Even with experience, they can make you crazy

[Mrs. K]

So I had a broody hen. My granddaughter and I gave her 6 brown eggs and 2 green ones...another hen goes broody. Leave them alone most of the time. Last week, thought I had better check on the eggs... only now, I have 2 brown eggs and 6 green ones.... really. I think my granddaughter thinks they changed color! haha

This week-end, is my original hatch date. So today, when I got home, I cleaned out the nests, found two faint markings of original eggs. Gave those to one bird, put the remaining under the second bird...fingers crossed SOMETHING hatches.

Good grief, thought I knew what I was doing. Crazy chickens and a crazy chicken lady.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You gotta keep an eye on those broody hens. I'm a chronic frisker to see what they are up to. Mine never do what they are supposed to either. Hopefully you get something. Broody hens drive me nuts.

 

[Wyno Queen]

So I had a broody hen. My granddaughter and I gave her 6 brown eggs and 2 green ones...another hen goes broody. Leave them alone most of the time. Last week, thought I had better check on the eggs... only now, I have 2 brown eggs and 6 green ones.... really. I think my granddaughter thinks they changed color! haha

This week-end, is my original hatch date. So today, when I got home, I cleaned out the nests, found two faint markings of original eggs. Gave those to one bird, put the remaining under the second bird...fingers crossed SOMETHING hatches.

Good grief, thought I knew what I was doing. Crazy chickens and a crazy chicken lady.

Have decided to isolate the broodies with a clutch into separate enclosure because of such experiences! Better to separate them to do their stuff uninterrupted by other broodies!

 

[aart]

Oh, Mrs. K.....great story!
Best of cLuck!!

I'm a chronic frisker

Me too!!

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm ready for "if and when" a hen decides to go broody WHEN I'm willing to let her do so. (I broke my favorite hen in 4 days using a chicken tractor about a month ago) I have a broody cage that COULD be divided into 2 private suites, with each suite having access to a small outside run. And, there is a perfect set up for an other broody cage underneath, if ever needed. I'd love to be able to dispense with the incubator next spring, and go with broody power. If I could be so organized, I'd set each broody up with a specific clutch of eggs: pure Buck Eye, Black and red sex links, and EE.

Yeah, they can be sneaky little devils.

I wonder, Mrs. K, if your broody had some dead eggs, and disposed of them, while at the same time some green ones were being added to her clutch. With them being green, candling, even with a high powered lamp probably won't show you much. Wishing you the best.

 

[Mrs. K]

That is what I think...maybe, we found a marked egg on the floor, brown, and cold. So I opened it, and a chick was started. I will just have to see, should know by Sunday. Or at least next week, if I don't get anything by then, I am going to break them.

 

[lazy gardener]

 

[Mrs. K]

With very careful listening, we heard a tiny peep under the yellow hen. Those two eggs were the original set eggs, so I kept them together.

I left the other 4 under the second hen to go broody. She is gurgling and talking to something.... but we could hear no peeping.

Fingers crossed, such a crazy hobby, but so much fun!

 

[lazy gardener]

 

[Mrs. K]

One chick out of the first bunch, looks like the second egg started to pip, but it went lengthwise and must have died. We found it out of the nest and cold. Disappointing but a lesson for my grandchildren, not all life makes it.

Other hen sitting and has already started gurgling/clucking to her eggs. But nothing so far, I really don't expect any till the end of the week. Fingers crossed.
mk