Broody Hen Thread!

[gpeters3]

A lot of you allow your hens to lay in the nest and do not collect the eggs daily I am Reading. I collect the eggs daily from every nest and every pen. If I want the eggs for hatching I mark on the egg and properly store it till I get a broody or I incubate before the eggs get to old.

Been trying to get that point across myself. Seems like some are overthinking a fairly simple process. I noticed with my bantams that other hens would fight to get into the brood nest when mom got out to eat. That is exactly what you want. The eggs dont give a hoot who's warm butt is sitting on them as long as someone is I learned to mark a few to incubate in my first few days messing with it. Can you remember exactly which eggs are supposed to stay by color, shape or size? I cant so i marked them Someone said they thought one hen could incubate 18 eggs.....really? Even if they dont break some, they wont keep all of them evenly warm. If you really want to hatch that many get an incubator. Why beat yourself up and then blame the poor hens for not getting it right?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Update on my situation....

Well Splash momma went back and stayed with the flock leaving half sister Olive to tend to the little one.

Olive sat on the nest for several more days, but then started getting up for longer periods to tend to chick.

Poppa kept peace in the flock and integration has been flawless with Olive and the little CCL/Barnie OE.

After several days of noticing the eggs she was sitting on (still over a week to go) were getting cool and left alone, I had the good fortune that both my Silkie and a bantam Cochin have gone broody, just finishing their last batch.

I thought what the heck, so I put the cool eggs under them several days ago....and I can't believe it but I am sure I still saw movement.

The next hurdle will be these eggs will hatch about 1 1/2 weeks earlier than the broodies will be expecting...but these gals are seasoned broodies so I remain hopeful.

It will be AMAZING if I get these hatched too!

It's musical nests around here lately.

LofMc

 

[dishpanhanzs]

I extended my raised nest with a raised box at the same level as the nest. I added food & water to the box extension. After about 1 week, they started to hop out of the nest & go outside of the coop. They aways went back to the nest at night to sleep.

 

[Mommy 2 Wee Ones]

Even with all this room, Miss Ramin refuses to get off her eggs and walk around. She will lean over and eat & drink, and she had 3 more poops in the last 4 days. All she has to do is hear that someone is near & she will growl. She is kept covered, and I remove the cover to check food & water & poop. As I gave her fresh water today, she gave me a hard peck. tried giving her some fresh young grass and some Timothy hay, she turned her beak up at it. She just wants to be left alone, just like Greta Garbo!

 

[PD-Riverman]

, Miss Ramin refuses to get off her eggs and walk around. She will lean over and eat & drink, and she had 3 more poops in the last 4 days.

Why would she get off the nest? You got the food and water in front of her and you are having to clean up the poop in or around the eggs---which the chicks will be walking/getting it all over them---- when they hatch if you continue feeding her at the nest. I have set probably 150 hens in the last 3 years or so----I have never had any of those hens to poop while on the nest, because they do not have food and water at their nest. They have to get up, stretch their legs, walk over to the food and water---they will relieve themselves before they go get back on the eggs. Works good!

 

[WildHens]

RachaelR32, sounds like  you have  your hands full. Maybe you should try what I do and tell your roosters that you love fried chicken and you would just be so happy if he joined you for dinner....literally.

I'd make sure she (the second hen)  has a little area where she can brood without romeo trying to move in on her. I didn't have problems with amorous roosters, I had hens trying to donate to my broody's cause.

Lol...I have a friend that swear my chickens understand English bc when I get a slacker (or as in my last case, half a pen of slackers at once )..I told them they'd all be delicious still in chicken noodle soup..had an egg the next day, and within 4 days,all the girls were back to laying daily..
My roos all seem to have it down perfect. But I do have some lazy hens..

 

[nchls school]

A lot of you allow your hens to lay in the nest and do not collect the eggs daily I am Reading. I collect the eggs daily from every nest and every pen. If I want the eggs for hatching I mark on the egg and properly store it till I get a broody or I incubate before the eggs get to old.

I'm one of those that leave the eggs in the nest until the hen goes broody, but only when the hen has a nest to herself. With a shared nest I collect the eggs and put a dummy egg in the nest each day. With my set up the nest boxes are very much the same. When I have two hens go broody with the same nest I put two nest boxes side by side; each day the nests are separated a small amount until the nests are quite separate. So far this has worked well with little problems. I leave eggs in the nests only when the conditions are good. During the summer when temperatures are high I collect all eggs each day and replace with the dummy eggs until the hens go broody. With my small flock it is fairly easy to get the hens laying in different nests. The only hen that I have that does not use the similar nest boxes is the frizzle that keeps using the cereal bowl. The other hens don't usually lay in that because it's so small. But again, I have great luck with broodies because of the small amount of hens that I have-6 and a few young pullets that will be laying soon-5. When they start to lay I will have to collect eggs daily. I'm quite sure I would have problems if I didn't; broken eggs, egg eating, etc.

 

[2lilchkns]

Did you candle the eggs at least once to see if the were developing while she sat on them? When I have a broody in a nest, I candle the eggs at least once to make sure they are developing and pull out the bad ones.  

No, I didn't candle them. This is the first time we have had a hen go broody, so I have never candled before. I watched some YouTube videos about how to do it, but ultimately decided I didn't want to mess with the eggs too much (especially since I really don't know what I'm doing

). Instead, I would just check in daily to make sure nothing smelled "off," and figured I'd let nature take its course.

 

[WildHens]

Ea

No, I didn't candle them. This is the first time we have had a hen go broody, so I have never candled before. I watched some YouTube videos about how to do it, but ultimately decided I didn't want to mess with the eggs too much (especially since I really don't know what I'm doing

). Instead, I would just check in daily to make sure nothing smelled "off," and figured I'd let nature take its course.

Easiest way I've found is to use either an iPhone flashlight (my android doesn't seem to do as good) or just a regular LED bulb flashlight (like ones u can get at register at TSC) and despite everything I've read saying to put the bulb at the small end, I think it's easiest to do from the air cell end and I don't have to flip my egg upside down that way..it's really simple. .I promise..lol..
Here's a blue egg being candle with an iPhone. .it was to show someone the weird air cell, but blue eggs are generally the hardest to see thru so using it as my example

 

[smleggshack]

Day 21 and we have a pip on one of our eggs. I'm so excited! I'm keeping my fingers crossed all goes well. This is my hens first clutch. The chick will be a Asian blue/cream legbar mutt.