Ella2025's Experiment Broody Hen Hatch-A-Long

[GreenJay]

Saffrons right toe is crooked. How can I fix it?
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Have you tried taping-bandaid the foot like for curled or splayed toes? See if it'll straighten out better?

 

[redinator]

Hi!!!
I'm so excited to be writing this. This is my first ever Hatch-A-Long, and also my FIRST EVER HATCH too!

My BR Bippy has always acted broody in the hours leading up to her laying her egg. She does the same thing every day: plop down on the nest and push eggs under her and do all things broody hen at like 8 am, and her egg will be in the box 2 hours later. However 3 days ago it changed. she slept in her nesting box that day and refused to get off the nest the next morning, and the morning after that... Here is Bippy today, all puffed up and pancakes on her eggs.

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This hatch will kind of be an experiment. I will be

1. Using pullet eggs which usually people don't recommend incubating due to potential low hatch rates. These are the only eggs I have and I want to try hatching from them.

2. Using a TWENTY THREE WEEK OLD broody hen. I've never heard of anyone having a hen go broody so early, before most hens even start laying. She seems to be doing very well so far, not breaking eggs, very gentle and barely gets off the nest.

3. Setting the eggs over 2 days instead of all at once. My chickens don't lay that many eggs yet, and I get anywhere from 2-4 healthy non double yolk eggs a day. Since Bippy has already been broody and sitting on fake eggs for a few days, I wanted to set the eggs under her as soon as possible, without having to store the eggs and turn them everyday.

I already know many people are going to tell me that my (pullet) eggs are too small, my broody hen too young and inexperienced, and I know that. This hatch is going to either pleasantly surprise me or be terribly disappointing. For all I know, Bippy could abandon her eggs tomorrow . However any non constructive criticism and hate will not be tolerated on this hatch.

Now onto the parents.
Dad is my almost 24 week old EE or splash Ameraucana. No way to know for sure if he's an EE or ameraucana right now, but I might know soon when (if?) his chicks hatch and lay eggs.

Moms could be my 4 20-21 week old EE hens, one of which (brown one on the left, skedoosh) layed her egg on my hand, so I'm sure who's the mother of that egg. Also the brown egg below is from my light Brahma hen whose from the same April 2 batch as Bippy the Broody. Here are all the parents together.
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Now, onto the eggs. I marked them with weight, breed of hen, date and a number. As you can see they are all very small peewee eggs that I'm going to attempt to hatch. I set the skedoosh egg (#2) and the other 40g blue egg (#1) yesterday evening and the rest of the eggs this afternoon. They were all fresh and never refrigerated, should all be fertile.
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The theme of this hatch-a-long, as we are heading into fall, will be spices (and herbs)!!! I'm thinking Cinnamon, Basil, pepper, etc. help me name my eggs!

Candling will be on:
Saturday, October 13 at 6 days (5 for the later eggs)

Sunday, October 21, on Day 14,

And Thursday, October 25, day 18, right before lockdown.

Hatch days should be on the 28th and 29th.

Here is my current egg list:
#number - mother - name
#1 - mystery ee - Ginger
#2 - skedoosh the ee - Saffron
#3 -mystery ee - cracked on Day 1
#4 - mystery ee - Nutmeg
#5 -brahma - Basil
#6 - mystery ee - Peppermint (Pepper)


Wish me luck everyone! I'm so excited and so nervous at the same time!

I will be posting updates as much as I can.

I just had a 6 month old pullet hatch and raise chicks. I only let her have 5 eggs incase she quit early or had terrible mothering skills, but I was dumbfounded the whole way through. The chicks are coming up on 5 weeks and she's still caring for them.

 

[redinator]

Bippy is very grumpy today.

Mine was the same way grumpy until I dropped some treats in front of her, then I swear I heard her say "Thank You"

 

[redinator]

Here is the Bippy update I almost forgot to post!

I cleaned her coop yesterday and replaced the shavings in her box with straw. She made a cute little nest and is loving the straw. No super random stuff happening to her eggs today FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE 6 DAYS OF HER HATCH !!!

I took some hilarious photos.

Next candle is on sunday
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I'm late so someone else may have mentioned this already, but the 'bald belly' is her broody patch so the eggs can make contact with her skin for better heat transfer.

