Ever had a winter broody?

[3dogcp]

yes, If it turns out to be a rooster I could do that. I have a black Silkie hen that hatched the eggs. Would make an interesting Silkie if it kept the coloring of the Dominique.

 

[Varglet]

Here's a better pic of the babies outside with Gabrielle.

 

[3dogcp]

Cute, Don't you just love Silkies

 

[Manningjw]

Well my winter broody is still busy being a great mom to her 2 little chicks that she hatched. I now have a 150W bulb in the coop with them which is probably part of the reason why I was surprised by a big blue/green egg this after noon when I went to check in the little chicks.

I fully expected my broody to take 5 or more weeks off from laying. She hatched eggs December 29th and now has already laid an egg again by January 20th? Is that normal for young hens?

Even more reason to like my already favorite hen.

 

[zippy722]

I fully expected my broody to take 5 or more weeks off from laying. She hatched eggs December 29th and now has already laid an egg again by January 20th? Is that normal for young hens?

I don't know if less than a month from hatching is normal, but I'll share my current experience. My australorp that sat on 17 and hatched 11 on Nov 9th, is still not laying. I'm hoping she gets back on it soon. When she hatched a clutch in June, she was only off laying for 5 weeks from the hatch date. So yours seem a little early compared to my experiences. But good for you to get her back in the saddle, so to speak!

 

[tarutgers]

Update on my chicks born the wee before Christmas. All still growing and all have survived the unbearable temps here in Minnesota. Both moms are still sharing them and the chicks still don't seem to care as long as they can squeeze under! They sure are feathering out quickly. I don't think I will worry so much about the 95 degree temp requirement the first week anymore. We were also blessed with an egg today from one of the mommies. The other 12 hens are still putting out 9 eggs a day. Such good girls!! We are using heat lamps. One on all the time in the brooder pen but we still have frozen water in the unheated waterer in the am, no frostbite in the brooder pen. My roosters in the big pen do have some frostbite but not much, the fluctuating temps have made it hard too control the humidity in the big barn. We do put a lamp over the big pen but it is in such a large barn. Keep telling DH that we need more animals and birds for more body heat.giggle! Thinking these babies are gonna be hardy they are doing so well in the cold!

 

[Manningjw]

I don't know if less than a month from hatching is normal, but I'll share my current experience. My australorp that sat on 17 and hatched 11 on Nov 9th, is still not laying. I'm hoping she gets back on it soon. When she hatched a clutch in June, she was only off laying for 5 weeks from the hatch date. So yours seem a little early compared to my experiences. But good for you to get her back in the saddle, so to speak!

Thanks for sharing your experience. I think a big part of her laying again early is she is very young, she was hatched May 5th, so almost 8 months old and has already hatched a brood. The other thing is I have a 150W white light bulb on 24/7 (would like to shut it off but I want the heat for the chicks.) I worry a bit about putting her reproduction into over drive with the 24/7 light but I see other people are doing the same thing and not having a big issue with it. Hopefully she wont shut down laying altogether when I turn that light off.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

The last time I had chickens we had a BR hen that went broody for ONE egg in the dead of winter. We let our flock free-range at the time and we noticed that we weren't seeing one hen around so my dad (who lived next door) went looking for her and found her in the dog house sitting on a single egg. He figured that there was no way that she'd be able to hatch the egg in such cold temperatures so he decided that he'd wait for her to get up to get something to eat and drink and take the egg out.

When she did leave he wasn't prepared for what he saw.

My sister's male cat went in and curled up around the egg and kept it warm for the momma hen until she returned!! This continued everyday until the chick was born.

Talk about team work. Sadly, even though my dad brought the chick inside to keep her warm she didn't make it for more than about a week but it is still something that we talk about.

I do wonder if the chick would have been fine if my dad had left the chick rearing to the hen and the cat.

 

[malan37209]

mysilkie petra, with her seven fuzzy butts.she had nine eggs, one looked too dried out inside, and the other never hatched out.
they hatched 1/31/14

 

[texgardengal]

Manning, what kind of chicks are those??? I noticed their fuzzy legs. So adorable. They are the same color as my chick.