Is this a normal broody :CHICKS

[kassy68]

Update: first broody's chick has come out... EE mom and dad is Brown leghorn, Black ameracuana , RIR/cochin mutt or a BR/EE .... Looks like a beard allready so maybe an amera chick... woot woot , theres 2 more I see have pipped

I have a buff orpington hatched June 8 th last year. She has been broody since March 1st that I noticed.. she was sitting on a few eggs that i'd left under her , but she continued getting up and letting others lay on her eggs and would make it back in there at night,, about 4 more eggs were added to the nest each day... I decided that I didn't need anymore mutts at all and and she had left her eggs again , tossed the eggs on day five.. ( she was sitting in the box nest to her eggs (emtpy box)) NOW>. she has been in the box for the last 3 days , no eggs and will not move.. I took her out and put her on the ground where she ruffled up and laid right down.. I picked her up again and moved her to another spot and she laid right down , scretched at any bird that came near and pecked at the cat.. ON THE GROUND.. so I put her back in the box.. her belly feathers are pecked gone.. I felt bad so I put 4 eggs under her again, I have some 11 day incubator eggs (just mutts hatching for a friend ) should I now put this under her to let her hatch what she will and get her outta this .. I may have eggs being shipped and I don't want to put them under her..

 

[Chickielady]

if she stays on the ground and does not seem to be laying I wonder if she is not egg bound ?

I have a BO same age doing the same thing but she is laying and gets off the nest for a few minutes evey so often to stretch/eat/etc.
I have never had a run in with egg impaction, have only read about it (thank God) so check it out...it may be you need to help her

 

[kassy68]

I have.. my barred rock had one stuck way up high in the area where the membrane was sposed to go on the yolk. I posted it to the forum early winter. How do I know. I did a necropsy on her after she died. Very neat to say the least , I'd say she is more broody then eggbound.. she has never stood up to try to push or act sick. Though I will feel her out .. but being she took the 4 eggs I left in there today feeling so bad for her.. I put them on the edge of the roost and she one by one tucked them under her.

 

[lauralou]

She sounds like a normal broody to me. When I remove a broody hen from the nest, she will generally sit on the ground where I placed her, until I harrass her into moving, eating, drinking, etc. And the plucked out chest feathers are a dead giveaway. They do that to get better contact with the eggs.

I really can't give you any advice on whether or not to pull eggs from the incubator and give them to her. I don't own an incubator, so I just don't know enough about that. I always use broody hens to hatch eggs for me. And it is SOOOO easy! I hope I never raise another chick in the house.

Of course, I have several experienced broody hens, and I can rely on them to do the job amazingly well. Better than I could do it, no doubt. Since your hen is inexperienced, I can relate to your not wanting to give her valuable eggs. But at some point, you might want to consider giving her some less important eggs to hatch and raise the chicks, so that she can gain experience and you can gain confidence in her. I can't recommend a good broody hen highly enough. Like I said before, it's the easiest thing in the world to have a hen hatch eggs and raise chicks for you. Also the cutest thing in the world to watch.

 

[kassy68]

lauralou,
Well the 9 ,10 eggs in the bator are 11 day into cooking and they are just my mutts. My other concern is there are 2 roos and 22 other hens in the coop with her.. now they free range all day so they only come in to lay bascially. and my nests are 2 foot off the ground.. once they hatch do they not go back to the nest.. I can have water and food low. Just curious if shes alpha enough to protect them.. or maybe the others wont bother them being they are hatched right there by a fellow lady.. I will probably take the other eggs out tomorrow.. I just soon she get this outta her system.. lol Ive got lav/black split orp eggs coming so they WILL NOT go under her.. Will be good to see this year how she does with these eggs and next year maybe we'll trust her with the lav to lav eggs.. woot woot

 

[crazyhen]

I put my broody in a cat carrier. Every day i take her out and make sure she eats and drinks and poo's yuck. Now I finally have a fenced area I can leave her in the box and not close it up. She comes out for a few moments eats, drinks, and poops goes right back. This has worked so far for me. This is my first broody and I am not even sure the eggs were fertile but I felt sorry for her. Good luck with yours. Gloria jean

 

[kassy68]

Quote:
I have xpens for my dogs.. thinking of taking it out there and putting "catcarrier" in it of a box or something and food and water.. once the chicks hatch they I have t chicken wire around that cuz they can squees through.. I dont know yet.. lol..

I went and took my 11 eggs from the bator out to her and when I walk in, I find her in the nest next door with no eggs, but 2 more eggs were added her 4 I left earlier.. I put my eggs in and then put her back in and she got right down to business and got them all tucked just right.. So obviously she is still getting up to eat and poo.. or the others are pushin her out.. Time will tell..

 

[lauralou]

The dog pen is a good idea. If the other hens are pushing her off the nest, then the eggs will get cold if she goes to another nest. I imagine that the chicks inside would die if that happened for a long enough time period. Not sure how long that time period would be, though. Hens do get off the nest to do their business most every day, and nothing bad happens....

I always put my hens in little broody houses so they can have privacy (and security!). But before I built the broody houses, I had hens and chicks in with the regular laying flock, and didn't have much in the way of problems from the other birds. I'd say that all depends on the personalities of the particular birds involved. The fact that your flock free ranges and has plenty of room makes the odds good that everything would go well.

I do like the idea of the dog crate for a broody house, or you could wire in the area underneath the nestbox for her and her chicks to stay in. I have a friend who has a setup like that. She screwed in a few 2X4's underneath a row of raised nests, stapled chicken wire to them, and built a little frame door with wire over it. A couple of hinges later, she had a secure area for her hens to brood in. Very clever. I don't know how your coop is set up of course, but it would be nice to have a place that is low to the floor so the chicks could get in and out of it once they hatch. Of course, if something like that isn't possible, the hen would most likely make a nest for them in a corner somewhere after they hatch.

At any rate, good luck with your first broody hatch. I hope it goes well.

 

[andalusn]

my two broody hens are now shacked up together

in just one of the Xpens. After they hatched their eggs I moved them to the pens as they wanted to be close to the main flock but not in the hen house. The pens are across from the coop and they share the same barn space and yard. The pens have worked great. One hen is happy with an upsidedown wooden box and the other has a dog crate filled with hay. With the peeps now almost a month old the "others" have ventured in to sample the chow but leave shortly and eveyone is getting along fine.

 

[andalusn]

Lauralou... what do your brooder houses look like? I was just discussing this with my DH about building boxes that may work better than the dog crates. I like them for the hose off scrubbing you can give them but thought something else might be better in the long run.