Broody Hen Thread!

[fisherlady]

Pidgy with hers...
She incubated in an elevated egging nest, but no one dares bother her, we never had to remove imposter eggs after we gave her hatching eggs. DH and I moved her to a quieter floor level broody box late last evening.

Gracie with her latest group, hatched about a week ago...

 

[microchick]

Congratulations fisherlady. If looks could kill in the second picture......What pretty babies! Such a treat for summer winding down.

Poor Lil'girl did her best as a first time broody. It was all so new to her. It took me three days to coax her off her nest to do her thing and then it took bribery with sunflower seeds which are her favorite to get the job done. But by then it was too late and the eggs were pretty crusty. All things considered we are lucky we got as good a hatch as we did.

I was able to get a short video this morning when I gave them their scrambled egg. Unfortunately I could only coax 4 out from under mom at first but was able to get more out by the time I took a picture.

 

[fisherlady]

Congratulations fisherlady. If looks could kill in the second picture......What pretty babies! Such a treat for summer winding down. Poor Lil'girl did her best as a first time broody. It was all so new to her. It took me three days to coax her off her nest to do her thing and then it took bribery with sunflower seeds which are her favorite to get the job done. But by then it was too late and the eggs were pretty crusty. All things considered we are lucky we got as good a hatch as we did. I was able to get a short video this morning when I gave them their scrambled egg. Unfortunately I could only coax 4 out from under mom at first but was able to get more out by the time I took a picture.

Great video! I do love watching their first experience with goodies!

 

[Honora]

Sorry you guys didn't have as many hatch as you wanted. I ended up with only one hatching with the broodies, and 3 hatched in the incubator. I got 9 chicks in the mail though, so I have plenty of chicks! The hens accepted the new chicks with no problems. Unfortunately I had a problem this morning. Yesterday I moved the 2 broodies and the chicks to the little coop where they would be more protected and not be bothered by the other hens. Everything went fine yesterday, but this morning the 2 broodies started fighting!

Fortunately I was here because it escalated quickly and both hens were bleeding from the comb and face by the time I managed to grab one and take her out of the coop. I put her in a dog crate and randomly grabbed a few chicks to put in with her. I don't really have another place to put her, so I thought I would just try and block off part of the run and keep her in there. Obviously they have to be kept separate.

Any advice or suggestions? Will the chicks stick with their separate "moms" now if they are free ranging?

 

[Selsley]

Color is a possibility, especially since the late one is different, it just made it stand out that much more. Would be interested to hear if they were both male or both female also.

it wasnt just the black, since it was younger, it stayed close to mum which is when i noticed it being pecked, the white one already learned to not get close and spends most of its time alone or with the other chicks. i think the black is female she has a yellowy pink almost none existent comb like its mum, the EE i have no idea, all the chipmunk araucana have a small pea comb and none seem to be growing in a tri fashion and as of yet they still look like their mums comb but pinky/red but not as dark as dads, their combs were always darker than the blacks comb from birth and also a little bigger, as a french strain, they are starting to get their bushy neck feathers, and a few muffs and beards they all seem to progress differently, one had a bushy neck first another got a beard and another got muffs, the EE has the longest muffs so far and theyre not fluffy, theyre feathery

Unfortunately, none of the 4 remaining eggs hatched. 1 was infertile and the other three had died within the last week of incubation.. I thought they had pipped internally but that wasn't the case. In 2 cases they had their beaks slightly turned towards the air cell and in the other the beak wasn't hardened although the egg tooth was present. Two things possibly happened to them. Either they succumbed to infection from mom pooping on them early on(although there there was no foul smell to them nor no sign of infection in the liquid) or they died from being rolled out of the nest and the temperature fluctuating. The exterior lining was quite dark so they had been dead for a few days at least.

The good news is that we have 8 beautiful little chicks that survived and hatched, in spite of new momma 1st time broody status. 5 are OEGB mixes 3 are Buff O. One of the 3 is a chick from an egg laid from my lone Buff O Welsummer cross hen so I officially have a second generation chick now in my flock. All three look to be sired by one of the Buff O cockerels that hatched with her.

I had hoped the little OEGB chicks would turn out to be Bantam so I could pass them on to a friend as a gift, unfortunately I don't think that is going to be the case as the chicks are only slightly smaller than my BO chicks instead of bantam sized. More in line with a standard sized OEGB instead of an OEGBam.

I knew it was going to be a gamble when I got the eggs. So while I lost the bet, I do have 5 adorable chicks to add to the flock.

I'm hoping to work on pictures. DH and I have the Fall Crud that is going around our area. Bad cough, painful sinuses, sore throat and generally feeling as though we have been ran over by a bus. Hope this isn't an indication of what the rest of winter is going to be like.

arent eggs supposed to have a protective coating on them to protect them from poop? which is why its said to not wash them cos it can come off,

 

[slordaz]

Sorry you guys didn't have as many hatch as you wanted. I ended up with only one hatching with the broodies, and 3 hatched in the incubator. I got 9 chicks in the mail though, so I have plenty of chicks! The hens accepted the new chicks with no problems. Unfortunately I had a problem this morning. Yesterday I moved the 2 broodies and the chicks to the little coop where they would be more protected and not be bothered by the other hens. Everything went fine yesterday, but this morning the 2 broodies started fighting!

