Broody Hen Thread!

[Lady of McCamley]

I'm hoping to raise birds for eating. We won't use an incubator as we have no mains electric connection. So I want to get them sitting on a decent number of eggs.

Hubby wants to eat both boys and girls, but I suggested we could sell the excess girls if we get a good breed. So my latest broody has 6 brahma eggs, quite expensive as from some showline so she's only got a few of them for this first time sitting.

You have some nice options for breeds for that purpose, the Brahma you've chosen, and the Light Sussex recommended by fisherlady. This idea was actually a project of mine for awhile before I got sidetracked and decided egg color was a lot more fun.

It is always good to identify your goals. For me, the ideal dual bird would have hens that laid decently even through winter, not overly broody, and the roos would come to table in a reasonable amount of time so you don't have to feed them a lot of grain before you can process them. If you can get auto-sexing, even better, as you know right off who your layers are and who your meaties will be . It does help to adjust feeding since those birds treated for the table do better with a higher protein formula.

If you are wanting the breed to be broody itself, that can be a bit of cross purpose as you can get too many brooding and not enough eggs (my Marans). I found it best to get some really broody breeds to do the brooding work and let your main breed be for laying and table.

With those thoughts, I can recommend New Hampshires for that purpose. They have been known to be good brooders and mothers, but not excessively. Both hens and roos are a good size. Hens are not as prolific as a Leghorn or even Barred Rock, but lay very decently. The eggs they lay are large and some even HUGE. I've gotten some of the biggest eggs ever from NH's. Go to a good breeder to get them as the hatchery quality NH is really just a Production Red.

NH's come to table in a reasonable time, by 22 to 26 weeks if my memory serves, if fed properly. I plan to go back to that project and get some nice NH's when I get done coloring my egg basket.

Brahmas can brood, but one poster here who uses them extensively has noted they tend to break eggs being a bigger hen. And she's noted that while they are a nice size bird, they do take longer to mature...around 7 to 8 months if I remember correctly.

Fisherlady has offered some nice suggestions with the Sussex and I'll defer to her on any further questions for that breed.

Rhodebars are a good breed and have the advantage of autosexing....you know immediately at hatch who are the females and the males (if you have a good line). I got them to try an autosexing breed and have been very impressed with the hens continued ability to lay well. The roos were very nice size and came to table pretty well by 16 to 18 weeks (I had to butcher early due to family events) but would have been even better by 20 to 22 weeks...but I was feeding them the higher 22% protein as they were in the pen with the Buckeyes. One of my RB hens was persistently broody, while her 2 sisters have not been so much so. They are decent size as hens.

I can personally recommend the Buckeye breed as dual purpose if they are available in your area. Very sweet temperament. Hens lay decently, large eggs, and the hens themselves are a nice size for table, which does mean they increase your feed bill a bit. Roosters come to table very nicely by 16 to 24 weeks depending upon how you feed them (5 lb weight by 20 weeks is the ideal). It was fairly obvious who my roos and hens were by week 6, definitely by week 10, so you can change feed to better target table weight (you want Buckeyes and other meat purpose birds on a meat bird feed if you want to maximize table weight).

Buckeyes are really hard to come by where I live, and I was not happy enough with the project to continue trying to get really expensive shipped eggs to perfect the best flock...and I went off to egg color.

So when I go back to this project, I will attempt it with New Hampshires. If I still have my Rhodebar girls, I might try rebuilding a line with them infusing with New Hampshire. With some work you can create a defacto Rhodebar infused with RIR for better laying...I'll have to read up the genetics to see if I can do that with the larger NH. You breed back over subsequent generations culling until you've got the single bar in the females and the double bar in the males....but that's a lot of work.

Good luck on your breed choice...sometimes you have to fiddle around until you get the right breed that is easily obtainable and has the characteristics you want and thrives in your environment.

LofMc

 

[kendallb12]

UPDATE: Bo is sitting on the 6 eggs we put down! fingers crossed things go well. would it mess up my BO if I took her off nest everyday to eat/drink groom and defecate?would it make her think she shouldn't be on eggs? she never got off the eggs when she was sitting on the 10 and she lost a lot of weight. I thought she was gonna starve her self and she would die!! so should I take her off nest everyday?

 

[JaeG]

We used our OEGB girls to hatch chicks recently and with moving them indoors it threw them a bit and they would not voluntarily get off their eggs so we ended up taking them off their nests twice a day for a break until day 17. They knew when they needed to get back to their eggs and it certainly didn't put them off their job. They didn't lose any condition and began laying again 6 weeks after hatching babies. Gave me a good chance to check their eggs too.

 

[PD-Riverman]

UPDATE: Bo is sitting on the 6 eggs we put down! fingers crossed things go well. would it mess up my BO if I took her off nest everyday to eat/drink groom and defecate?would it make her think she shouldn't be on eggs? she never got off the eggs when she was sitting on the 10 and she lost a lot of weight. I thought she was gonna starve her self and she would die!! so should I take her off nest everyday?

