Broody Hen Thread!

[Alwayswantchics]

I have a breeding pair. A bantam silkie and a cochin rooster. Once my hen goes broody, I would like her to hatch the eggs. Once they hatch, do I have to remove the Rooster?

 

[Jharper]

I have a breeding pair. A bantam silkie and a cochin rooster. Once my hen goes broody, I would like her to hatch the eggs. Once they hatch, do I have to remove the Rooster?

Nope, he will start to protect them from predators or maybe even help her sit in them when she gets up.

 

[Jharper]

I have a breeding pair. A bantam silkie and a cochin rooster. Once my hen goes broody, I would like her to hatch the eggs. Once they hatch, do I have to remove the Rooster?

Nope, he will start to protect them from predators or maybe even help her sit in them when she gets up.

 

[chicken pickin]

I have my first broody. She is an 8 month old Silver Laced Cochin. She is sitting on 5 eggs and is on day 5. I candled yesterday and saw veining. Im so excited I hope she continues to do a good job.

 

[Chickenlover42]

 

[Chickenlover42]

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 broody hen is a frizzle/ bantom but she is very large, i have three bantoms-i think there eggs are probably fertile, but im not sure about my lager chickens and bantom roosters.

 

[Jharper]

Cotton and her little ones I gave her.

 

[Jharper]

Getting my black cochin bantam tomorrow so excited!!! I'm going to let her go broody all she wants haha

 

[alaskapalo]

I think I may have my first broody!!! Finally

She has been on her nest all day and has refused to move even we were doing work in the coop but how long should I wait to make it official?

My DH and I built a new roost today and were planning on building larger nest boxes but do I wait? or would she continue sitting if I moved the eggs to the new boxes?

Thx!

 

[fisherlady]

I think I may have my first broody!!! Finally

She has been on her nest all day and has refused to move even we were doing work in the coop but how long should I wait to make it official?

My DH and I built a new roost today and were planning on building larger nest boxes but do I wait? or would she continue sitting if I moved the eggs to the new boxes?

Thx!

General consensus is to give them 3 days of staying on the nest constantly (make sure they are not leaving the nest to roost at night, especially). If they are serious they won't leave the nest to roost and they won't lay any more eggs themselves. (though they have been known to steal other hens eggs!

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If she is broody and you give her eggs then make sure you mark them so if any other hen's eggs are added to her clutch you will be able to identify them and remove them.

Our broody didn't mind activity around her, but all are different, so I would use caution and watch her for upset at activity levels and judge from that. We were able to move our broody but we did it before we gave her the 'good' eggs so we were sure she didn't break her broody mood. Moving them is often easiest at night and some need to be secured/blocked into their new broody box for a day or so after the move to keep them from going back to their old box. When we moved ours we also moved most of the nesting material she was setting on and it seemed like she wasn't too phased about the change of scenery, but all are different.

Good luck and have fun!