Broody Hen Thread!

[PD-Riverman]

My broodies never go into a 'private' location1 There is just sometimes a problem with them when the chicks hatch and I'm not here (they might fall out of their nests)! If I am here then I put them into another box until the chicks are done hatching and then (there is a hole in the box)the mothers can jump out with the chicks and have fun...

I am glad it is working good for you. Thats whats great about raising Our Own Chickens/animals---we can Do It the way We want--do what works best for us!

 

[ChickyChickens]

I am glad it is working good for you. Thats whats great about raising Our Own Chickens/animals---we can Do It the way We want--do what works best for us!

So true!

 

[varikia]

My rooster is solid black austalorp. But I know the hen sat on her own eggs which is brown the chicks are black with light marking and one light brown. She hatched 13 out of 16, will the chicks change colour?

 

[fisherlady]

My rooster is solid black austalorp. But I know the hen sat on her own eggs which is brown the chicks are black with light marking and one light brown. She hatched 13 out of 16, will the chicks change colour?

You don't say what color the hen is....there is a calculator for expected color patterns I believe.... do a search for 'chicken calculator'. I know our black australorp over our pencilled hens results in black pullets and black cockrels with pencilled neck feathers. They all look like you described when chicks though.

Edit to add...i reread and see maybe the hen is brown? I thought you meant brown eggs on first read, sorry...still refer to the calculator...

 

[StarMeKritten]

My rooster is solid black austalorp. But I know the hen sat on her own eggs which is brown the chicks are black with light marking and one light brown. She hatched 13 out of 16, will the chicks change colour?

Australorps are black with light colored markings as chicks. Most of the time that I have hatched australorp mixes, they have looked very similar to australorps as chicks. As their feathers come in, they will probably turn out to be mostly black, since black tends to be very dominant. Depending on mom's coloring, they may have some other colors that show through the black. No idea what the brown one will look like though. It will be a fun surprise through!

 

[ochochicas]

It looks like the Kakapo parrot egg was not covered in tape, but rather some kind of casting material. Perhaps it was breathable and allowed air to flow through it. I didn't read the whole posting. Did it say what they used to repair the egg? Interesting information! I had a cracked egg from my last hatch. Covered it with fingernail polish and it hatched on day 21 just like everyone else.

 

[jajeanpierre]

It looks like the Kakapo parrot egg was not covered in tape, but rather some kind of casting material. Perhaps it was breathable and allowed air to flow through it. I didn't read the whole posting. Did it say what they used to repair the egg? Interesting information! I had a cracked egg from my last hatch. Covered it with fingernail polish and it hatched on day 21 just like everyone else.

I emailed the same links to a friend of mine, an avian vet in charge of a breeding operation of silver and white Gyr falcons in Abu Dhabi of all places. He hadn't seen the pictures before, but he said that nail polish was used for small cracks (you guessed right!) an tape for the bigger cracks. He didn't say what kind of tape, but it looks very much like the surgical tape similar to Steri-strips. He said that kind of damage to an egg was fairly common when the nest gets disturbed although he did agree it was a pretty smashed up egg to survive. He said if the membrane were damaged, it wouldn't have survived. I just think it was incrediible.

 

[Rhandi74]

I caught Jewel off her nest today. She even took the time to dust bathe.

Her eggs should start hatching on the 13th.

 

[cheeka]

not a great big surprise that Silkie wanted to brood one last time in September, when weather is typically frosty up here... but I let her. she started with 6, and was down to 2 about 5 days in. I attribute this to too much traffic from her 7 week old chicks who were sneaking into her nest despite my fencing them out, they were still finding ways in...then I found her out in the yard - not a good sign - so I went to check to make sure the eggs were all gone and I found no more... because she beat me back to the nest, I knew she was still broody... I gave her 8 more eggs. WELL. 5 days ago... this little brown baby hatched! she had 1 egg left from the first round and I was so worried about the remaining eggs! 5 days is too long, and none of my other broodies would take the chick, and I have no incubator for the rest of the eggs... Mama Gossamer kept sitting, so I crossed my fingers.

today is the scheduled hatch day for the remaining eggs. booya!

26 days of sitting, 7 eggs to go and maybe one more full day to wait...

she's quite a Champ!

 

[cheeka]

im gonna hatch chicks soon what are some good breeds to hatch?
and how do you hatch them if none of your hens are broody?

what to hatch depends on what you like... and you can make or buy an incubator to hatch if you don't have a broody, or wait til next Spring and see if one of yours decides to brood... there are many wonderful threads here about incubating eggs, Sally Sunshine is a highly regarded expert on BYC. good luck and welcome to chickendom.

Broody has 3 chicks now, and I hear lots of tapping