Broody Hen Thread!

[ClareScifi]

This must be the thread I was searching for.

Good grief! I went outside and heard Esther, and she was off her nest for a bit and ate broccoli bits well. I made her some fresh water with apple cider vinegar, and she drank well. I had let her out in the yard to free-range a bit, so she could eat all the greens she wanted. There aren't any greens growing inside the run yet. Turned my back, and she was gone!

Had a very close call. She had found the old nest of year-old eggs under the house that I can't get to to remove! She had seen them and decided to brood those, instead of the new ones! I panicked... Luckily, Esther has always been my best eater, broody or not! I started wildly throwing her $25.00 crumbles around the porch and calling, "Esther, Esther, chick!, chick!, chick!..." like I did when she was a baby, and she came out from under the porch in search of the yummies! Thank goodness!!! I nabbed her and shut her back up in the coop with the new eggs.

I don't think she was off the nest too long. Always something! This chicken bit just keeps me hopping! She was so good and didn't try to peck me or anything when I carried her back to her new nest. Cute little girl she is! Easter would be so proud of her sister. What a bad scare! I'd have been sick had the new eggs been abandoned and she'd have started wasting her time on the old unfertilized eggs.

Question: Will I have to keep her in the run forever, since I can't convince anyone around here of the value of fencing in the porch so she can't get under there? For example, if her chicks hatch and I let her out to free range and she spies those eggs, is there a chance she'll go sit on them and abandon the little chicks?

 

[ClareScifi]

Are all these herbs safe to put in a nesting box for brooding hens?

Bay Leaf
> Calendula Flower
> Peppermint (or Spearmint)
> Catnip
> Chamomile Flowers
> Sage leaf
> Thyme
> Lavender
> Oregano

 

[FarmerBoy24]

Quote:
Okay,

So If your hen has chicks and still has eggs. Okay she will wait a few days to hatch the other eggs if they don't hatch she will abandon the nest

 

[AlienChick]

Quote:
Be careful what you wish for!

I tried to make my Silkie go broody by filling up the nest boxes with bantam eggs that I had gathered.

I usually give the bantam eggs to my dogs as treats, so this time I just left them in the nests.

Within days she went broody.

I don't know if that was a coincidence or if seeing the pile of eggs made her go broody.

And now that she's gone broody, another one of my Australorps is now broody.

I think it's contagious.

 

[ClareScifi]

So her chicks could die while she goes under the house to sit on the old unfertilized eggs? I've never hatched chicks before and am not sure how this all works? Her nest of fertilized eggs is in the coop. The year old eggs are under the house. It is two separate nests-- one fertilized and one unfertilized. The ones under the house are inaccessible. There's no way to remove them.

 

[NewToFarming]

Quote:
Be careful what you wish for!

I tried to make my Silkie go broody by filling up the nest boxes with bantam eggs that I had gathered.

I usually give the bantam eggs to my dogs as treats, so this time I just left them in the nests.

Within days she went broody.

I don't know if that was a coincidence or if seeing the pile of eggs made her go broody.

And now that she's gone broody, another one of my Australorps is now broody.

I think it's contagious.

x100!!! It is contagious!!! Every one of my silkies are broody again!!! Some are on their third tour of duty since spring and my leghorn was broody twice!!! Be very careful what you wish for! LOL

 

[NewToFarming]

Quote:

So her chicks could die while she goes under the house to sit on the old unfertilized eggs? I've never hatched chicks before and am not sure how this all works? Her nest of fertilized eggs is in the coop. The year old eggs are under the house. It is two separate nests-- one fertilized and one unfertilized. The ones under the house are inaccessible. There's no way to remove them.

How long has your girl been broody? I would say the chances are slim for her to go to the old eggs once she is done hatching the ones she has been sitting in and the chicks are a few days old for sure. Silkies love to be moms and are very good moms so I believe once she hatches the chicks she will stay with them.
Some of my silkies get confused and go to different nests while they are brooding but once the chicks hatched they never got mixed up and went onto different nests.

 

[ClareScifi]

Quote:

So her chicks could die while she goes under the house to sit on the old unfertilized eggs? I've never hatched chicks before and am not sure how this all works? Her nest of fertilized eggs is in the coop. The year old eggs are under the house. It is two separate nests-- one fertilized and one unfertilized. The ones under the house are inaccessible. There's no way to remove them.

How long has your girl been broody? I would say the chances are slim for her to go to the old eggs once she is done hatching the ones she has been sitting in and the chicks are a few days old for sure. Silkies love to be moms and are very good moms so I believe once she hatches the chicks she will stay with them.
Some of my silkies get confused and go to different nests while they are brooding but once the chicks hatched they never got mixed up and went onto different nests.

Thanks so much, Lisa. My neighbor suggested that maybe the broody hen went under the house because she smelled her sister, not to sit on eggs. Her sister, who loved to go under the house and brood on eggs, died on August 25 and was my only other chicken. Do you think that's possible, that she was just smelling her sister under there? The strange thing is, this surviving chicken never went under the house, but the dead one did all the time. Also, the dead one was my broody girl, and this surviving one was never broody, until her sister died, and then she immediately became broody. Isn't that odd?

 

[LiLRedCV]

This gal went broody in middle August. Found some fertilized eggs down at our "Green Mile" coop, so decided to swap them out for the eggs she was actually setting on. So far, she's had 7 successful hatchlings! But she's still broody, so I brought her more eggs from the "Green Mile" coop. She doesn't budge off that nest! Been concerned about her weight staying up, so I feed and water her twice a day inside the coop. She puffs up and gives me the chicken purr.... In the beginning of her broodiness it was more of an irritated sound. Now? It's a happy sound. I pet her, she happy purrs more... I bring her BOSS and she gets even louder while she's eating it!!

 

[ClareScifi]

What is BOSS?
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