Day two (Aug 7) for broody hen on 14 eggs

[mychoock]

This is our first broody hen experiment, and I am cautiously excited. One of our eight Partridge Chantecler hens went broody about six days ago, and I collected newly laid eggs for couple days.

Yesterday my DH spent hours building a brooder box. This box is about 2x7 ft, and is raised 3 ft off the floor, as it is like a loft in the main coop. I can put in food and water through a door, which will also serve for clean-out. There is enough room for the chicks to run around after they hatch The broody hen stayed on her nest, which at that time was empty, during the whole construction process. Cordless drills, hammers, saws, nothing phased her.

When we had everything ready, we placed the 14 eggs in the nest, and set Auntie Bittiken on top of the eggs. She is still there now.

I hope to have little chickies around August 26 or 27. I am going to try to include a picture of the brooder box. Okay, wait, I am going to post this and then read about how to put pictures into a post, and then put the pictures into my next post.
Wait right there. I'll be back.

 

[mychoock]

I am trying to insert a photo. This is hard for my small brain.



Did it work? Can you see the photo? The hen which is most visible is just another hen who happens to be laying right now. The broody hen is behind the square of wire, next to the plywood door. The brooding nest is quite private.

I will try to put in another picture.




This shows how the brooder box is built up against the wall of the coop. Food and water are behind the door. I think I will move them down to the end of the box. The open sides are covered with chicken wire, and we will add hardware cloth to make it safe for new chicks.

 

[epignosisjs]

Congratulations! I just returned from Louisiana this evening to find one of my EEs sitting on 7 eggs. My best guestimation is she started sitting them yesterday. I placed an 8th egg that I found in another nest box in with the others while "Stella" was eating. This is my first broody experience, too! If my guestimation is accurate, I expect hatching

to occur about August 27, also. I will wait cautiously and excitedly with you!

I like your brooder setup. Looks like I'm going to have to get busy on one, too!
Good Luck!

 

[mychoock]

Thanks for the reply and encouragement, epignosisjs. I hope you have success with Stella. I would love to hear more from you, about how you set up her nest and how it all goes.

 

[epignosisjs]

You are most welcome! Thank you for the well wishes.
Here is my broody momma, Stella. The eighth egg that I added to her collection last night was in a different nest box this morning, one row higher and two rows over to the right! I guess she didn't like that one! I didn't know that they could move them, except to roll them, but I know it wasn't a new egg laid earlier this morning because my light green egg layer (Dora) deposited another one shortly after I removed the light green one Stella rejected. The seven she's laying on are light green (Dora's eggs) and some of her own olive eggs.

I don't know yet what I plan to do with her and the eggs. I guess I need to figure out how to separate her from the rest of the flock for the potential chicks' safety. I've been reading on this forum, and that seems like the thing to do.
I haven't even been able to mark the 7 she's sitting on because I haven't seen her get off of them yet today. And I'm thinking she probably started brooding Sunday or Monday, so I'm looking at hatching around Aug 26th or 27th.
It will be exciting! And hopefully productive, lol. Do you plan to candle your eggs next week?
I will candle mine, if she'll let me!

 

[mychoock]

Really? She kicked out an egg? I had no idea they could do that, aside from maybe rolling an egg around a bit. Chickens are funny things. What would make her refuse an egg?

I don't know anything about candling. Guess I need to do some reading. Actually, I feel like I know nothing about this whole process, but the hen seems to know what she is doing.
Here it is, day 5 already, and she is still sitting on those eggs. A miracle. This is what I hoped would happen, ever since I got these birds a year ago in spring.

I hope you can work out a way to separate her from the main flock, as it seems to make sense for both her comfort during brooding and for the chicks safety for at least a couple weeks. How many other chickens do you have? Oh, I just did the math in your signature -- about 25 birds? Are they all in the same pen? How high is the nest off the ground? I would be worried about the chicks falling out after they hatch.

 

[epignosisjs]

Well, I separated her this morning, because she was laying out in the run and very lethargic, barely responsive. She didn't make it. Odd, she was just fine yesterday evening. I performed a necropsy. No bruising, not egg bound, no physical trauma. The only thing unusual was her liver. It was grainy in texture and the outer surface was yellowed.
I made a quickie incubator, hopefully we can still hatch out together! Here is a link on candling. I don't plan to candle them until Sunday or Monday, easier to see at that point.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

Regarding the moved egg, she didn't kick it out. It was in a nest box one row higher than she was nesting. I looked here on BYC and read that people have seen them tuck the egg under their "chin" and move eggs. Others have said they saw a hen scoop an egg up in her wing and move it. Crazy!
Regarding the coop/run, it's 8' wide and 16' long, that's 128 square feet/25 chickens, giving 5.12 square feet per bird. Suggested sq ft per bird is 2-4.
I will be adding on to it soon, and hopefully converting some of my roosters to free ranging.

 

[Cryptkeeper]

I hope yall have better luck with your broody than I did. She had been sitting on 8 eggs for the past week, when i locked them up last night around 9 she was still sitting there sleeping, I go out this morning and she isnt on her eggs anymore

I feel the eggs and by the temp of them feeling cold, she must have gotten off of them sometime shortly after I locked to coop doors last night

. I was so hoping for her to hatch those lil buggers out so my kids could see the whole life circle.... oh well

 

[cochins1088]

Mine have kicked out eggs in the past as well as just completely given up forgetting about their eggs. I find the best way to get them to stay is a smaller area like a brooder box. They have plenty of room to move, but they have nothing better to do rather than sit on their eggs. I don't get why they sometimes kick eggs out, I've seen healthy embyros kicked out for no reason. And you don't need to candle but it's really neat. I always do about day 10 because it's so cool to see the moving embryo in the egg. One thing you should do is smell them every very so often to look for bad eggs. I just had a rotten egg explode all over my broody hen, it was disgusting. I had to give her a bath and clean all of the other eggs. They are still alive by the way. If it's rotten, there will be a horrible smell coming from the egg and the inside will appear as completely dark when candled. It's a horrible mess to clean up, so I watch for them. They become rotten when bacteria invades the egg.

 

[YoungHen]

I hatched two eggs a few weeks ago)
two out of three hatched and she kicked out the third, I put in back under her but
she kicked it out again but I think it was an unfertile egg and after a few days they others hatched we
through it out. I didn't do any of the candeling business haha) I just put her in a chicken ark,
kept food and water close by, she sometimes ran out into the garden and left them
but it was to eat grass and fly around to strech her wings. She was off them for about an hour
once and half another time, but the eggs were fine. I just let nature take it's tollD
Georgie, (if they hatch I would love to see some picture)

NOOTTTEE My eggs were cold but they hatched anyway, even if the outside is cold, the inside might still be warm))