Broody Hen Thread!

[christine9]

Christine9  Is that your Mama Hen ? and if so what kind is she ? She is beautiful !!

She's a clean faced splash ameraucana-no muffs or beard. She's turning out to be a great mama cause she's so mean right now. I thought all three babies came from her eggs, but the black one must have come from someone else's.

 

[chickbrad24]

She's a clean faced splash ameraucana-no muffs or beard. She's turning out to be a great mama cause she's so mean right now. I thought all three babies came from her eggs, but the black one must have come from someone else's.

She is beautiful !!

 

[plmcmillan]

Don't be discouraged, it may take her several days to get in the groove, I had one that tried to go broody in the rabbit enclosure, soon enough I realized it wasn't a good area, she was being disturbed to much by the other hens. I moved her off that nest and tried to put her on a nest in the coop, I still have a scar from that endeavor,  I figured fine, didn't need another broody anyways. About a week later I was outside and happened to see her clucking and all fluffed up running around like a crazy dummy.. Went into the coop and put some fake eggs into a cat carrier I had in there, that evening she was on the fake eggs. I left it alone for a few days, one day when she was off the nest I replaced the fake eggs with a dozen fertile eggs. She is about 8 days in and doing fine,  well doing fine as far as I know, unless I have a heavy jacket and my husbands welding gloves I aint messing with her  

Well, she's back on the nest now and screeching at my other hens! Maybe it'll stick and she can hatch me some babies!

 

[chickbrad24]

Well, she's back on the nest now and screeching at my other hens! Maybe it'll stick and she can hatch me some babies!

That's great to hear !!! If she screeching now just wait till the chicks hatch she will be like a T-rex defending her babies.

 

[chickbrad24]

Here are my 3 broodies I just took a picture of them. I am not really sure how long they have been on the their nests or how many eggs they even have but i am excited and hoping for baby chicks soon !!!

 

[Jaybeetee]

I have a chick update! We had 4 chicks to start with, a buff polish, A BR, a silver laced wynadotte, and a black samatra. My samatra died which sucked because we can never find them at any feed store . We went back and got 2 new chicks, they are Brahmanas. But the mom won't let them eat or anything and won't let them go anywhere. So they would both run away from her everyday and run out of there little chick area and into the big girls area, anyway. One the chicks got out for too long today and got stepped on but I am ordering 6 more chicks. 4 assorted rare breeds and 2 mystery chicks, but I am raising them myself

 

[Mccluckers]

hello,

i have a bantam frizzle hen whom i have just put 6 fertile bantam eggs under. she had previously been sitting on like 15 non-fertile eggs to keep her broody until the eggs arrived,(obviously she couldn't cover them all) i have now put the fertile eggs under her and one of the eggs is half poking out from underneath her,i have left her for 1/2 an hour to see if she has pushed it in.i presume she still thinks she can't fit them all under because of the last eggs because they could all easily fit if she tried.

she also won't get up to eat and drink so when i push her off she doesn't walk she just sits straight down again, why??

last question,my flock have scaly leg mite and i have put ivermectin on the others(nothing else works) and i was wondering if it would be safe to put some under her or could she come out through her skin and damage the eggs?

thanks in advance.

edit:

i went back down and she hadn't moved it in she was trying to keep all the eggs under her breast so i rearranged them underneath her abit and then she wriggled around and seemed more comfortable, they were all completely underneath) i will going back and check in bit and make sure she is still ok)

update:i went back down and the hen had moved on the nest,all of the eggs where completely covered apart from 1 which was poking out a tiny bit,i think she finds it difficult to cover all of them because she is a frizzle and when a normal hen chest feathers come down and touch the ground her curl up.i will see how she does and maybe take one away,

 

[christine9]

Candled the last three eggs today. Two were scrambled and one looks like he may have pipped internally.

 

[n3kms]

I'm going to have to play musical chickens soon. I've got my broody coop which is occupied by a mama and 9 eleven day old babies. Now I have another broody that's been sitting for two days. I also have a grow out coop with 9 seven week old chicks. And a brooder in the garage with three 4 1/2 week olds. My original plan was to move the three in the garage to the grow out with the 9 seven week olds in a few days. They have had no heat lamp for a couple of days now. Until the new girl went broody I was planning to leave mom and babies in the broody coop till I thought they were out growing it. Now I feel like I should move her to the big coop. I have made a small fenced in area awhile back but it is pretty small for 9 babies. Currently babies are where the other chickens can see them from the run. About 15 feet between runs. Should I try to just fix her a spot in the coop with no fencing, like a dog crate, and let her integrate them or should I try to keep them fenced off for a few days. Mom is quite a force to be reckoned with but keeping up with 9 could be difficult. I could move the ones in the grow out to the big coop and mom/ babies to grow out coop but is about 8 weeks too young to go in with grown chickens? My original plan was to eventually move only girls and keep boys in grow out till butchering. And if I did that I would have to leave the others in the garage. That broody girl just threw a wrench in my plans. But I love it anyway.

 

[chicksurreal]

Here's a picture of our Dark Cornish girl who has been working her way to being broody.

We have another, Nessie, who is in her own pen to hatch some chicks already. Day 18, I think.

This girl will get in there and sit for hours or even overnight, but then comes out in the morning and never goes back to the nest so I've been taking the eggs out from under her. Been doing this for a couple of weeks now.

Well, she slept in there last night and came out this morning, so I removed the eggs, they were cool, but not cold. Apparently she's getting more serious because here she is this morning, growling and fluffing at anybody that goes in there. I think she's letting them lay eggs so she can hop on them. Pretty sure she's stopped laying, so maybe she's actually getting into it now.