Broody Hen Thread!

[sab]

Hope someone can give me good advice on what to do. No Roo. I've had hens go broody but of course, No Roo. This time around I slipped 7 fertile eggs under her. But I am worried about the height of the nest. I tried moving her and the eggs into a dog crate on the floor and she went nuts. So I moved them back. You can see her live by going to www.clucksnducks.com Click on Live CAMS and you will see my white rock sitting in the nest and how high it is. Chickies will fall, will they not?? They are due to hatch this coming Saturday. IDEAS??? PLEASE HELP!!

 

[Junibutt]

If you are not picky about the breeds, and don't mind mutts, you will have a lot of choices through local farms. If you want a particular breed, you'll have to go to breeders or order shipped eggs.

Try looking on one of the Where Am I/Where Are You BYC threads to link up with some locals...or go to your local feed store....or look on Craigslist. Googling might also turn up a farm that is close enough to drive to.

Or go to the BYC Seller or Swap pages to find eggs either locally or that could be shipped.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/36/chicken-hatching-eggs
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/16186/swaps

I've also used eBay. My Pet Chicken sells hatching eggs.

Shipped eggs typically have a 50% hatch rate as the eggs can get rattled from shipping handling...if they are rattled hard/broken, you could get 0% hatch.

Or...seriously....you could go to a Trader Joe's and see if they are carrying "fertile free range" eggs....there is a thread here on BYC about people hatching TJ eggs. Check the ship date and get one that is within a week (you'll have to read it by Julian calendar which assigns numbers according to 365 days of the year). While they have been refrigerated, supposedly there is about a 30% hatch rate.

Good luck.
Lady of McCamley

My TJ's doesn't carry fertile eggs either but Whole Foods did, so tried a dozen that were packed 8 days ago but were only in their frig for 1 day. No luck, none of them even developed.

 

[red horse ranch]

Hope someone can give me good advice on what to do. No Roo. I've had hens go broody but of course, No Roo. This time around I slipped 7 fertile eggs under her. But I am worried about the height of the nest. I tried moving her and the eggs into a dog crate on the floor and she went nuts. So I moved them back. You can see her live by going to www.clucksnducks.com Click on Live CAMS and you will see my white rock sitting in the nest and how high it is. Chickies will fall, will they not?? They are due to hatch this coming Saturday. IDEAS??? PLEASE HELP!!

When I need to protect a hen while she is hatching I keep a piece of plastic screen that I can hang over the front of the nest. It keeps the babies in during the hatch and keeps the other hens from bothering the broody and new babies. A brood hen won't leave the nest during this period until at least the day after the first chicks hatch. She won't stay more than two days after the first chicks no matter how many eggs are left. When you think it's time to get them out just put all the chicks in a small box and carry them all to the safe area that you have ready with chick starter and water. I don't use medicated starter so momma eats the starter too. Hope you get a lot of babies!

 

[cayle]

Hope someone can give me good advice on what to do. No Roo. I've had hens go broody but of course, No Roo. This time around I slipped 7 fertile eggs under her. But I am worried about the height of the nest. I tried moving her and the eggs into a dog crate on the floor and she went nuts. So I moved them back. You can see her live by going to www.clucksnducks.com Click on Live CAMS and you will see my white rock sitting in the nest and how high it is. Chickies will fall, will they not?? They are due to hatch this coming Saturday. IDEAS??? PLEASE HELP!!

keep her on there and when you know its the last day or two a little dish of food and water in there and then but chicken wire over the nesting boxes and once they hatch move her and her chicks down into the dog crate

 

[Junibutt]

Today was day 18 for my broody. When she got out to eat, I noticed that one of the eggs was missing. I could not find any remains of it so I am afraid she ate it. There are no rats in my coop (I have 1/2 inch hardware cloth and the floor is concrete). Is it normal behavior? Wondering if she will eat the chicks when they hatch?

 

[joannefiddler]

Hope someone can give me good advice on what to do.  No Roo.  I've had hens go broody but of course, No Roo.  This time around I slipped 7 fertile eggs under her.  But I am worried about the height of the nest.  I tried moving her and the eggs into a dog crate on the floor and she went nuts.  So I moved them back.  You can see her live by going to www.clucksnducks.codidn't]  Click on Live CAMS and you will see my white rock sitting in the nest and how high it is.  Chickies will fall, will they not??  They are due to hatch this coming Saturday.  IDEAS??? PLEASE HELP!!

I moved my broody from her high nest to dog crate I had on coop floor. Put sand in coop and then i held Lee while my husband held eggs and my sister moved the hay nest into the crate. I had food and water in the crate. She ran around a bit but once she entered the crate i closed her in. We left heralone and when we came out an hour later she had rearranged the hay into a second nest and moved all the eggs into it. Perhaps if you closed her in she would settle down. I didn't want to leave her in the first nest because it was the favorite nest and the other hens would keep laying in it. Good luck with your gal! I love the webcam!

 

[sab]

Thanks folks for the ideas. The complication comes in that I won't be home during the hatch. I have to be out of town Fri & Sat and Sat is 21 days. Also there really is NO room inside that nest for food & water. I've tried that already and she fills the whole thing. So... I'm thinking I will unscrew that nest box (at night) and move her completely out of the coop area into the utility area of the coop which is a separate area of the coop building.

Ok - if I move her, whole nest box, INSIDE the coop area but at floor level, do I need to partition her off completely with say chicken wire? If you look at my CAMS, I JUST now added another camera. Well, the camera was already there, just not online. It is DIRECTLY under the nest the hen is sitting in. It is pointed at the top of waterer. If you look beyond that water, you will see the poop boards under the roosting boards. An old hen is laying there. She's too lazy to go up with the other girls. I think her days are numbered. But... to the right of that you will see a recessed area where the dog crate is sitting. Inside that is a crate turned on it's side. If I take all that out, and move the entire nest box into that area... how much separating off do I need to do from there? All the way over to this wall the camera is on? I can pan the camera if someone needs to see the entire area.

THANK YOU ALL, REALLY THANK YOU.... I'm a little concerned about this with her being so high.

 

[Chickens R Us]

I am so excited I have my first broody hen that didn't go broody in the dead of winter. She has been sitting for three days now so I moved the nest box, which is a Tidy Cat litter box in to a brooder pen in a big shed so she doesn't have to worry about another hen trying to use the same nest box. She won't be totally alone there are 6 ducks and a gosling that live in that shed but in a separate area. I hope she keeps at it. She didn't move at all when I carried her and the nest box just kinda looked at me and growled a little.

 

[stonecoldchey]

Today two more chicks hatched and one piped. Now we have a total of 3 hatched chicks and their names are Uno, Waffle, and Peep.
Peep hatched under my black copper maran while we where gone so when we came back she was in a different nest. We tried to put peep back under her and she pecked it so we put him with the blrw and she took it and has taken care of it like it was her own, and it was in brood daylight! Hopefully the one that piped will be hatched in the morning, can't wait!

P.S. I will try to post picture tomorrow.

 

[LisaLouHoo]

I am so excited I have my first broody hen that didn't go broody in the dead of winter. She has been sitting for three days now so I moved the nest box, which is a Tidy Cat litter box in to a brooder pen in a big shed so she doesn't have to worry about another hen trying to use the same nest box. She won't be totally alone there are 6 ducks and a gosling that live in that shed but in a separate area. I hope she keeps at it. She didn't move at all when I carried her and the nest box just kinda looked at me and growled a little.

Congrats! What's the plan for eggs? Do you have your own hatching eggs or are you getting some for her to hatch? What breed is she? Inquiring minds want to know