them. I will make another COOP/RUN/CONTRAPTION. I WANT my Chocolate Orpingtons. Doesn't matter that my broody is about to hatch possibly 11 baby chicks. I WANT my Chocolate Orpingtons. Doesn't matter its becoming harder and harder to get cars out of my driveway. I WANT my Chocolate Orpingtons.

This my friend in Chicken Math!

Oh' I forgot to mention, one day I NEED Blue Laced or Chocolate Laced Silver Wyandottes.

 

[Woobsie]

I love this...oh the Chicken Fever.....Noone else but chicken people can understand
What fun!

 

[abserbean]

Can someone on this thread with more experience help this person out? They have a possibly sick chick from an assisted hatch, and I don't know how much/what type of meds/antibiotics to use. I was trying to help, but I haven't had to do this myself! Thanks for looking and helping if you can. I don't know this person, but I would want help with my baby!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-and-verrryyy-small-rough-navel#post_13618120