Broody Hen Thread!

[16 paws]

I will be waiting to hear!

Marie

 

[ChickyChickens]

I haven't been on this site for such a long time! Time passes so quickly. So anyway I have had about 9 broodies hatch their eggs since I was last on here and at the moment have 1 broody: HennyPenny! Sadly a pair of eagles has become one of our neighbours (luckily they are like pigeon sized so they can only take the really little chicks) and they are really chomping away on the chicks! So, we have decided to somehow get rid of them (pow pow shot shoot) They are luckily not rare or endangered so we may take them out!
HennyPenny is due on the 9th of September so I cant wait for that! I had so much catching up to do so let me get back to that!

 

[Angie16hearts]

So my lady pepper has been trying to go broody and or build a clutch. She now has 7 eggs and 2 golf balls. My husband took a egg ugh! And she didn't lay yesterday. She was still playing with her friends. However today I went to water and feed and she was missing. Up in her box I looked at her all puffed up, even the hair on her head. So I left her for a hour came back and two hens had entered the room. She was yelling at them. I didn't let her but took the others out. Anybody have any opinions ? I'm hopeful I come home and she's still there. Should I wait on giving her water and food? I'm afraid the other hens will disrupt her.

 

[Angie16hearts]

I just went out again and she's yelling and screaming at me and is huge for feathers are popped up I tried to touch her and she screamed) just like you guys said I will now she's definitely gone pretty what do I do now? I've never gone through this before. I was wondering if the eggs are any good if they have been out for over a week? Obviously some have been laid recent but I just marked them. I nvr moved them.

 

[philipchickymad]

I have a brahma who always seems to go broody but for the last few days she has gone in the coop all day and she comes out in the evenings and the mornings what does this mean

 

[LovedMyAlydar]

I have an OEG hen that has tried for the last year and a half to be a mom. She has tried in the coop twice and abandoned her eggs both times after a week or two. They usually stink to high heavens and are gross. Then she decided to be nature girl and go wild, took off to the neighbors horse pen, laid 7 eggs and was roughing it. We thought she had been taken by our pesky fox who likes to hit my coop every so often, but nope she shows up after a week of being gone. Well, we let her do her thing and then watched where she were she went after getting food and water. Found her nest in the horse paddock. It has been pretty rainy for August and she was soaking wet, so I had my son get a tote, put in some shavings and we brought her and her eggs into the house, put her in the tote with a screen top and she threw a fit. So I took a towel and covered her up for the rest of the day. She finally calmed down and decided that this was safe, dry and comfy. She has a nasty habit of making the most disgusting poop messes and one day did this all over her eggs. Well we had been gone for the day and when we arrived home the poop was dried and covering all the eggs. So we took them all, washed them in warm water and scrubbed them with a steel wool pot scrubber like I use on my cast iron pans. We dried them off and cleaned her up, put the eggs back in and hoped for the best. Well as of this morning 6 of the 7 have hatched and the other is moving around and faintly pecking. They are so cute and all appear healthy and happy. She is over the moon happy to be a mom at long last. : )

 

[SD Bird Lady]

@Angie16hearts there is a ton of advice for what to do with broodies. You kind of have to soft through and take what you need. If the other girls are laying in her nest I would barricade it but other than that she will take care of it. The eggs will be fine. I usually candle once around 10-14 days and toss any empty eggs. Good luck

 

[Angie16hearts]

@Angie16hearts there is a ton of advice for what to do with broodies. You kind of have to soft through and take what you need. If the other girls are laying in her nest I would barricade it but other than that she will take care of it. The eggs will be fine. I usually candle once around 10-14 days and toss any empty eggs. Good luck

Thank you, I defiantly am reading around. I have 10 other hens so I will move her tonight. I ordered 6 eggs just in case. I will out two in place of golf balls and a few smaller eggs.

 

[sonderah]

I just went out again and she's yelling and screaming at me and is huge for feathers are popped up I tried to touch her and she screamed) just like you guys said I will now she's definitely gone pretty what do I do now? I've never gone through this before. I was wondering if the eggs are any good if they have been out for over a week? Obviously some have been laid recent but I just marked them. I nvr moved them.

I just leave mine and each day take any new eggs laid. She gets up for food and water on her own on occasion. Sometimes try will peck at me when i lift them to get fresh laid eggs, but I just ignore them and do what I want. Lol Eventually my other hens just stopped laying in her box. After babies hatch, then I move mom & babies to a safer place that isn't so high, but I still leave them all together. Mom has always protected them well.

 

[ochochicas]

I have an OEG hen that has tried for the last year and a half to be a mom. She has tried in the coop twice and abandoned her eggs both times after a week or two. They usually stink to high heavens and are gross. Then she decided to be nature girl and go wild, took off to the neighbors horse pen, laid 7 eggs and was roughing it. We thought she had been taken by our pesky fox who likes to hit my coop every so often, but nope she shows up after a week of being gone. Well, we let her do her thing and then watched where she were she went after getting food and water. Found her nest in the horse paddock. It has been pretty rainy for August and she was soaking wet, so I had my son get a tote, put in some shavings and we brought her and her eggs into the house, put her in the tote with a screen top and she threw a fit. So I took a towel and covered her up for the rest of the day. She finally calmed down and decided that this was safe, dry and comfy. She has a nasty habit of making the most disgusting poop messes and one day did this all over her eggs. Well we had been gone for the day and when we arrived home the poop was dried and covering all the eggs. So we took them all, washed them in warm water and scrubbed them with a steel wool pot scrubber like I use on my cast iron pans. We dried them off and cleaned her up, put the eggs back in and hoped for the best. Well as of this morning 6 of the 7 have hatched and the other is moving around and faintly pecking. They are so cute and all appear healthy and happy. She is over the moon happy to be a mom at long last. : )

Great story! It just goes to show that there is no one "right" way to hatch out eggs. I even had an egg crack and it still hatched out a nice little pullet.