Broody Hen Thread!

[randiferina]

My first time broody silkie did wonderful brooding and hatching her first clutch.. She got 2 out of 5.. One was not fertile and the other two that didn't hatch were probably due to a few rookie mistakes on my part.. Anywho.. The chick just made 5 weeks this past Saturday and mom is already trying to distance herself from them.. Not really a huge deal. The babies are handling themselves OK... But mom is showing signs of going broody again!!! What gives?!

 

[randiferina]

Her current situation

the kids are roosting nearby like "whenever you're ready mom, we'd love to go free range!"

 

[microchick]

My first time broody silkie did wonderful brooding and hatching her first clutch.. She got 2 out of 5.. One was not fertile and the other two that didn't hatch were probably due to a few rookie mistakes on my part.. Anywho.. The chick just made 5 weeks this past Saturday and mom is already trying to distance herself from them.. Not really a huge deal. The babies are handling themselves OK... But mom is showing signs of going broody again!!! What gives?!

She's a Silkie and a Silkie gotta do what a Silkie does, namely, sit on an egg or 20 whenever she gets a chance, LOL.

 

[Selsley]

Her current situation

the kids are roosting nearby like "whenever you're ready mom, we'd love to go free range!"

our chicks were 3 weeks old sunday. they are not as close to mum when theyre outside as much as they were, you can see them spread in the garden, our broody went about a month after she 1st laid, she managed to hatch 7 out of 8 eggs, the 8th wasnt fertile and the 7th was 4 days late and got trampled and died,
today she was in a nest box and the chicks were all sat on perches, im not thinking shes going broody, im assuming shes getting ready to start laying again. i dont know if your hen is laying, but whouldnt she need to start laying eggs again before going broody again? what on earth would she be hoping to sit on if shes not?

 

[nchls school]

our chicks were 3 weeks old sunday. they are not as close to mum when theyre outside as much as they were, you can see them spread in the garden, our broody went about a month after she 1st laid, she managed to hatch 7 out of 8 eggs, the 8th wasnt fertile and the 7th was 4 days late and got trampled and died,
today she was in a nest box and the chicks were all sat on perches, im not thinking shes going broody, im assuming shes getting ready to start laying again. i dont know if your hen is laying, but whouldnt she need to start laying eggs again before going broody again? what on earth would she be hoping to sit on if shes not?

You are right in thinking hens lay eggs before going broody. Last month one of my serama had just two eggs in her nest after raising a brood of chicks and then went broody again. I've had old hens go broody after laying just one egg.

 

[Selsley]

now we have 2 araucana hens and 5 araucana chicks, would it be best to swap our rooster or would it be ok to wait for another brood?
would father daughter breeding be a problem? or just get a new roo and change the bloodline with the hens and what ever chicks are female?
i know breeding the 2 hens again wont be a problem, but it takes a few days to gather enough eggs, specially if theyve all been eaten, we were lucky we had 2 in reserve when the hen went broody and we got another the day we put them under, then somehow a 4th got laid in the nest, which hatched the day after the rest

 

[Mommy 2 Wee Ones]

My Banty hen Ramin hatched her first set of chicks this season, the first week of May, and stayed with them for 2 months, then went back to the flock. On Saturday, she was sitting in the corner, where all the hens lay their eggs, beside the 4 seater nest box. She was still there Sunday night, so I did the test....I reached down to pet her, and she puffed up and growled, so missy mam is broody again. There were 8 cold eggs around her, so I tossed them out. I gathered her up and put her in the storage container I used with her first hatch. I collected 12 eggs under her, all warm and clean, tucked them underneath her, and brought her inside like before. Got a couple of large boxes that I will combine, and will transfer her and the eggs into that in another week. Right now I am just keeping her fed, watered and quiet.
So if she stays broody, we will have had 3 sets of chicks hatch this year from Broody Mama's. Lolly is still with her babies, who are almost 2 months old. Every time she attempts to get some time away from her chicks, she is quickly loved on by the roosters. So she is not ready to go back to the flock yet.

 

[Selsley]

My Banty hen Ramin hatched her first set of chicks this season, the first week of May, and stayed with them for 2 months, then went back to the flock. On Saturday, she was sitting in the corner, where all the hens lay their eggs, beside the 4 seater nest box. She was still there Sunday night, so I did the test....I reached down to pet her, and she puffed up and growled, so missy mam is broody again. There were 8 cold eggs around her, so I tossed them out. I gathered her up and put her in the storage container I used with her first hatch. I collected 12 eggs under her, all warm and clean, tucked them underneath her, and brought her inside like before. Got a couple of large boxes that I will combine, and will transfer her and the eggs into that in another week. Right now I am just keeping her fed, watered and quiet.
So if she stays broody, we will have had 3 sets of chicks hatch this year from Broody Mama's. Lolly is still with her babies, who are almost 2 months old. Every time she attempts to get some time away from her chicks, she is quickly loved on by the roosters. So she is not ready to go back to the flock yet.

funny that you would toss out 8 cold eggs that were around her, i assume you collect them everyday?
we sat our hen on 7 cold eggs out the kitchen which had been laid over 3 days since we wanted our araucana eggs hatched,
and she hatched them all,

she went into the flock with the chicks at 7days old by her decision, she was always in the coop, now at 3 1/2 weeks she sat in the nest boxes last night for the 1st time with the chicks, but yesterday she was up there and all the chicks were playing on the perches. the nursery is under the 3 nest boxes with 80% enclosure, im assuming shes starting to distance herself a bit, as the chicks in the garden are no longer being bunched up and are spread about more. we can often see some at one end of the garden and others at the other end. they also seem to be watching what the other hens are doing and as expected getting the "move along/thats mine" odd peck. they have also started fighting each other a bit, looking at the chicks and then at the hens, i would say our hens are quite lazy, the chicks are always climbing in and out the pile of branches and scratching about when all the other hens as lazing about, as for mum, she hasnt let the cocks mount her yet, she was chased by the bantam but jumped up on the fence round our rear patio, more often then not shes sitting on the end of a branch on top of the pile stopping the cocks getting near her.

 

[chicken19]

It's day 21 for my broody hen. They're is still no pipping or peeping but I thought I saw some egg movement.
Should I be worried?

 

[chuckachucka]

Chicken19 I wouldn't be worried. Did you candle the eggs at any point? If you did and the eggs were developing and as far as you know the hen has remained on the nest for the whole 21 days, then it should be ok. Broody hens know what they are doing and some eggs just take a bit longer to hatch. The chicks move a lot inside the eggs when they are getting in position to break through the membrane into the air sac so if you saw movement the first pips should be within a day. Listen closely for cheeping inside the eggs during this period. Hopefully you should see a chick within a day or two.