Broody

[abbynormal]

Milly, my Maran, went broody this week too. She was on 4 yesterday, but I collected them and had them inside waiting for the prek class to incubate. When I went out there this morning, she was still nesting in the same box, but no eggs! Feeling really guilty from the evil looks she was sending me, I brought the eggs back to the coop. I tried to get her to lay in the pet carrier inside the coop (with bedding and the eggs) and she wouldn't do it. She and I were in the coop together, Moto Moto (the rooster) was outside clucking, Milly was inside sounding the alarm, and I was inside the coop telling her to get on her eggs. It was quite a site (I know because my DH was outside with his welder giggling over the whole scene.) I managed to put the eggs into a box next to the original spot and she got up on them and nestled in. I had to make her move from the favored laying box so I'd still get my eggs for breakfast! Milly got her babies to sit on, I got my favorite laying box back for the other hens, and Moto Moto got his coop door back open. What a mess!

After all this, I sure hope those darn 4 eggs she's guarding hatch....but then what do I do with them? Does she need to have a seperate brooding box for her and the peeps for safety? Will the other hens kill the babies?? I have given into her need to be a mom, but now what do I do??

Ang

 

[Den in Penn]

I always thought the best time to move a brooding hen was at night. With mom present to watch her chicks there should be no problems for the rest of the flock. As they grow up they may get a few manner pecks from the others just to remind them they are on the bottom of the order, but that should be all.

 

[monsterkx500]

Woo Hoo 4 more day till the eggs hatch.

I'm hoping they will hatch because she got up off of them for couple of hour and the eggs felt cold.

I just hoping there was no damage done.

 

[karlamaria]

Have you candled them at all?
My Hen went broody weeks ago, she would not give up and since it was the only box every chicken would lay in I decided to get her some fertilized eggs and let her hatch a set. So we put her the house in a rabbit hutch today and made a nice nest for her and added food and water and she is so content. She just would not stop brooding lol ,! She has only 5 under her, we can not keep any more as we are at limit now. I'm going to have to get a new coop built soon! We will be candling them in ten days to see what's viable and what's not.

 

[karlamaria]

Milly, my Maran, went broody this week too. She was on 4 yesterday, but I collected them and had them inside waiting for the prek class to incubate. When I went out there this morning, she was still nesting in the same box, but no eggs! Feeling really guilty from the evil looks she was sending me, I brought the eggs back to the coop. I tried to get her to lay in the pet carrier inside the coop (with bedding and the eggs) and she wouldn't do it. She and I were in the coop together, Moto Moto (the rooster) was outside clucking, Milly was inside sounding the alarm, and I was inside the coop telling her to get on her eggs. It was quite a site (I know because my DH was outside with his welder giggling over the whole scene.) I managed to put the eggs into a box next to the original spot and she got up on them and nestled in. I had to make her move from the favored laying box so I'd still get my eggs for breakfast! Milly got her babies to sit on, I got my favorite laying box back for the other hens, and Moto Moto got his coop door back open. What a mess!

After all this, I sure hope those darn 4 eggs she's guarding hatch....but then what do I do with them? Does she need to have a seperate brooding box for her and the peeps for safety? ?? I have given into her need to be a mom, but now what do I do??

Ang

. Yep you will need a safe place for her and her peeps. You do not want the other chickens to harm them . You can put a dog house or small hutch inside the pen and separate it from the other chickens with hard wire. This is what my plan is when mom and chicks go out next month.

 

[karlamaria]

Day 4 and she is determined. I just took her out to eat, drink and poop, she was off the nest 10 minutes and back on her eggs .i only gave her five eggs to sit on, Iray she hatches all of them, at least 2 are important so the chicks have buddies to be with. Praying all goes well ! Will candle in 4 more days!

 

[QualityPolish]

Lol so fun you guys ^^ We have our Polish hen sitting on 11 I think :/ haven't checked under her in a few days. It's day 6 and I think I will candle tonight, I'm just so anxious.

 

[karlamaria]

Lol so fun you guys ^^ We have our Polish hen sitting on 11 I think :/ haven't checked under her in a few days. It's day 6 and I think I will candle tonight, I'm just so anxious.

how did the candling go? We candled tonight, we know 2 are ok, not sure about the other three, we candled so fast and was not sure what we saw lol, but we did see movement in 2

 

[onebigglo1]

My mom had an americana that went broody so I put 5 of my BO fertile eggs under her. My mom has 4 other hens that would lay eggs in the same nest as her so my mom would throw the broody out the house everyday and make her eat. She would then gather what blue eggs she had. The hens knocked 1 egg out and broke it, 3 eggs disappeared on the same day, and the hen kept sitting on the one last egg. I had marked my calender when hatching day was. My mother kept saying she was going to throw the egg out because she wasn't going to have a hen wasting time for one egg. Luckily, I talked her out of it and on hatching day, there was an adorable little chick in the nest when she gathered her blue egg. Keep in mind, my mom is 87 with cataracts on both eyes and didn't even see the chick! The cats were swarming around looking for a tasty treat so I took the chick home and put it with my other chicks in a large dog carrier. I felt so bad about taking the chick away from the hen that I set 11 more eggs under her. 5 eggs got knocked out the nest before I could move her to a dog carrier and the she hatched 4 chicks from the remaining 6. 2 were BO's and 2 were a BO rooster and a dominick (sp?) hen mix. I was hoping for some calico chicks and got them. So far they are still in the dog carrier with the hen and doing fine.

 

[karlamaria]

Good for you letting the broody girl have babies. It's nice to see a broody get some mama time. I do not have a rooster, got my eggs from a sweet gal. I really did not want more chickens bt did wañt her to experience this. Now I will be giving what hatches to my mom. Gosh we now have to havea coop built this month lol