Homesteaders

[OrganicFarmWife]

My BR went broody for the first time last week. I do not really have a rooster so started looking for fertilized eggs. I found someone who has dark Cornish, who was willing to sell me some eggs. I am really excited, hopefully this hen will prove a good mama. She isn't up to your standards bee, I have to take her off her nest or I think she would starve herself. But she is my first broody, and my favorite hen, so allowances are made
Someone offered me ducklings, but I have only one brooder room, so I am unsure about the safety of mixing. This hen is generally my most aggressive.

 

[Beekissed]

My BR went broody for the first time last week. I do not really have a rooster so started looking for fertilized eggs. I found someone who has dark Cornish, who was willing to sell me some eggs. I am really excited, hopefully this hen will prove a good mama. She isn't up to your standards bee, I have to take her off her nest or I think she would starve herself. But she is my first broody, and my favorite hen, so allowances are made

Someone offered me ducklings, but I have only one brooder room, so I am unsure about the safety of mixing. This hen is generally my most aggressive.

I wouldn't bother taking her off the nest....she won't starve herself, her body is in very sloooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww mode, so it doesn't need the food and water it normally would right now. She'll get off when she needs to, never fear.

I've had a broody sitting for 30-40 days who never starved herself(I'm assuming she got off the nest as needed, though I never kept track)....looked pretty peaky after sitting for so long~she was 5 yrs old~but got right up and started running around trying to mother some 2 mo. old chicks I had when her clutch was unsuccessful. They finally let her mother them and she mothered them clear up to 5 mo. old.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

My BR went broody for the first time last week. I do not really have a rooster so started looking for fertilized eggs. I found someone who has dark Cornish, who was willing to sell me some eggs. I am really excited, hopefully this hen will prove a good mama. She isn't up to your standards bee, I have to take her off her nest or I think she would starve herself. But she is my first broody, and my favorite hen, so allowances are made

Someone offered me ducklings, but I have only one brooder room, so I am unsure about the safety of mixing. This hen is generally my most aggressive.

I wouldn't bother taking her off the nest....she won't starve herself, her body is in very sloooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww mode, so it doesn't need the food and water it normally would right now.  She'll get off when she needs to, never fear.   

I've had a broody sitting for 30-40 days who never starved herself(I'm assuming she got off the nest as needed, though I never kept track)....looked pretty peaky after sitting for so long~she was 5 yrs old~but got right up and started running around trying to mother some 2 mo. old chicks I had when her clutch was unsuccessful.  They finally let her mother them and she mothered them clear up to 5 mo. old. 

Even with the heat? That is good to hear

 

[Beekissed]

Yeah...even in the heat. If you watch her, she'll get off when she needs to and go back to the job before long....usually the first 3-4 days and the last 2-3 days of a brood sit they won't budge from that nest, but the in between days they get off the nest plenty. I'd just make the feed and water available and let her go about her business.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Ok i will let her be, easier on me for sure

 

[rancher hicks]

Well so far. I have a hen with six. She had seven but I found one this afternoon dead. Don't know why. The others seem to be running around okay.

I moved a Delaware hen to the half hoop. She has six. Another Del hatched another chick and I hope to move it to the Half hoop later this evening. When the Del with the chick hatches some more I'll move her in with her sister.

The Marans coop has only hens on eggs now. Not sure when they will hatch, but in either case they will be separated for the time being.

There are so many eggs and not all started at the same time.

If I could hatch 30 chicks a year with broodies I wouldn't use the incubator. The hens do better with the Marans eggs.

 

[lcertuche]

Years ago I had game hens and they hatched out chicks all summer. As soon as one group of chicks was a few weeks old they would be sitting on another nest. I went from 9 hens to over 60 chickens in a few months time. It is so much easier than setting up brooders and trying to train them to come in the coup at night. Mama hen does all the hard work and you reap the benefits. Your chicks learn about hawks and foraging easier. My chicks now are from incubated and hatchery chicks and they are learning everything the hard way.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Yeah...even in the heat.   If you watch her, she'll get off when she needs to and go back to the job before long....usually the first 3-4 days and the last 2-3 days of a brood sit they won't budge from that nest, but the in between days they get off the nest plenty.  I'd just make the feed and water available and let her go about her business. 

And you are correct, yesterday I saw her out and about for a few minutes.

 

[Beekissed]

Years ago I had game hens and they hatched out chicks all summer. As soon as one group of chicks was a few weeks old they would be sitting on another nest. I went from 9 hens to over 60 chickens in a few months time. It is so much easier than setting up brooders and trying to train them to come in the coup at night. Mama hen does all the hard work and you reap the benefits. Your chicks learn about hawks and foraging easier. My chicks now are from incubated and hatchery chicks and they are learning everything the hard way.

I agree. And it's the natural way of things, so the hen is content, the chicks are better socialized and ready for survival, and you get to be there from the beginning to the end. It's a great partnership.

 

[duluthralphie]

And you are correct, yesterday I saw her out and about for a few minutes.

I like broodies that you worry or wonder if they ever get off the nest to eat or drink.


I have Queen Elizabeth on a nest now she is broody, has been for about 2 weeks. She will never hatch her eggs. I ruined 11 good guinea eggs giving them to her.


Lizzie (as we call her) is a Diva amongst chickens. She spends as much time as she can off the nest, I swear it!


The other day I was working and I saw her leave her run and head to the water tank ( she has water in her run). She runs with her tail up and fanned out, she is all puffy like a broody protecting her babies. It looks funny to watch her. She made a beeline to the tank, I though wow, she is maturing and going to run out get a drink and run right back......



I was wrong, She drank some water and then saw King George taking a sand bath, so she ran over and took a leisurely sand bath with him. Then she finally sauntered back to her nest. She was off over an hour, I am sure. Luckily it was nearly 90 so hopefully the eggs did not get too cold.



Later, that evening I was doing chick chores and she was in the Chick Brooder shed, eating starter of the table I keep the feed on. She has layer feed in her run, I guess that is not good enough for the Diva. She left when I came in, probably because I yelled at her to get out of "here".....


I figured she would be heading back to her nest....



I was wrong again. I was watering Ed and one of his Wives when here comes Lizzie, she jumps up on Ed's run (which is about waist height). She wanted to be scratched and held. I explained to her she had to become more diligent so she could be a Mother like Princess Margaret is. I doubt it stuck. She was out again yesterday...



Speaking of Maggie.... Here are her latest pictures, sorry for quality the WWD took them with her phone;