Broody Hen Thread!

[microchick]

I just was out with my 3 week old wild child chicks and their mom and got quite a surprise when I noticed that one of the chicks is sprouting leg feathers. Now I knew that these babies were OEGB cross but now my big question is crossed with what?

I've never seen anything at our neighbor's farm that remotely looked like a Cochin, Silkie or any other feather-legged bantam. I'll have to try and get a picture of the baby tomorrow. Her wing feathers (thinking positive here)are coming in black and white barred even though her body is 99% white with some black smudge marks.


You can see her standing in the back by the feeder when she was a week old. I'm hoping that the little ones in the front are platinum winged. As much as I love my flock I have to admit that I really am partial to the bantams and am seriously considering stuffing bantam eggs under every broody I am lucky to have in the future.

Anybody have any idea what my mystery chick could be? Are OEGBs ever feather legged or do they have to be crossed with another breed of bantam?

 

[pamperedamber]

i agree,,, one of the kids slipped an egg in late and it hatched 4 days after the rest, by then the other 6 were very active and mum was already taking the chicks into the coop area. digging up the floor, the late hatcher died from being trampled. and was also left to get cold. the mum only stayed on the nest for the 1st 2 days after the initial hatch, as the chicks needed to stay under her for warmth, on the 2nd day they were already in and out the nest wandering then going back under mum. hatching 4 days late was just too long to expect mum to stay on the nest when she had 6 others that needed teaching.

I ended up removing 2 of the chicks as they are the ones she is trying to kill. I don't think my splash is going to make it. It somehow got in to the big hens area. I will check it over when I get home to see if it needs to be put down. I hope not.... I do not want my Lavender to be alone. even though I have 5 in the incubator that will go into lock down tomorrow night. So it won't be alone for long.

I do have some concerns about my broody. I put the started eggs under her when they were about 5-9 days old so she was sitting for 2 weeks when they started hatching. She is refusing to let me take the unhatched eggs and seems more interested in sitting on them than caring for the 4 chicks that hatched first. Is this because she needs to brood for the full 21 days? its only 4 days till she has been sitting for the full 21 days so should i let her continue to sit?

 

[sharaw20]

If a hen is broody she will sit on her eggs. So for 22 days now she has been sitting. But I think what I have left are duds sad.png. So if I were to get another batch of fertile eggs and stuck then under will she sit there for another 21 days. Or should I give her a break. We live in Ontario Canada so it starting to get cold and I want the chicks to be ok in the weather that is to come. Or if I should better wait till spring summer.

 

[windyhawk]

I had a quick question and wasn't sure if it had already asked here (but of course, there are 1355 pages in this thread...)

Is it normal for a 7 month old hen to go broody?

We got our Buff Orpington chicks around the first of March from TSC and the hen just hatched her own chicks this week.

We have an Austrolorp hen that is at least 3 yrs old (not sure because she came with our house when we moved in) and she goes broody about once or twice a year. I assumed that the BO would go broody when older, but was kind of surprised that it happened this soon.

My 26 week old White Rock is hatching her babies right now. Two so far.

 

[pamperedamber]

Not having very good luck for my first time around.
shipped Lavenders 12 set - 5 made it to lock-down under broody - 1 hatched then mauled by broody - hoping it will make it. It was the last to hatch. It is in my house in a box next to the incubator with food, water and heat lamp. Not sure if it will make it.
BBS started local - 12 put under broody - 1 egg broke in nest broody tore it open, chick didn't make it. 2 Blue, 2 black, 1 splash hatched. Broody killed the splash. but she is doing good with the other 4 chicks. the Blues and blacks were the first to hatch and were 2 days ahead of the splash and lavender. Moved rest of the 10 eggs to incubator to hatch. 1 was chirping in the egg when I put it in. No external pip yet.
Lavender local - 4 eggs in the incubator and on lock down today.
BBS local - 2 eggs in the incubator and on lock down today.

That makes 16 eggs in the incubator hopefully some will hatch.

 

[hungry hunter]

Since this is the first broody hen we have had (with a rooster in the flock), I have a lot of questions. I apologize for keep asking what has probably be asked dozens of times before...


We had one chick hatch Saturday and another hatch Saturday/Sunday, but since then no others out of the 8-10 remaining eggs. I assumed that the chicks would all hatch closely together, but is it normal for there to be 3-4 days in between hatches?
The broody wasn't isolated and the other hens were still laying in the box, so there may be viable eggs that were laid up to a week after she went all broody on me.

If the other eggs are no longer viable, how long will she still stay with them? I'm assuming that she can tell if there are live chicks inside the egg.

How long should I wait before I remove the remaining eggs?

Thanks again for all of your help. You are all awesome!

 

[redsix]

I put 4 eggs under an Australorpe Monday evening (today is Wednesday). She comes off the nest in the middle of the day and may be off for as much as 3 hours? It's probably close to 80 degrees in the chicken house. I felt the eggs and they weren't warm. I have a second broody Australorpe hen, but I can't get her to sit on the eggs. She would rather sit in the small nest that she is in, which doesn't have any eggs in it. I assume neither hen knows what they are doing when it comes to hatching eggs?

 

[the poppster]

If I want to allow a broody to set. I always isolate her. I've attempted to just let her do her thing, and so far all I end up with is broken, dirty, questionable eggs....

 

[microchick]

I put 4 eggs under an Australorpe Monday evening (today is Wednesday). She comes off the nest in the middle of the day and may be off for as much as 3 hours? It's probably close to 80 degrees in the chicken house. I felt the eggs and they weren't warm. I have a second broody Australorpe hen, but I can't get her to sit on the eggs. She would rather sit in the small nest that she is in, which doesn't have any eggs in it. I assume neither hen knows what they are doing when it comes to hatching eggs?

I wouldn't give up hope on your first broody yet. Eggs are more durable than we give them credit for being. I would hang in there until day 8 and candle. My last broody was a space cadet. She kept rolling eggs out of the nest. 8 of 12 hatched fine. 1 egg was infertile 3 died in shell not from mom rolling them around but because she decided to poop on the whole bunch early on in incubation. It took me three days to bribe her off the nest for the first time. She was a first time broody so I'm cutting her some slack this time as she has been a first class little mom to her her babies-which are now almost 3 weeks old.

I have to agree with poppster and the others who promote isolating the broody in her own pen. It might not eliminate all the problems that can crop up with a broody hen but it can sure limit the number of hassles.

 

[Honora]

My mama hens are still fighting! The two broodies started fighting the day after they got their chicks and had to be separated, each with her own group of chicks. For the last two weeks, I have given them separate times to free range, but I have also tried short periods of supervised free ranging with everyone together. Every time these hens have access to each other they start fighting and end up bloody.

The other hens are getting fed up with it. Two of the other hens broke up the fighting 3 times this afternoon, and the broodies just went right back to fighting again and I separated them again. How long is this going to go on?? They are driving me crazy!