Broody Hen Thread!

[PD-Riverman]

Hoppfully only one chick comes out of the egg. XD

You missed the point---I will ask it another way---how do you know for sure the egg that is due may the 3rd or May the 10 is even any good----you do know not All eggs hatch?? Counting your chicks before the eggs hatch----is what I was Joking about.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Hi could you give me any tip to get my silkies to sit.

I never seen silkies that needed any tips on setting----they always set. When one starts setting put some fake eggs under her---remove and fresh layed eggs daily after she stays for 3 or 4 days set her with some fresh layed, marked eggs and remove any unmarked eggs daily Or move her to a private pen at night so you do not have to check under her daily

 

[wolf-hen300]

You missed the point---I will ask it another way---how do you know for sure the egg that is due may the 3rd or May the 10 is even any good----you do know not All eggs hatch?? Counting your chicks before the eggs hatch----is what I was Joking about.

I write the date the eggs were laid on the egg then i count 21 days past the lay date so if the egg doesnt hatch on its due date I give it a day or two and if it still doesnt hatch i know its bad.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I write the date the eggs were laid on the egg then i count 21 days past the lay date so if the egg doesnt hatch on its due date I give it a day or two and if it still doesnt hatch i know its bad.

You still missed the Joke, but its OK. The Lay date Has NOTHING to do with the hatch date Unless the egg starts incubating the day it was layed.

 

[nchls school]

She won't stay on the nest to hatch the later eggs. Be sure you have an incubator fired up and ready to go when she takes the one hatchling and abandons the nest to care for it. You will probably have to raise the babies in a brooder -- in my experience (limited), that will be too much of a difference in age for her to take the new ones.

X2. Or take away the one that hatches first, and let the hen hatch and raise the two. This way you don't have to use the incubator.

 

[James Beller]

What a hoot.

I have 7 buff orp. And only one has been broody. I was hoping it would spur the others onward but a big NOPE.

Oh well. They certainly provide comic entertainment for us !

3 mixes one hatched last week then one lost all her eggs. two pure polish due next week and after that week. the other mix is due sometime in may also

 

[James Beller]

X2.

the hens all figured it out. The invader got the nest that will hatch next week. The original got the next 2 weeks from now. And the mix got the nest brand new.

 

[nchls school]

Hi the there I've got two silkies that I want to sit eggs but every time they sit them they get back of in two or three day's later. I said on the internet if you block the light out it will mack they sit? This will not work. A hen can't be made to brood eggs.

Do you have any suggestions to make them sit all the time. When I want one, or more, to go broody I leave one egg, or a dummy egg, in the nest each day. When there is 8-12 eggs in the nest the hen goes broody. Putting a bunch of eggs in a nest all at once will not make them broody. A nest slowly filling with eggs helps to induce the hormones that cause broodiness.

 

[StarMeKritten]

I write the date the eggs were laid on the egg then i count 21 days past the lay date so if the egg doesnt hatch on its due date I give it a day or two and if it still doesnt hatch i know its bad.

The eggs won't hatch 21 days after they are laid. They will hatch 21 days after you (or the hen) start incubating them. All eggs should be set at the same time to avoid a staggered hatch, especially if you are using a broody hen. If a hen has eggs due to hatch at different times, she will be forced to either abandon her remaining eggs to care for the first chicks or neglect the first chicks in order to hatch the remaining eggs.

 

[FarmerMac]

I usually separate my broody hens when they sit on eggs, this time I let her stay in the main coop sitting in one of the nesting boxes. Well I marked the eggs that I wanted to hatch and kept removing the extra eggs that the other hens laid. I lost track of what day they would hatch. Some times I checked on her, she would be sitting on other eggs so was not sure when they would hatch. One day I checked on her and found the nest box with her eggs, other color eggs and one chick squashed. I assume that the other hens must have killed the newly hatched chick. I put her back in her box and blocked the entrance with some wire, the next day when I came from work, I checked and all the other eggs had hatched. The eggs were from my Dominique, so I don't know what I got white ones. Maybe some gene mutation. LOL
Here are the new babies in the nest box.


After I move her out of the nest box.