first time hatcher, need some advice!

[maceleneo]

to my surprise my 1 year old black copper marans pingu went broody. my rooster is still a cockerel (about 11 months old) and I don't know how likely it is that something will hatch, but I decided to give it a try.
the cockerel is an olive egger but pingu never allowed him to mate, so I took some eggs from other hens who did: 5 from other marans and 5 from araucanas, if they hatch they all going to be olive eggers and I love this, since my only olive egger is a male. I really hope there will be some female, but I'm confident I can rehome as many roosters I get, since olive eggers are a rarity where I live and I've been already asked for some.
pingu is sitting on the (hopefully) fertile eggs since this morning, I separate her from the rest of the flock and she seems comfortable in her new spot.
here are some questions:
-she doesn't seem to have appetite and I know this is normal, but is there some particular food I should give her?
-I read some threads about broody hens and seems that some people take the hen outside the nest once or twice a day to make sure she eats/drinks/poops while some other people let the hen decides... what should I do?
-should I candle the eggs at some point to remove bad ones? what should I do if they all seem to be bad? (I know it's premature, but let me feed my anxiety!)
-while seeking info, I also read that broody hens speak to their eggs when they're about to hatch, have someone some article/reference about this topic? I would love to read about it!

here is my pingu <3

 

[aart]

Her regular feed is fine, but move the feed and water away from the nest.
She will get up after a few days, then every day or two after.
If she's alone in the area it should be obvious when she eats some of the feed, smooth over the top so you can tell...and drops a huge broody turd.

If she hasn't gotten up for 3 days gently lift her out and dip her beak in the feed and/or water to stimulate her. Should only have to do that once, IME.

I usually candle broody eggs at about 10 days and remove any duds.

 

[NatJ]

-she doesn't seem to have appetite and I know this is normal, but is there some particular food I should give her?

Food: normal chicken food.
She's not laying eggs, so she does not need the extra calcium in layer feed. I would offer her chick starter or grower if you already have them, or layer feed if that is all you have. (The extra calcium should not hurt her during the 3 weeks she is broody, it's just not needed either.)

-I read some threads about broody hens and seems that some people take the hen outside the nest once or twice a day to make sure she eats/drinks/poops while some other people let the hen decides... what should I do?

Whichever you are more comfortable with.

Make sure she has room to get off the nest to eat and drink and poop.

If you worry about her eating--gently feel her crop, whenever you are tending the chickens. If her crop is fairly full at least once in a day, you know she is getting herself off to eat.

Or just pick her up, and sit her by the feed & water. If she's like my broodies were, she will sit there on the ground for a little while, then start eating and drinking, then get up and shake herself and flap her wings and make loud noises, then run around eating and drinking and pooping. She might take a quick dustbath, or she might go right back to the eggs after she eats. (I've had a number of broody hens that pretty much did that when I lifted them off the nest and sat them by the food and water.)

 

[maceleneo]

Her regular feed is fine, but move the feed and water away from the nest.

I did that, I read somewhere you wrote that leaving the feed near the nest could result in the hen pooping on her eggs!

Or just pick her up, and sit her by the feed & water.

this morning I couldn't find any poop in her coop, so I took her off her nest and she did exactly what you described: stood sitting for a while, then stood up, drank some water, pooped the most gigantic poop I've ever seen (at least made by a hen), ate some grass, cleaned herself and went back to the nest.

I feel so involved I dreamt about her last night!
I wouldn't have taken odds on her going broody, she is kind of a loner and she was the more problematic hen with all new arrivals... I hope she will be fine with her chicks.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

Good advice above. I always leave my broodies alone. Fowl have been hatcing eggs for eons, and I've never seen one die from starvation or dehydration. As far as OE's go, you don't have to cross an OE rooster to your Marans hens to create OE's. Mating any Araucana rooster to your Marans will make OE chicks, however, mating an OE to Marans can result in some of the female offspring laying a deeper colored egg, while some will lay lighter eggs. Just saying, if your OE rooster isn't "doing the deed", if you have any Araucana roosters, there are other options.

