Broody Hen Thread!

[el pollo rey]

well i have a silkie who has shown no signs of broodiness that has parked herself on 13 Araucana /Delaware eggs the Lil cross hen just seemed to quit laying about a week ago, she is a daily layer and for her to stop for no reason is not like her so as I watched my morning episode of chicken TV I payed a Lil more attention to her and seen her sneak off into the brush without a cackle totally out of character for her not to lay in the coop hmmm whats up ? I let her go and sat and watched the morning play out with the cackling coming from the hen house and the other girls scrambling around to get the best bugs off the wet grass. After my coffee cup was empty I went down and looked for my Lil blue egg layer and seen she was with the pack heading for the potato Field,after a search i discovered her cache of 8 blue gems , I quickly scooped them up and moved them to a nest box in the coop i assumed she was laying a clutch away from chicken town traffic getting ready to set and hatch them out she has done this before about five month ago and had six Lil peeps on her tail when she returned. Any how today my Lil silkie discovered her clutch and seems to have staked a claim, is this right ? she has not acted broody she has been laying her normal five per week whats up ? is this possible ? she has adopted many before and is a great incubator and even a better mom its funny to watch her go over the hill with ten multi colored peeps almost as big as her . Should i let her be and see how it plays out ? evict her off the clutch ? I think the owner may take offense and Lil japy is a scrapper she wont give um back with out a fight ,,,,,kinda funny ,,,,,,what yall think ?

 

[babyhen]

My RIR hen took well to the eggs 20 days and counting Yay

 

[Audio51]

So far. so good! I added the last chick to the brood this afternoon and she accepted it with no questions asked.....

 

[Member 151789]

my white silkie hen, chrysanthemum, went broody a couple of weeks ago and we put some mixed breed eggs under her. the official hatch date for those is the 25th. i just borrowed another broody for one jar of apple butter and 15 egg cartons and she is sitting on 8 lavender and black orpingtons,one rhode island red,2 blue and black ameruacanas, and 4 show quality blue splash silkies i got in the mail. the only problem is that the silkies are 6 days older than the rest of the eggs because my other hen was sitting on them. i am afraid that when my hen hatches the 4 silkies, she will abandon the rest of her eggs instead of sit on them for another 6 days....what is your thought on that? do you think she will abandon them?

thanks!
Andrea

anyone else?

 

[Keggen]

Be patient! This hen is less than a year old, but I understand that Austrolorps tend to be on the broody side....

She is so pretty! I have 5 Black Australorps and 16 other hens of other breeds and at just 1 year old 2 of the BA's are already broody! So I definitely agree with the assessment.

 

[fisherlady]

well i have a silkie who has shown no signs of broodiness that has parked herself on 13 Araucana /Delaware eggs the Lil cross hen just seemed to quit laying about a week ago, she is a daily layer and for her to stop for no reason is not like her so as I watched my morning episode of chicken TV I payed a Lil more attention to her and seen her sneak off into the brush without a cackle totally out of character for her not to lay in the coop hmmm whats up ? I let her go and sat and watched the morning play out with the cackling coming from the hen house and the other girls scrambling around to get the best bugs off the wet grass. After my coffee cup was empty I went down and looked for my Lil blue egg layer and seen she was with the pack heading for the potato Field,after a search i discovered her cache of 8 blue gems , I quickly scooped them up and moved them to a nest box in the coop i assumed she was laying a clutch away from chicken town traffic getting ready to set and hatch them out she has done this before about five month ago and had six Lil peeps on her tail when she returned. Any how today my Lil silkie discovered her clutch and seems to have staked a claim, is this right ? she has not acted broody she has been laying her normal five per week whats up ? is this possible ? she has adopted many before and is a great incubator and even a better mom its funny to watch her go over the hill with ten multi colored peeps almost as big as her . Should i let her be and see how it plays out ? evict her off the clutch ? I think the owner may take offense and Lil japy is a scrapper she wont give um back with out a fight ,,,,,kinda funny ,,,,,,what yall think ?

I'd let her have at it... your other little hen may decide to start over with another clutch, or you could slip a few mixed eggs in her hidden nest to keep her 'in the mood' while you decide what eggs you really want her to hatch. Once she is sitting then you can try to move her if you want, or provide her more protection where she decided to hide.

 

[chickenlady099]

I'm so excited my bantam ameraucanas are hatching Sunday and all are fertile just hope i get 100% hatch.

 

[melina90]

I've had geese eggs die and start to smell and I cracked em open and I saw the baby and some greenish bluish coloring in there. So it must have died b/c some hens reject bad eggs. Ohh and my goose eggs are due this weekend.

Woohoo, can't wait so see some gosling photos!

 

[weeshanti]

Checked on my little bantam Ameraucana this morning, and she has chick(s)!

She has been in a trance for a few days, but this morning she's all puffed up and tried to peck me when I opened the crate door to change her water. I can hear peeping coming from beneath her. Can't tell if it's just one or if it's more, or what stage the wee thing(s) might be, but I'm so excited. Our first chicks!!

So, now what do I do? She is in a huge dog crate in a section of the coop that I can fence from the rest of the chickens. Should I leave her in the crate with the chicks for a bit, or open the crate door and let them have the bigger section? Does she need a heat light at all? I know she won't in the crate, but should I hook anything up for the larger section? Should I get some chick starter in there today, or wait until they are moving around? I don't want to pester Chickadee (bantam mama) anymore than I need to, but because she's locked in a crate I want to be sure she and her babies have when they need.

 

[melina90]

Checked on my little bantam Ameraucana this morning, and she has chick(s)!

She has been in a trance for a few days, but this morning she's all puffed up and tried to peck me when I opened the crate door to change her water. I can hear peeping coming from beneath her. Can't tell if it's just one or if it's more, or what stage the wee thing(s) might be, but I'm so excited. Our first chicks!!

So, now what do I do? She is in a huge dog crate in a section of the coop that I can fence from the rest of the chickens. Should I leave her in the crate with the chicks for a bit, or open the crate door and let them have the bigger section? Does she need a heat light at all? I know she won't in the crate, but should I hook anything up for the larger section? Should I get some chick starter in there today, or wait until they are moving around? I don't want to pester Chickadee (bantam mama) anymore than I need to, but because she's locked in a crate I want to be sure she and her babies have when they need.

Awesome! Congratulations! I think you can open the door to the bigger section, so Chickadee can take her babies out for food and water when they have all hatchet (assuming they were all due on the same day). Could take another day before she decides to do so. From what I've heard, a good momma-hen won't need a heatlamp as she'll gather her chicks up under her wings for a warming session whenever they need it. She'll pretty much take care of all of it - the best part of having a momma-hen raise the babies!