Fortunately I was here because it escalated quickly and both hens were bleeding from the comb and face by the time I managed to grab one and take her out of the coop. I put her in a dog crate and randomly grabbed a few chicks to put in with her. I don't really have another place to put her, so I thought I would just try and block off part of the run and keep her in there. Obviously they have to be kept separate.

Any advice or suggestions? Will the chicks stick with their separate "moms" now if they are free ranging?

free ranging at first they will stick with their moms but when they discovered other chicks closer to size of them they kinda forgot about mom and wanted to be with the others their size. This is just my flocls experience though and they tend to be more community brooders which I have been trying to discourage. one goes broody and everyone contributes eggs for her to sit on so harder to get a broody broke if we don't want them sitting on eggs.

Makes it easier though to integrate them into the flock earlier though too.

The 2 broodies that hatched out got along pretty good because they would work together to make sure the roosters didn't bother the little ones or my perpetual broody that hasn't successfully brooded so tries to steal others nests or babies to raise. gonna try giving her some incubator hatched chicks of her one, if not she's going to be gone.

 

[Selsley]

free ranging at first they will stick with their moms but when they discovered other chicks closer to size of them they kinda forgot about mom and wanted to be with the others their size. This is just my flocls experience though and they tend to be more community brooders which I have been trying to discourage. one goes broody and everyone contributes eggs for her to sit on so harder to get a broody broke if we don't want them sitting on eggs.

Makes it easier though to integrate them into the flock earlier though too.

The 2 broodies that hatched out got along pretty good because they would work together to make sure the roosters didn't bother the little ones or my perpetual broody that hasn't successfully brooded so tries to steal others nests or babies to raise. gonna try giving her some incubator hatched chicks of her one, if not she's going to be gone.

the rooster dad was the 1st chicken our chicks were introduced to when they went outside at 7 days old, he came over and did his little dance, and scratched in the grass and took a step back, obviously they didnt know he could provide for them and stayed close to mum, im assuming he taught them a warning call though coz he made a funny noise and the chicks and mum scurried inside real fast, 2 days later they stayed out all day and have been ever since, its true, broody mums can integrate the chicks better and faster than we can, it also makes for better foragers, although a chick blindfolded at birth with instinctively scratch in the dirt and when finding a worm will run off like its being chased by other chicks.

 

[slordaz]

the rooster dad was the 1st chicken our chicks were introduced to when they went outside at 7 days old, he came over and did his little dance, and scratched in the grass and took a step back, obviously they didnt know he could provide for them and stayed close to mum, im assuming he taught them a warning call though coz he made a funny noise and the chicks and mum scurried inside real fast, 2 days later they stayed out all day and have been ever since, its true, broody mums can integrate the chicks better and faster than we can, it also makes for better foragers, although a chick blindfolded at birth with instinctively scratch in the dirt and when finding a worm will run off like its being chased by other chicks.

heck my year and a half olds still do that, lol, my roosters learned to help integrate on the second hatch after being scared of she devil broody, poor guy is mean rooster and was reduced to hiding with the ducks for protection from the broody. now they all seem to get along as they've established whats acceptable and not with a broody hen. Our flock is crazy though too , at least they take turns brooding now instead of 9 hens trying to do it at once lol. As we had 2 roosters at the time and chicks from both of them we introduced ours to the main flock protector first.

He is a riot any time a new layers is getting close he purrs to them and gets up in the nest to show em what to do, next new batch of layers will have to get a video, if that rooster ever gets that egg laid he's trying to show the girls how to do we'll be rich lol

 

[microchick]

Eggs are porous @Selsley and yes the bloom protects them but I don't even think the 'bloom' could protect these eggs from the amount of poop on them. I scraped off as much as I could but for all I know the oxygen level in the egg could have dropped causing the maturing embryo to die or it could have been from contamination.

Please correct me if I am wrong about this guys. I'm speaking on complete and total supposition here.

 

[nchls school]

We finally made the move to Tennessee. It took us four days of travel from Wisconsin due to illness, getting lost while going though Chicago, severe storms, sudden braking to avoid accidents, etc. All the birds made the trip safely. Some in wire cages and a few that were with chicks or brooding eggs in plastic tubs. The hen above stuck to her nest through it all; even 100+ temperatures. A few days after arriving at our new home these four chicks hatched. A real surprise considering all that happened during the move. I had really though it hopeless to expect the eggs to hatch; the eggs were from my wife's nine year old pet that had been killed by a hawk a week before our move. My wife is thrilled to have the chicks. The old hen had been a treasured pet.