. I don't blame them though, I wouldn't part with mine either:
I am not promising that there always is, but I know the strain I have is very broody, they are Silver Pencils.... hopefully you will find a strain of them that works for you.
I know we have talked about this before, so bear with me..... I'm starting a new flock of Belgium Maline(huge birds that lay huge eggs)in the spring. I'm thinking of buying some of these game hens as working broody hens in my flock. I'm just wondering if they can handle raising birds that are so big compared to them? The Malines have been dubbed "gentle giants", but I just witnessed how pushy chicks can be when they want mommas attention with my last hatch. Do you think I should try to find large breed broodies?
x2 on everything Fisherlady has said.
x2 on everything Fisherlady has said.
I can comment from some personal experience with small bird, big egg...my Silkie was very faithful, and what she hatched of large fowl, she tended very well...BUT I did have to work in smaller batches as she honestly could only hatch about 3 to 4 of 5 eggs...I think one was always too cool on the outskirts. She could possibly handle more in the summer, I tended to use her in the winter, but it is a problem in the winter as the really large fowl may get too big for the banty to keep warm, although she will make every effort to try.
This is an example of two 4 to 5 week old EE's with my Silkie Oma-San....you may be outstripping this size at that stage if you use the Silkies/bantams. You do want to get the chicks to be feathered in before momma can no longer, or no longer wants, to brood them.
Having said that...the lady I purchased my two bantam Cochins from was using them to hatch turkey eggs! She was not leaving the poults with the bantam Cochins for mothering, but they managed to hatch, if I remember right, 3 turkey eggs per bantam Cochin....which is some size difference (and honestly must have been a bit of a shock to the banty).
I like the size of my Ms. Marvel (Rhodebar hatch)....she is a Welsummer/Wyandotte and ???? possibly game mix as she is too diminutive for either breed. She can cover a lot more eggs, I've placed up to 8, but she could have gone more. She helped incubate the start of the Buckeye project while finishing the Rhodebar project (so my Silkie could take over the best of the Buckeye project shipping eggs). Ms. Marvel is a mid size bird. (See her in the Rhodebar project below).
I am eager to see how well my bantam Cochins do when they go broody. I can honestly say they will cover things well as they are more fluffy than a Silkie...think old fashioned dust mop.
If you go Orpington, purchase from a breeder who has a line that is proven to go broody. I have had Orpingtons in the past, and none of them were good at brooding (nor egg laying) with only one half contemplating it....but they were feed store chicks, so out of the big hatcheries.
If it were me, I'd go full size Cochin if you don't want to work in small batches with big eggs...now those girls should cover well if their smaller cousins are any example...and they would go broody more often and mother really well. Again, I'd go to a good breeder who has a line with proven broodies.
What fun...a new breed to hatch...you had me looking that one up on the web as I have never heard of it before.
Lady of McCamley
EDITED for typos :sheesh:
Interesting you should say that....I too have noticed that in my large fowl mommas (Welsummer/Wyandotte and ???, RIR/Welsummer, BSL)... while they hatch eggs well, and they do tend to them (Ms. Marvel being the best), they have all given up at (or before) about 4 weeks of age and left the not quite feathered chicks to fend for themselves. That works okay if it is summer, but if it is cooler weather, they get cold....what has happened is my little Silkie, who already had her OWN batch, would end up caring for ALL of them...or trying to.
. That is super adorable. I used for my previous(and first) hatch a Black Austrolorp. She was really good at tending to the eggs but left the chicks at between four to five weeks.
