Broody Hen Thread!

[Treasured Chest]

I found my missing chook and yes she was brooding!

On a similar note, another one of my broodies who has been sitting on dud eggs for 3 weeks happily adopted some bought chicks last night

 

[katatonic123]

@Treasured Chest so glad you found her! Did you move her to an enclosed place or let her be?

My pre-winter hatch is over. Our last egg didn't ever hatch. 7 of 8 that went into "lock down" (is it truly a lock down under a broody? Lol) hatched and I think that is good considering we had a case of unabsorbed yolk sak and momma abandoning eggs and lack of power after they went into the incubator. The babies are adorable and momma is doing well with them even though she's not much more than a chick herself.

 

[Treasured Chest]

@Treasured Chest so glad you found her! Did you move her to an enclosed place or let her be?

My pre-winter hatch is over. Our last egg didn't ever hatch. 7 of 8 that went into "lock down" (is it truly a lock down under a broody? Lol) hatched and I think that is good considering we had a case of unabsorbed yolk sak and momma abandoning eggs and lack of power after they went into the incubator. The babies are adorable and momma is doing well with them even though she's not much more than a chick herself.

I will definitely be moving her to a neseting box as soon as it gets dark!

7 out of 8 is great! Congrats to you and your mumma hen

 

[Welsummer Rancher]

I have a broody game hen. Today I put 5 Araucana eggs and 7 Rhode Island Red eggs under her. The RIR eggs are pure and the Araucana eggs are fertilized by my BCM roo ( wanting some olive eggs ). Hopefully I will have some wee babies in about 21 days. I have the game hen separated from the flock in my brood pen which is about 4'x4'. My 4 year old grandaughter is thru the roof with excitement and THAT my friends is exciting to this ol' grandaddy

 

[katatonic123]

@Treasured ChestI've managed to have phenomenal luck with the hatches I've done and I'm not sure how being only 1 yr and a half into chickens. My first incubator hatch I got 11 of 12 and only 3 roos. 2nd was a broody hatch. She was on 3 eggs and 1 hatched but I don't know how far the other two even developed as I couldn't get near them to candle. That hatch gave me a pullet. 9 went under this broody. One wasn't developing at day 7 and 1 didn't hatch after lockdown. Hoping to get mostly pullets.

 

[csaylorchickens]

Well my broody hen did a very good job she has two out of the six eggs only three of the eggs were actually fertilized I believe and for some reason the last check only developed for so many days and then stopped developing I noticed when I candle the egg that the air sac was on both ends of the egg but the chick was fully formed very odd it began to have a smell so I cracked it open to find the underdeveloped little baby made me very sad but now I have a broody hen and she seems very upset that I took her egg I still have two chicks that I could put underneath her but I'm not sure that I can leave them with her I have a good setup for a hen to hatch eggs but I don't know about raising chicks I'm going to have to modify the mini coop anywho I was thinking I can just put the chicks in the brooder and then the Mom could go back with the rest of the flock and start producing eggs soon is there anything that I can do to help her transition back into the flock all the other chickens act like she hasn't even left for 21 days so she went back in her pecking order just fine but she just seems stressed

 

[JessLonn]

My two brooding hens they have 4 chicks that have hatched the last 4 days and 5 more eggs to hatch. Hopefully at one of them will stay on the nest till the last one hatches.

 

[mymilliefleur]

Well my broody hen did a very good job she has two out of the six eggs only three of the eggs were actually fertilized I believe and for some reason the last check only developed for so many days and then stopped developing I noticed when I candle the egg that the air sac was on both ends of the egg but the chick was fully formed very odd it began to have a smell so I cracked it open to find the underdeveloped little baby made me very sad but now I have a broody hen and she seems very upset that I took her egg I still have two chicks that I could put underneath her but I'm not sure that I can leave them with her I have a good setup for a hen to hatch eggs but I don't know about raising chicks I'm going to have to modify the mini coop anywho I was thinking I can just put the chicks in the brooder and then the Mom could go back with the rest of the flock and start producing eggs soon is there anything that I can do to help her transition back into the flock all the other chickens act like she hasn't even left for 21 days so she went back in her pecking order just fine but she just seems stressed

I'm sure she will be fine in a few days, losing her chicks was probably stressful, so it may take her a few days to settle down. I'm glad she has settled into the flock well with no one picking on her. reintroducing broodys can some times be a bit difficult.

 

[csaylorchickens]

Just went out and checked on all of the girls and the broody hen is back on the roost bar sleeping peacefully
I hope tomorrow my flock wull resume normal behavior

 

[csaylorchickens]

It is double complicated because my broodye while being on the nest my whole flock was introduced to a whole new set up a new coop and a new run so she has a lot to adjust to And is doing fairly well