I didnt know my hen was broody

[Lady Lavendar]

Hi all,
I have a small problem and I could really use your help. One of my hens has gone broody (right term?) but I didn't know it. My husband and I have been terribly busy for the last couple of weeks and haven't been playing with our egg laying hens as much. We noticed that one of them (Torie) wasn't running up in the morning and evening to eat as usual and at one point we thought she had been stolen because we couldn't find her, turns out she was laying under the coop on a clutch of eggs. If it hadn't been for the fact that all our hens stopped laying, we might not have known to even look for her under the coop. Now we don't know what to do. I know you are supposed to move the hen and the eggs to a kennel or another pen but I don't want to distress her. She's probably been sitting on those eggs for three weeks now. How do I know if they are viable? Should I take them from her? Please tell me what to do because I have no clue. We had decided we weren't going to attempt to hatch any eggs until we knew more about chickens. Nature may have decided otherwise. Thank you in advance for any advice.

With kind regards,
Katrina
Lady Lavendar

 

[SushiLove]

I say you have baby chicks on the way and should prepare accordingly.

Nature threw you a curve ball but I'm confidant you can handle it well and enjoy the new additions to your flock.
If you are able to accomodate it, let her raise the chicks herself. Less work for you that way She has already been sitting on the eggs for three weeks so I say theres no need to intervene at this point.

Good luck and have fun!!

P.S. We're going to want to see some pictures of the new fuzzy butts!

 

[lauralou]

I agree with Sushilove. Just let her do her thing. I always hatch under broody hens, and it is the easiest thing in the world. The hens do all the work!

As far as preparations go, you can buy some chick starter to put out in place of layer pellets. When I have chicks running around, I just feed everybody the chick starter, and put out extra oyster shell for the laying hens. And make sure that the water is easily accessible for the little ones. If you normally keep it hanging up, then set it on the ground so they can reach it.

You don't necessarily have to separate your broodies and babies from the rest of the flock. I don't. I do have 2 little "broody houses" that I use when I am doing a planned hatch, but the mommas bring their babies out after a couple of days, and do a fine job of protecting them from the flock. So they really only sleep separately from the flock. And I have friends who don't even do that. I built the broody houses so my broodies wouldn't hog up the most popular nest boxes and cause a problem that way. And because I had scrap lumber and I like to build things.

Good luck with your new additions!

 

[Bird Brain]

3 weeks = fuzzy butts

If you want to see if they are viable, you can make a homemade candler. Lots of info on this website but I used a large peice of cardboard (bigger than your light source) with an egg shaped hole cut out of it and a million candle flashlight. With light pointing to sky and cardboard on top, set your egg in the hole. I did this the other day and saw something swimming in the egg! The next one no light was comming through (because a chicken was blocking it)

Here are a few interesting websites someone posted in another thread. I have these bookmarked. Sorry if this is TMI

http://shilala.homestead.com/candling.html

http://lancaster.unl.edu/4H/embryology/EmbryoPhotos.shtml

Let her raise them. Its easy! You just let her do her thing and watch in amazement as the little ones grow.

What kind of chicken is she? WE WANT PICS!

 

[flakey chick]

One of the reasons to separate a broody is to avoid the nest box problems. Other hens try to lay in the broody nest or the broody gets confused and goes back to the wrong nest. You hen has already taken care of this separation for you.

 

[ams3651]

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

This article was helpful to me. If she is outdoors and you have predators to worry about or cool nights still you may have to move her. It will be harder to round them all up when they hatch. She just needs a quite place of her own to raise the chicks for a couple weeks. I chose to put that box in the coop so the other chickens could see and hear the babies and get used to them. If you move her late in the evening or at night it will be less stressful on her but if she has been sitting for 3 weeks you need to do it asap as they are usually hatched around 21 days but with a hen it can be anywhere from 19 to 23.

 

[yotetrapper]

Don't take the eggs away from her, they should be ready to hatch now any day if it's been 3 weeks.

 

[Lady Lavendar]

OMG! Thank you so much for all the wonderful information. I'm so nervous and excited that I might have my first chicks any day now.
Torie is either a Buff Orpington or Brahma. I'm not sure which, I'll send photos.
I'm afraid to touch one of her eggs for candling.
Torie and her roo Cache live with one other Buff hen in a 10x10 pen. We planned on expanding their pen to 20x20 but haven't had the time. I guess the introduction of five little ones will expedite the expansion.

Now I have to go and check on them. I usually put their water in a large crock style dog bowl that I change every day. I'll put a couple of chick feeders and waterers in.

Katrina
Hopefully soon to be Grandma to five hatchlings!

 

[Lady Lavendar]

Ok Double OMG!!!!! So It's 9:29 AM on May 29, 2009 and I just went to check on Torie and the eggs.... I HAVE A CHICK!!!! and two others that are PEEPING... I'm so happy!!!!!!!
When I went out I was actually concerned because there were shell fragments on the ground. I thought maybe they might have eaten one so I went and lightly touched Torie and of course she flew off the eggs and started fussing at me. Then I saw it... the most adorable little chick. Next I saw the eggs and saw that two of them had pretty big holes in them already and one almost has its head out. Ok I need to go set up water and food for them.

Grandma Katrina

 

[Robin L]

Congrats Grandma!