 

[ella2025]

Have you tried taping-bandaid the foot like for curled or splayed toes? See if it'll straighten out better?

Thank you. Sorry, I was a little busy the past few days and didn't really check this thread. Her (I really think it's a he now) toe straighted by itself after a few days. Weird but I'm glad it's better lol.

 

[ella2025]

I just had a 6 month old pullet hatch and raise chicks. I only let her have 5 eggs incase she quit early or had terrible mothering skills, but I was dumbfounded the whole way through. The chicks are coming up on 5 weeks and she's still caring for them.

I think I probably broke their bond by putting the eggs in the incubator halfway through. I'm still glad I did that because Saffron and Pepper wouldn't be alive if I didn't do that! Bippy didn't accept them and had to be broken but I'm sure the chicks will grow up great. I'm very happy that your hatch worked out for you!

 

[ella2025]

So, how do broody hens work exactly? Nugget went broody yesterday out of the blue. She even screamed at me first day on the job . I didn't want her to be weak and frail like Bippy, so I didn't let her hatch any eggs. Besides, other chickens would definitely break them in one way or the other. I gave her a 5 minute ice bath and put her in broody jail for one night. This morning, I went to check on her and she was standing straight up like a pole with a wing out. I wondered what was going on and if she was ok. And then a wet brown egg popped out of her backside and she returned to normal chicken posture. I didn't expect her to start laying for a week or more!

 

[redinator]

So, how do broody hens work exactly? Nugget went broody yesterday out of the blue. She even screamed at me first day on the job . I didn't want her to be weak and frail like Bippy, so I didn't let her hatch any eggs. Besides, other chickens would definitely break them in one way or the other. I gave her a 5 minute ice bath and put her in broody jail for one night. This morning, I went to check on her and she was standing straight up like a pole with a wing out. I wondered what was going on and if she was ok. And then a wet brown egg popped out of her backside and she returned to normal chicken posture. I didn't expect her to start laying for a week or more!
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I'm curious what behaviors you're see that make you think they're broody? I have a Buff Orpington that lays a huge egg. If I disturb her while she's trying to lay she'll either leave the nest box and lay the egg later, or snap at me to get me to leave her alone.

I can only guess she behaves differently depending on how far into the laying process she is; if she just started she'll leave and lay the egg later, if she's nearly done she tells me to "Fluff off!"

 

[ella2025]

I'm curious what behaviors you're see that make you think they're broody? I have a Buff Orpington that lays a huge egg. If I disturb her while she's trying to lay she'll either leave the nest box and lay the egg later, or snap at me to get me to leave her alone.

I can only guess she behaves differently depending on how far into the laying process she is; if she just started she'll leave and lay the egg later, if she's nearly done she tells me to "Fluff off!"

She plucked feathers on her underside and lined the nest with them, has a few eggs tucked under her, puffed up 3x as I approached, and shrieked too. This was much more sudden and more obvious than Bippy, so I guessed she was broody. I took her off the nest and she plopped right back down in a pancake shape, still puffed up and hot.

 

[redinator]

She plucked feathers on her underside and lined the nest with them, has a few eggs tucked under her, puffed up 3x as I approached, and shrieked too. This was much more sudden and more obvious than Bippy, so I guessed she was broody. I took her off the nest and she plopped right back down in a pancake shape, still puffed up and hot.

I've only had the one broody so far and that does sound like she's thinking about it, but there's no guarantee she'll commit unless she sits for a week or longer.

While my pullet was brooding she came off the nest for roughly an hour every day to eat, drink, poop, dust bathe and then went back to sitting. Everytime she came off the nest I would panic and assume she'd given up, only to find her stuck back on the nest a little later.

I kept a chick waterer and feeder in the henhouse so she could still eat and drink even if it was raining and she didn't want to come out.

Everyday I made sure to handle her for a few minutes, either when she came off the nest, or check on her and her eggs in the nestbox. She would screech and puff up, even when she came over to me for cuddles and treats, I think it's just the hormones talking, she never pecked at me once.

Oh and anytime I went into the nest box I would talk to her before sticking my head or hand in, so she'd know it's me. When she came off the nest with the chicks she walked them right over to me to show them off and didn't flinch or fuss when I picked them up.