Broody Hen Thread!

[sharol]

I put three healthy English Orpington chicks under my Araucana broody this morning before dawn and stole 2 of her eggs (and put them in the incubator). She raised a couple of babies in early February in the very cold part of winter. So far, so good, They are not screaming and she is all fluffed out over them. I helped the 4th chick out -- it had pipped at the wrong end about 24 hours ago -- I figure I had nothing to lose at this point. It rolled out ready to hatch and is fluffing in the incubator with the 2 breda eggs. It will join its hatchmates either late tonight or really early tomorrow morning. I'm hoping this works. I have no place for new hatchlings right now. I'm going to move them all into a cat carrier and put it in a pen inside the regular coop fairly soon to protect them from the rest of the flock.

 

[szczur]

3 fluffy chicks so far! This is the beginning of Day 21 so I don't want to lift her up to check how many hatched yet! Sooo cute!

 

[fisherlady]

3 fluffy chicks so far! This is the beginning of Day 21 so I don't want to lift her up to check how many hatched yet! Sooo cute!

They are adorable, I would just leave her alone for the next day or so, upsetting her now would possibly cause her to get up and it could interfere in other eggs hatching. Enjoy the new ones from a distance for a bit...

 

[fisherlady]

I put three healthy English Orpington chicks under my Araucana broody this morning before dawn and stole 2 of her eggs (and put them in the incubator). She raised a couple of babies in early February in the very cold part of winter. So far, so good, They are not screaming and she is all fluffed out over them. I helped the 4th chick out -- it had pipped at the wrong end about 24 hours ago -- I figure I had nothing to lose at this point. It rolled out ready to hatch and is fluffing in the incubator with the 2 breda eggs. It will join its hatchmates either late tonight or really early tomorrow morning. I'm hoping this works. I have no place for new hatchlings right now. I'm going to move them all into a cat carrier and put it in a pen inside the regular coop fairly soon to protect them from the rest of the flock.

I am glad it is working so far...as long as there isn't too long of a time span in the grafting it should work well if she has been receptive so far. Hopefully you can get them all grafted before she is ready to leave the nest with her earlier chicks.

 

[slordaz]

gonna see if can get one of the hens to accept these babies that are hatching in the incubator tonight, think would probably be best to use one of the broodies waiting for a spot in brood box, instead of disturbing hens already sitting on eggs but only half way through, we got one of the barred rocks that as a pullet raised 2 day old chicks we brought home waiting so that would probably be best bet, or what do you think?

 

[sharol]

I am glad it is working so far...as long as there isn't too long of a time span in the grafting it should work well if she has been receptive so far. Hopefully you can get them all grafted before she is ready to leave the nest with her earlier chicks.

Me too. It seems to be doing well, so tonight in the dark, it is going to join its hatchmates. She has raised babies before and didn't complain at all about the babies. When I moved them to a bigger space within the coop (but secure from the other birds), she came off the remaining egg and sat just outside the nest box with the 3 babies under her, so I don't know how that will work. I took the remaining egg and put it in the incubator.

I have two more broodies due over the weekend or the beginning of next week (they are experienced broodies who always have raised chicks together), so I may be able to put the breda chicks under them if they hatch at the right time. I didn't write down the date I set the breda eggs, so I'm not sure about that, but they look about ready to hatch.

This is ridiculous. I've not hatched much before, and this summer I'm covered up with chicks thanks to my dratted broodies. That is what I get for loving those English Orps, I guess.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Thanks for the articles, LofMc. I will definitely take a look at them and yes, it does make perfect sense. I was an OB nurse the first 5 years of my career.

So if the calcium plays such a big roll in kickstarting either the brooding phase and then the resuming of ovarian function, it would probably be advisable to make Oyster Shell available to the hen during the 'chick' phase of brooding at some point. Or maybe not make Ca available. I was feeding chick starter (gamebird) to hen and chicks without Ca available and she still started laying again exactly 5 weeks after she went broody. which I read somewhere is the number of weeks the average broody is hard wired to stay in the broody phase.

Manipulating the hormones of a hen. Hmmm, interesting concept as you would be able to control if and when a hen went broody.

Amazingly, that is what the turkey article is all about...manipulating the brooding of turkeys so that productivity is not lost but yet enough poults are hatched. It literally is a science in the turkey industry.

My thoughts were going towards preventing a lingering brood...helping to kick start hormones again after they've already got a clutch so that they don't brood again too soon.

My valuable Splash Marans is lingering in yet another brood after she hatched a chick last month. I don't want to place her in a broody buster if I can help it as I don't like to interrupt a hen's behaviors if I ever want to use them to brood again.

But if I can manipulate her hormones so that she comes out of the brood better.....hmmm.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Light of morning shows a clear head dot on the other CL/Barnevelder chick....rats...3 boys and 1 girl this season thus far for that pairing.

1 more egg remaining under the Rhodebar. I left the other which I am pretty sure is a quitter so she'd have 2 to set on just in case I might be wrong (blue eggs remember). Sadly missing the 2 eggs that got crushed (Honestly, all layer flock with oyster or calcite grit never produces as good a quality of shell for me as layer feed). Hopefully this last egg will develop into another girl.

Now, what am I going to do with all these roos. Of course I staggered the hatches such that they will all come to table at different times making it not easy to add to a butcher run...but with the lighter Mediterranean type blood in the CL, I doubt there will be ever be a good size carcass as both CL's reflect more of the Leghorn background.

Posting free roosters doesn't do much around here. Sigh. I hate culling, but that is what I may be left to do. (@PD-Riverman and @fisherlady what do you do with excess, and staggered, little roos....you can't keep them all.)

But this season thus far has produced 2 Black Sexlink pullets, 1 red laced pullet (who hopefully has her mother's terra cotta egg color genes enriched with Barnevelder color), and 1 Olive Egger Barnebar pullet.

Now to get that Splash Marans laying again so I can hatch some blue laced dark layers (hopefully) before winter sets.

LofMc

 

[FaerieChicken]

I just had my first broody hen. She's an austrolaup (sp?) from a hatchery. She's 2 and she just hatched out 5 babies. They're really cute. I'm so excited. I'll have to take some pics

Congratulations! it will be exciting watching her raise them and protects them!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Thank you for that information. Do you have a recommendation on a good quality layer feed? We give them Scratch and Peck right now. I am a bit of a non GMO and non soy, non corn, organic freak but I'm open at this point cause she's driving everyone crazy.

I like Nutrena products http://www.nutrenaworld.com/products/poultry/naturewise-poultry/naturewise-layer16/index.jsp

I don't buy organic feed as I don't like the high prices for what you get, but Nutrena does have an organic certified line:
http://www.nutrenaworld.com/products/poultry/naturesmart-organic-poultry-feed/layer-pellet/index.jsp

Most importantly, look at the label for the guaranteed analysis. Many of the scratch feeds are not complete nutrition.

LofMc