Lets talk about our current broodies :) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Serrin]

Hey! I've got a broody! Can I join this club?

GeeGee is not quite a year old yet, and this is her very first time. I'm a bit vague on the due date as she kind of had a false start in the beginning. Poor little darling, she got confused between her nest with about 5 or 6 eggs in it, that she had been sitting on for about 3 days, and the nest box next door to hers that had about the same number of eggs in it. By the time I had discovered her mistake, the eggs were stone cold. I'm sure it didn't take long as our daytime temperatures were right around 20F at the time.

So, I took away the 3 day old eggs and let her continue with the new set. I don't even know if any of the 5 eggs under her are hers. Will just have to wait and see who they look the most like out of 13 mutt hens, 1 BR, 1 BO and 1 SS.

She's somewhere between day 6 and 9, as near as I can recall. I candled them last night and there is definitely development in 4 of the 5. The 5th one may just be a few days behind. She had lost one egg to breakage, so I let her keep the next egg that came along.

Believe me, it happens [new eggs that is] more often than I'd like it to. Hopefully I'll have her new brooder coop finished and her and her eggs in it long before those little peeps start pipping!

I'll try to get a picture of GeeGee on her nest. She's gonna be such a great little mama! Especially if all of the red marks on the back of my hands are any indication!

Heaven help any of my other hens that plan to mess with her babies. They're likely to loose some feathers at the very least!

 

[3buffalo]

I have had 2 broodies since being away at Christmas. We came back and found then sitting in one basket together on 14 eggs. I was worried about them when they began looking like they were losing too much weight so I started carrying them around to the bottom door (A-Frame Tractor) and putting them in where the food and water is once a day. They would scratch, eat, drink and head right back to the basket. I guess they'll eventuallt get over it. Egg production is down but it's Winter and COLD. Also, I have no roo so no chicks are on the way.

 

[Loon]

I had a hen go broody last summer. We had no roosters so I borrowed 10 eggs from a neighbor who did have roosters. She sat on them and hatched out 9 baby chicks out of the ten eggs. We had fun watching her raise the babies. Took lots of pictures. Fed them and loved them only to find out that 6 were roosters.

I gave all the roosters away so out of all that I only got 3 hens and one of them came up missing. