I have 2 broody questions...

[Lisa202]

My broody hatched one chick this past Tuesday(I only gave her 2 eggs). This morning the chick died and the broody momma did one of those HUGE poops. Within 30 minutes, she was back on 2 more eggs in her nest box. One egg was definitely the other chicken's as I saw her lay it. I don't know who laid the second egg.

So my questions are...

Is it possible that the broody mommy laid one of these eggs? and

Can she brood again right away?

 

[lotzahenz]

I know this answer! NO, she should not brood for another 21 days, BUT, if you have a farm store with chicks you can give her as many as you would like to have. She will get completely depleted if you allow her to brood for that long though. If you need to break her, put her on wire with no box for three days. She will finally give up, unless she is a silkie and to me they just brood forever

I LOVE the baby chick idea, she will be so happy too. They have all kinds of chicks as well, but at least give her 3. Well, I gave mine 14, but I am an addict.

Lucky you, a broody in waiting!

 

[Terri O]

Since this was her first nest of the year I would not hesitate to let her sit on another one right away. (if she is in pretty good condition) It sounds like you only have a few chickens for eggs? You could also go and get some from another farmer for her to hatch if you wanted. The idea of giving her a bunch of chicks sounds cute but---if the chicks are older than a day or so they may not latch on to her and you will end up with chilled chicks or have to brood them yourself in a box. If she has any banty or silkie in her those girls will brood all summer and be none the worst for wear! Just from my experience...HTH-Terri O

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Aww, I'm sorry about the chick, I remember talking with you about her when she was setting. These Things Happen.

If your hen still feels broody then she probably did NOT lay that egg. They usually don't lay while they're brooding nor while they're tending to chicks.

It's up to you and your hen if she should set another 3 weeks. I've had hens that set for 6 weeks & more, first on a clutch that didn't hatch and then were re-set with new eggs. If the hen looks healthy enough, if she's been good about getting up to eat/drink/poop on a regular basis, if her eyes are still bright & her comb & wattles look perky, you could try again with a new clutch.

Or try to give her new chicks from another source and see if she'll accept them (put them in at night, watch them first thing next morning).

Or put her in a wire-bottomed cage for a few days with no bedding in it, and break her broody spell.

If you decide to re-set her, check her for mites & give her fresh bedding for her nest first.

 

[Lisa202]

First off...she is a bantam EE, so I'm guessing that they like to brood? She started brooding at 20 weeks old, so now she's only 24 weeks old. She doesn't have much of a comb so I can't look at that. She seems very alert and she was eating during her brooding time. Not so much regular food, but a little cracked corn and I would give her wax worms. She did that tremendous very smelly poo, so she must have been eating something. I also saw some poo in the nest box just after the chick hatched.

I get about 5 to 6 fertile eggs a day, so I could give her more this time. I only gave her 2 b/c I wasn't sure if she'd quit. I heard that they sometimes do when they are so young. There are 4 in there right now and she's half way sitting on them...she's in the nest box with them but I keep seeing her standing up and going out of the nestbox and looking in. Could she be looking for her baby? She did kind of bury it in pine shavings just as it was looking pretty bad. I assumed that she knew it had died.

I really don't want a lot more chickens as I don't want them to be crowded, but a few more would be fine. But then I know other's will probably want to brood and then I'm in trouble.

 

[youngbiddy]

You should definitely try to set a couple of young chicks under her in the middle of the night and take the eggs away!

I gotta say, she seems awfully young to be so broody. My standard EE's didn't even start laying till about 26 weeks!

Oh, and neither one of them has ever even come close to being broody.

 

[Lisa202]

There's is no way that I could get my hands on a bantam chick at least until the end of next week, and then NY state law prohibits selling less than 6 chicks, which would be too many for me.

She started laying at 18 weeks (as did my other EE's...give or take a week) I think she is and will be a good broody regardless of her age.

 

[youngbiddy]

Oh, I didn't mean to cast aspersions on your hen, I was just marveling over one going broody so young! I've had two broodys and they were both almost a year old when they did it. And an EE, no less. I'm totally impressed; she rocks.

I didn't even know there were any laws about a minimum number of chicks, I've only gotten mine from MPC. It seems strange to have a state law for a minimum of six when many municipalities only allow you to keep 3 adults!