Lets go back a few 1000 years---before you and I started raising chickens----they must have gotten of the nest---to eat/drink/poop etc because they survived---LOL. Did your last hen poop all in the nest and all over the eggs??? If not she got off the nest when you were not looking. I set 150 in the last 3 years, I did not touch them---to make them get off the nest, eat, etc---they all did good. If you let her stay with the rest of the hens----she might not want to get off the nest very much because of other hens getting in her nest while she is off---but she will get off. I move all mine to a private hatching pen---the hen learns quick that there is no threat of other hens so my hens usually get off the nest at least once daily till getting close hatch time. Food and water is out of her reach so she has to get off the nest to eat etc. This allows her to stretch her legs, poop etc. "I" feel placing food next to her nest causes problems so I do Not do that-----some do---in my case with 150 broody hens I have never had one to poop in the nest----if I left food close---they will poop all over it or they will have to get off the eggs at hatching time to poop----which is not good in ""MY"" opinion. Good Luck

 

[RubyNala97]

Can anyone please tell me what I should do about this mess I have on my hands? I had 1 broody hen sitting on 5 marked eggs for about 2 weeks. Then I had a family emergency and spent a few days in the hospital. I came home to find that 2 more girls have joined her on the same nest and added a bunch of eggs. I candled the eggs and they look like they are all at various stages of early incubation, all showed development. And another girl went broody too but at least picked her own nest box. should I mark all the new eggs? That's everyone's favorite nest box and I even caught 4 girls squeezed in there today. I would have to monitor that nest daily to pull new eggs right? It's just so hard to get the eggs out from under all 3 of them. Should I just leave them alone? I don't want a bunch of viable eggs being left over at different stages. It's just a big mess!

 

[kendallb12]

Lets go back a few 1000 years---before you and I started raising chickens----they must have gotten of the nest---to eat/drink/poop etc because they survived---LOL. Did your last hen poop all in the nest and all over the eggs??? If not she got off the nest when you were not looking. I set 150 in the last 3 years, I did not touch them---to make them get off the nest, eat, etc---they all did good. If you let her stay with the rest of the hens----she might not want to get off the nest very much because of other hens getting in her nest while she is off---but she will get off. I move all mine to a private hatching pen---the hen learns quick that there is no threat of other hens so my hens usually get off the nest at least once daily till getting close hatch time. Food and water is out of her reach so she has to get off the nest to eat etc. This allows her to stretch her legs, poop etc.  "I" feel placing food next to her nest causes problems so I do Not do that-----some do---in my case with 150 broody hens I have never had one to poop in the nest----if I left food close---they will poop all over it or they will have to get off the eggs at hatching time to poop----which is not good in ""MY"" opinion. Good Luck

hello, the last time she DID poop in the nest... I had to clean her nest out and everything. poop on the eggs and everything. don't understand why she didn't go outside she has access outside! Other hens don't bother her nest, it's hidden. I just wish she would go outisde more often instead of pooping in her little nest area.. :/

 

[PD-Riverman]

hello, the last time she DID poop in the nest... I had to clean her nest out and everything. poop on the eggs and everything. don't understand why she didn't go outside she has access outside! Other hens don't bother her nest, it's hidden. I just wish she would go outisde more often instead of pooping in her little nest area..

Where was her food and water?

 

[PD-Riverman]

Can anyone please tell me what I should do about this mess I have on my hands? I had 1 broody hen sitting on 5 marked eggs for about 2 weeks. Then I had a family emergency and spent a few days in the hospital. I came home to find that 2 more girls have joined her on the same nest and added a bunch of eggs. I candled the eggs and they look like they are all at various stages of early incubation, all showed development. And another girl went broody too but at least picked her own nest box. should I mark all the new eggs? That's everyone's favorite nest box and I even caught 4 girls squeezed in there today. I would have to monitor that nest daily to pull new eggs right? It's just so hard to get the eggs out from under all 3 of them. Should I just leave them alone? I don't want a bunch of viable eggs being left over at different stages. It's just a big mess!

I would separate, candle the eggs--into app age of development. Give the hen that's been setting the longest the ones closest to hatching, etc, etc Break the ones you do not want to set.

 

[gpeters3]

I bought plastic eggs and marked a black x on them and i get at least 4 nests used now where before they were all using the same one. I need to get 4 more and i will have one in each box. Family Farm has them and i marked them because i couldnt tell them apart from the real ones. They are a little lighter but very realistic. They also come in different natural colors.

I suspect that if you have a brood hen sitting these eggs will take the pressure off her if you have enough nests.

 

[gpeters3]

I marked the ones i wanted to keep and collected the rest. I just grabbed her tail and gently lifted her butt enough to get the eggs out. If you are gentle they wont even try to get up.