Broody Hen Thread!

[1HotChickenMama]

Candled mine last night on day 7 and we have 9 of 9 growing happily! 2 more weeks! =)

 

[Chickenlover42]

I have a broody hen and I want to hatch chicks, but im not sure the eggs are fertile. We just got two roosters but they are a serama and a silkie, are they to small to mate with normal sized chickens? if i can hatch chicks is it safe to hatch bantom and regular eggs together or should i just let her hatch one size eggs? any advice would be awesome

 

[Jharper]

I have a broody hen and I want to hatch chicks, but im not sure the eggs are fertile. We just got two roosters but they are a serama and a silkie, are they to small to mate with normal sized chickens? if i can hatch chicks is it safe to hatch bantom and regular eggs together or should i just let her hatch one size eggs? any advice would be awesome

It's perfectly safe.

 

[chickenlady80]

I have a broody at the moment. I wasnt really planning on hatching any eggs but after two weeks of her being broody I decided to get some hatching eggs. She has been on them for 11 days now. But she has been broody for about 25 days So longer than the 21 days it takes. Will she leave the eggs do you think?
what are people experiences with this?

In my experience she won't leave them. I had a hen that was broody for over three weeks and I finally gave in and gave her eggs. She never left them and took great care of them when they hatched. I have a broody hen right now that was sitting for two weeks before I gave her eggs, she is a first timer and I thought for sure she was gonna give up on it but she never did. I candled them today and all six are growing.

 

[Jharper]

In my experience she won't leave them. I had a hen that was broody for over three weeks and I finally gave in and gave her eggs. She never left them and took great care of them when they hatched. I have a broody hen right now that was sitting for two weeks before I gave her eggs, she is a first timer and I thought for sure she was gonna give up on it but she never did. I candled them today and all six are growing.

Awesome!!!!

 

[chickenlady80]

Hi there! I am new to this thread. I have had Silkies and Showgirls going broody all winter and I live in Indiana so it has been bizarre to say the least. They started it up in November when I went on vacation and the kiddos were supposed to be collecting the eggs regularly...yeah, my bad to trust them but ages 8-15 jeez...I came home to two broody Silkies sitting on huge clutches. The other girls decided to help them out and within a couple of days two turned to five broody girls! It is contagious! Lesson learned. Move them immediately unless you want to deal with 35 chicks in December. I went on vacation again at the end of January and warned the kiddos to collect the eggs more often this time but of course knowing I would never throw out eggs that have started developing...yup, they let them go again knowing they would get adorable little fluffy butts. I swear it has been like a domino effect here. I separated the broodys and their clutches when I got home (was gone a week) but during the next two weeks others in separate pens all just started going broody one after another and I had NINE broody hens at once between four different pens. I didn't let them all keep eggs, but still NINE. Most are still broody but sitting on nothing. A few seem to be starting to snap out of it but others just refuse to quit. I just can't seem to break them and don't have that many broody breaker cages. Thanks to the super cold weather and stealing of each others eggs, quite a few quitters had to be discarded early on so this hatch wasn't as extreme. We have hatched 25 chicks over the last week and the last two broody showgirls are due to start hatching out babies anytime. I am wondering if anyone else has had this kind of broody behavior in winter before? I collect eggs 3-6 times a day due to the cold temps so I don't know what is going on with these crazy girls!

My chickens are broody in the winter too. And silkies are one of the most broody breeds which doesn't help. Its so hard to not let them be mommies, they want to so bad.

 

[Jharper]

My silkie hen keeping my BTJBs all nice and cozy! she didn't go broody at all but when I put them in there her mothering instincts kicked in.

 

[chickenlady80]

I have a broody hen and I want to hatch chicks, but im not sure the eggs are fertile. We just got two roosters but they are a serama and a silkie, are they to small to mate with normal sized chickens? if i can hatch chicks is it safe to hatch bantom and regular eggs together or should i just let her hatch one size eggs? any advice would be awesome

What kind of hens do you have? I'm not sure if they will get the job done or not as I have all large breeds so I can't comment on that. I do think it would be fine for your broody to hatch out any size of eggs though. I know of hens that have hatched out duck eggs even (although they take longer so timing is important). As long as they can cover them you should be good to go. You could candle them after a week or so and see if you see any development. If you don't, then you would know they aren't fertile and you wouldn't have to keep her sitting on unfertile eggs for the whole 21 days.

 

[Jharper]

What kind of hens do you have? I'm not sure if they will get the job done or not as I have all large breeds so I can't comment on that. I do think it would be fine for your broody to hatch out any size of eggs though. I know of hens that have hatched out duck eggs even (although they take longer so timing is important). As long as they can cover them you should be good to go. You could candle them after a week or so and see if you see any development. If you don't, then you would know they aren't fertile and you wouldn't have to keep her sitting on unfertile eggs for the whole 21 days.

My grandma used to let her hens hatch out quail before.

 

[Rorporp23]

Hey all! Stumbled across this thread and I'm thrilled I did! I hatch every year with broodies, they always are more successful than my bator I'm setting 8-12 Ameracauna eggs (haven't picked which yet) under my Buff Orpington tomorrow, she's been broody for about a week now. The eggs were shipped to me so we will see how it goes..sort of an experiment for me! She's been broody every year multiple times a year (she's 5) and has hatched and raised for me most of the time! She's my best broody and I can't wait to see how many hatch