 

[maceleneo]

Good advice above. I always leave my broodies alone. Fowl have been hatcing eggs for eons, and I've never seen one die from starvation or dehydration.

thank you, I guess you're right, but we have messed quite a bit with hens and since due to human selection many of them won't go broody anymore, I wasn't sure that they could actually manage all by themselves!
pingu seems fine by the way, I should trust her more!

mating an OE to Marans can result in some of the female offspring laying a deeper colored egg, while some will lay lighter eggs.

true, I was saying olive egger just because as far as I know offspring should lay green eggs, but not all green eggs are olive. is this diagram somewhat reliable?

my rooster is a marans x araucana cross, but he is the only male I have (not for much longer I guess!), so I don't have many options right now!

 

[aart]

I always leave my broodies alone. Fowl have been hatcing eggs for eons, and I've never seen one die from starvation or dehydration.

I always make sure I can handle the broody without distress,
and check under her or at least touch her a bit every couple days.
Saved a chick once that was tangled tightly around the neck in the mama breast feathers.

 

[Ridgerunner]

-she doesn't seem to have appetite and I know this is normal, but is there some particular food I should give her?

As they said, regular chicken feed. No treats. I'd want a feed with a minimum protein content of 16%, I would be OK with something as high as 22% protein for a broody.

Before a hen even starts laying she builds up extra fat. If you butcher hens or pullets that have started laying and compare them to cockerels or roosters the excess fat is really obvious. That fat is put there for the hen to live off of if she ever goes broody. That way she can stay on the nest instead of having to hunt for food. It's good for the hen to eat and drink, the fat lasts longer, but they don't need to eat much.

You may see her lose weight while broody. That's normal. That does not mean anything is wrong with her, she's just using fat put there for that reason.

-I read some threads about broody hens and seems that some people take the hen outside the nest once or twice a day to make sure she eats/drinks/poops while some other people let the hen decides... what should I do?

Whatever you feel like. I don't isolate mine but let them hatch with the flock. So I mark the eggs and check under her once a day to remove any that don't belong. Usually I just lift her up and look under her. Sometimes I take the broody off of the nest and put her on the coop floor. She tends to squat there for a bit then either runs off to take care of business or she moves back on the nest.

I've seen a hen leave her nest twice a day and spend an hour or more off the nest each time. I've seen a hen leave her nest once a day for about 15 minutes. Often I never see a hen off of the nest. Since I can tell she is not pooping in the nest on those daily egg checks I know she is coming off.

Since you have her confined you should be able to tell if she is coming off to poop. You can make decisions based on what you see or you can lift her off daily. It will not affect the hatch.

-should I candle the eggs at some point to remove bad ones?

Personally I never candle eggs under a broody. It's not convenient and candling is not required for the egg to hatch. I candle eggs in the incubator but tend to leave my broody hens as much alone as I can.

Candling is fun and can be educational. If you want to candle go for it. Nothing wrong with candling.

what should I do if they all seem to be bad? (I know it's premature, but let me feed my anxiety!)

Your eggs from the Marans should be fairly dark. Your eggs from the Araucana have that blue pigment through the thickness of the shell. Those can be hard to see inside, depending on how dark it is and how good your candler is. And it sounds like you don't have experience candling. I'd suggest being very reluctant removing any eggs due to your candling.

-while seeking info, I also read that broody hens speak to their eggs when they're about to hatch, have someone some article/reference about this topic? I would love to read about it!

I don't have any articles about it. After the chick internal pips and starts breathing air it can peep. If you tap on the incubator in this phase you can hear them. A broody hen will talk back, sort of a purr or a low level growl. Some people think that is part of their bonding, I'm not sure, could be true. I think it is the chick's way of telling the hen that it is on the way so she doesn't abandon the nest. Also, I've read that the hen can adjust humidity under her. I don't have any links to an article about that either, just something I read years ago. There is a very old thread on the forum where someone put a hygrometer under a broody hen and confirmed that for themselves. I think the chick talking to Mama helps prepare her to switch from incubating mode to hatching mode and ultimately to chick raising mode.

due to human selection many of them won't go broody anymore, I wasn't sure that they could actually manage all by themselves!

