Colorado

[uzisuzuki]

My friend had a broody cemani hatch bantam chocolate orpingtons and said now that she saw a broody do it, her hatching abilities and being a broody mama pale in comparison fwiw. Stick eggs under ur broody!

They hatched a week or so ago, with no problems!

Have you had any of your hens hatch for you? I don't think mine is broody enough to actually hatch the eggs. I get the feeling that she's just hoarding them for some reason. But I've also not let more than 3 eggs gather in the nesting box at a time so she could be waiting to sit on them until there's enough to make it worth it. If I don't do very well on my upcoming incubating attempt, I think I'll let her try when I get a proper coop built for them.Thank you for the suggestion!

 

[suncatcher]

Broody hens are the best, they know what they are doing! Also, they care r fothe chicks themselves, so no need to have them under a heat lamp, etc. If you have a broody hen, I would let her sit on four or five eggs!

Do Cemani's get broody? I know nothing about this breed.

 

[Double Kindness]

Yes, cemani get broody and I hear svart honas are especially broody.

My 2 cemani pullets started egg songs this week. Soon I will have eggs I hope. Hard to tell if their faces will get red, since they are all black

 

[maggiemo]

Broody hens are the best, they know what they are doing! Also, they care r fothe chicks themselves, so no need to have them under a heat lamp, etc. If you have a broody hen, I would let her sit on four or five eggs!

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X2
I am only a few days into my first incubating attempt and I can already say that any broody in the world will do better than I am going to do hatching eggs.

 

[COChix]

Well, we're going to cull that hatchling later today, and I sold the chicks that did hatch.

I think I need to calibrate my incubators better/again.

Back to the drawing board, but I do have 23 more eggs in lockdown and another 24 in the janoel and another 2 dozen ready to set.

I'm holding off though on setting any more until I get better at this.

Don't be too hard on yourself, you will get better with practice.

Broody hens are the best, they know what they are doing!   Also, they care r fothe chicks themselves, so no need to have them under a heat lamp, etc.  If you have a broody hen, I would let her sit on four or five eggs! 

Do Cemani's get broody?  I know nothing about this breed.

I have heard and read that a good broody hen is worth their weight in gold. They will teach the chicks everything, will be protective and will integrate the chicks into the flock. Plus you don't have to worry about humidity and temp with eggs under a broody compared to a bator. I am hoping our Barnie/Dark Cornish mutt will be broody this spring, she was this fall so we can give her eggs.

 

[Mtn Margie]

I'm so sorry your hatching didn't go as well as you wanted it to. Hopefully, the next batch will provide better results and your recalibrations will work for future batches.

On a kinda related note, I had to open up an egg that was laid yesterday (my rooster attacked my hand and I dropped/cracked it) and was pretty elated to find a perfect bullseye on the yolk. I was beginning to worry that none of my hens' eggs would be good for incubating because I couldn't tell from any of the others if they were/weren't fertilized. Also, I had been reading/hearing that Sebrights have fertility issues. I wasn't expecting to find that. I'm still pretty nervous about trying to incubate them. If it were nicer out, I'd let Calypso sit on all the eggs like she wants to and have her hatch them. She's turned into a bit of a velociraptor about the eggs lately. The noises that come out of that hen now are kinda scary.

You can let her set them any time she wants to. She will do all of the heating necessary.

 

[suncatcher]

If she has been broody before, she will be again this year, just have to wait for the weather to get nicer and days to get a little longer.......

Cemani pullets are looking good!

 

[uzisuzuki]

Don't be too hard on yourself, you will get better with practice.

I have heard and read that a good broody hen is worth their weight in gold. They will teach the chicks everything, will be protective and will integrate the chicks into the flock. Plus you don't have to worry about humidity and temp with eggs under a broody compared to a bator. I am hoping our Barnie/Dark Cornish mutt will be broody this spring, she was this fall so we can give her eggs.

Does she brood over anyone's eggs and then chicks? Have you had her reject any chicks because they weren't her breed? I keep finding threads on here about some hens not taking care of chicks that are different breeds and was just curious. Even though I dropped the money of my Brinsea, after hearing all the difficulties and heartache of trying to incubate/hatch in CO, I'm leaning more towards letting nature do her thing on her own.

You can let her set them any time she wants to. She will do all of the heating necessary.

I wanted to so much after I found that bullseye last night, but, kinda how I had to be asked to put on waitlists for certain breeds and decline buying right now, I really do have to wait for the benefit/health of the hens and potential chicks. Right now, they're being moved between a smaller area in our horse barn when it's wet/snowing/below freezing and a retrofitted dog pen/house when it's not. I was planning on building a coop to accommodate them, breeding, and brooding before last month when I got not so great news about my car accident recovery. So, now I have to see what my paycheck will look like with the pay cut before I start working on said coop. If it's not too much of a cut and I don't have to work PT for very long, I'll be able to keep any chicks that I can get to hatch in the group of eggs my mom bought me and a few of mine as well as start the coop for them. If not, I'll have to sell any hatched chicks (as much as that would make me sad) and put off the coop or ask for help money/material wise from family.

I'm kinda having a lot of memory/cognitive issues from my trauma, so I very much would rather Calypso take on the brooding. She knows way more than I ever will learn and retain right now.

 

[Double Kindness]

Yes, the ac hen my friend has hatched bantam chocolate orpingtons and is taking care of them beautifully. I'm jealous.

On other news, egg songs from my 2 oldest ac pullets. I think I might wait a couple more months to hatch eggs until my pullets pass their 1 year old mark. I hear less problems with hatching then. And no more shipped eggs.

If I end up throwing all those eggs out in a few days, I will stop for a bit and bake a lot. A few ladies in the community want to buy eggs from me. So.. yeah. Hatching has been a bit of a bummer for me.

 

[suncatcher]

The hen will let you know when she is really broody, as she will sit on the nest no matter what. I do a bread test, I throw down bits of bread inside the coop neat the nesting box area, and if she sticks to her nest, she is broody, now and again she will get off and grab a piece of bread, but many times she will not budge. They go into a type of zombie state almost when they are broody.