Broody Hen Thread!

[AmericanMom]

Just went to gather the days eggs and heard a chirp from Broody #1 nest

Even tho its only 3:30 pm here I locked her in her box for the night, no sense in a jealous hen harming what she has worked so hard for!! Hope to see some fuzzy's by tomorrow

 

[sheetmetaltom]

3rd broody hen this summer. been 3 weeks for this one. no roosters so no fertile eggs anyway. just messing up my egg count everyday. all winter I had 6 to 8 eggs a day. all summer I had 3- 5. go figure

 

[appps]

we dont need to mark them beacuse none of ours are fertail

If you aren't hatching it would be worth looking at some of the breaking a broody threads.

While sitting they are basically on a starvation diet for three weeks so it does affect the condition they are in.

Without the eggs hatching to signal it's time to give up the broody can sit for even longer than is natural further deteriorating her health. If you haven't broken her before the three weeks they would naturally brood a clutch is up make sure you do once that time passes for her healths sake.

One broody seems to set off a chain reaction in my coop so it can lead to further decreases in egg production to leave them broody for no reason.

If you aren't hatching then you are better off breaking her of it to increase your egg count again and to keep her in top condition.

 

[fisherlady]

Well, we had a nice 'welcome home' from an extended weekend... we had 3 hens due to hatch Friday night and when our friend checked Saturday lunchtime only one hen had hatched and she had 4 chicks he saw. We were concerned that the other two hens hadn't hatched any so didn't know what to expect when we got home this evening to check for ourselves... Thankfully we had a great ending.... the silkie mix had 3/3, the EE/silkie mix had 5/5 and the barnyard mix had 5/5.

Leave it to the hens to do their best work when no one was there to 'help', LOL. Just goes to show we need to trust mother nature (and our broodies) to get it done.

And to top it all off we found another hen setting in a box with a plucked chest!! This hen has already raised 2 broods this year.... she is a large fowl, Silver Pencil Rock. Not a breed known to be excessively broody but our group of them sure is! This hen usually broods with one of her 'sisters', so I expect another one of them to go to a box soon if history holds true.

 

[appps]

Well, we had a nice 'welcome home' from an extended weekend... we had 3 hens due to hatch Friday night and when our friend checked Saturday lunchtime only one hen had hatched and she had 4 chicks he saw. We were concerned that the other two hens hadn't hatched any so didn't know what to expect when we got home this evening to check for ourselves... Thankfully we had a great ending.... the silkie mix had 3/3, the EE/silkie mix had 5/5 and the barnyard mix had 5/5.

Leave it to the hens to do their best work when no one was there to 'help', LOL. Just goes to show we need to trust mother nature (and our broodies) to get it done.

And to top it all off we found another hen setting in a box with a plucked chest!! This hen has already raised 2 broods this year.... she is a large fowl, Silver Pencil Rock. Not a breed known to be excessively broody but our group of them sure is! This hen usually broods with one of her 'sisters', so I expect another one of them to go to a box soon if history holds true.

Congrats on your new arrivals Cant wait till mine are hatching, still in the post at the moment though so a little ways off yet

Question about the plucked chest, I keep reading that but haven't noticed any feathers from our silkie. Do silkies also pluck feathers or due to the type of feather isnt it as important? Is it a worry if they arent plucking?

 

[fisherlady]

Congrats on your new arrivals Cant wait till mine are hatching, still in the post at the moment though so a little ways off yet

Question about the plucked chest, I keep reading that but haven't noticed any feathers from our silkie. Do silkies also pluck feathers or due to the type of feather isnt it as important? Is it a worry if they arent plucking?

Some hens it is harder to tell that they are plucked, the feathers from either side tend to lay toward the center and cover the bald area so it isn't visible unless you specifically pull the feathers apart to look. I would not worry if they aren't plucking, every hen behaves in her own way... it may very well be that the feathering of your silkies makes it less of a concern to them.

 

[Back2Roots]

Quote:
I see that you are located in Australia, and you are heading into summer soon, which means the weather is probably quite warm already? The reason why broody hens sometimes pluck chest feathers is to direct more from her body to maintain optimum incubation temperature of the eggs. My guess is that it's warm enough where you are, and your hen doesn't need to provide additional body heat to her eggs in order to regulate the incubation temperature.

 

[abserbean]

My broody that I grafted chicks too is doing great, she has taken to motherhood quite well! She did flog our dog when she got to close to the chicks, but has otherwise been pretty calm and sweet with the chicks. Two of the three chicks are healthy and doing great, we lost one due to some kind of infection (I'm guessing) that I couldn't clear up. The two we have left are a splash BLRW and a bantam silver duckwing. So one huge chick, and one super tiny! They looks pretty silly together, but are getting along great. Here is the little one we lost, I know it happens with babies, but it's always so sad.

 

[JekkaLynn]

I had two bunches of eggs hatch 4 days apart. I gave both batches to a broody and she adopted them all except for one lone yellow chick. All the others were either chipmunk, black with a bit of yellow or all black. She adopted all of them but ignored the yellow chick and it got hurt either by her or by the other hen in the coop with them.
Know I am stuck with one lone house chick because the other chicks pick at her wound.
My daughter wanted know why the chick kept cheaping and I said it was lonely and wanted to cuddle. So she gave it one of her teddy bears.

 

[TiaRC]

I had two bunches of eggs hatch 4 days apart. I gave both batches to a broody and she adopted them all except for one lone yellow chick. All the others were either chipmunk, black with a bit of yellow or all black. She adopted all of them but ignored the yellow chick and it got hurt either by her or by the other hen in the coop with them.
Know I am stuck with one lone house chick because the other chicks pick at her wound.
My daughter wanted know why the chick kept cheaping and I said it was lonely and wanted to cuddle. So she gave it one of her teddy bears.

I've had this happen. Try setting up a mirror for her. She's more likely to make it if she sees "another" chick.