You do occasionally get a hen that is not a great broody but the vast majority of mine do everything they are supposed to. I feel my broodies know more by instinct than I will ever know.

I was saying olive egger just because as far as I know offspring should lay green eggs, but not all green eggs are olive. is this diagram somewhat reliable?

On a genetic level yes, but not on an individual chicken level. The blue shell gene is dominant so if a hen has just one blue shell gene in that gene pair she will lay a blue or green egg. But if she has only one blue shell gene she will randomly pass down one of those genes to her offspring. So about half of her pullets will get the blue shell gene from her, half will not. You cannot tell by looking at the egg if she has two blue shell genes or only one. That is where that chart fails. You don't know if a hen that lays a blue or green egg has one or two of those genes to pass down.

my rooster is a marans x araucana cross

This means he has one blue shell gene, not two, so half of his pullets will get the blue shell gene from him, half will not.

This means that with your Marans hens about half of the pullets should lay a brown egg, about half should lay a green egg, probably pretty dark. This is the odds for each pullet. It is very possible if you get three pullets from these eggs that all three may lay brown eggs or all three may lay green eggs. The actual odds are that 1 time in 8 you will get all brown eggs, 1 time in 8 you will get all green eggs, and 3 times in 4 you get at least one of each.

With your Araucana hens all these pullets should get a blue egg shell gene from their mother so all should lay green eggs. They may be a little lighter than you expect.

Another problem with the chart is that there are a lot of different genes that contribute tp what shade of brown you get. Green is brown on top of blue. Some of these genes are dominant, some are recessive. Others may only act if another specific gene is present. One is even sex linked, the pullets can get it from their father but not from their mother. One even bleaches brown eggs white. Some breeders put that in blue egg laying flocks to keep the eggs bluer.

What this means is that you never know which genetics the offspring will inherit. In general if the chicken hatches from a darker egg then it should get the genetics for darker eggs, so in general that part of the chart is correct. But occasionally you can get some real surprises as to how much brown actually shows up.

 

[maceleneo]

@Ridgerunner thank you so much for all the time you take to reply!
the food she's eating should be fine, it's a layer feed high in protein.
today while I was cleaning the coop she stood up and I let her out. other hens kinda bullied her and she sought protection on my back.

my hens are very friendly with each other but she has always been the exception, I hope reintegration won't be too hard. anyway, she did her routine and ran back to her eggs.
she really seems to enjoy sitting on her eggs, I'm happy to see her with a purpose!

I don't have any experience in candling, I just thought that removing bad eggs would be good to give more chances to those that remain. I read they can brood more than 10 eggs, but now they seem a lot to me, pingu isn't very big.
I would candle also out of curiosity, but it's true that without any experience I could get it all wrong.

your explanation about genetic was fascinating and really helpful... now I think I want to cross my chickens till I get all possible combinations! my marans lay different shades of brown, some are reddish, some are darker... it will be fun to see what comes out... and before that it will be fun to have chicks around! I can't wait!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I read they can brood more than 10 eggs,

I'll comment on this. Hens and eggs come in different sizes and hens come in different shapes. A small bantam may be able to cover no more than 4 regular sized eggs. Who knows how many bantam eggs a full sized hen can cover. I typically give a hen 12 eggs of the size she lays. When I was a kid about 6 decades ago we had a broody hen bring 18 chicks off of a hidden nest from eggs she laid. I never found that nest, I don't know how many eggs she started with. One time I put 12 eggs under a hen and she had trouble covering all of them so I removed two. 12 was too many. In cold weather (freezing or close) I only give a hen 8 eggs so she has a better chance of taking care of all that hatch. In cold weather she needs to be able or cover them all when they get older and bigger.

Treat a lot of the numbers you read on this forum as a guideline, a starting point. Usually they keep you out of trouble. Often they are overkill, much safer than they need to be. But in some circumstances they are not enough. Trust your judgement. If something doesn't look right it probably isn't.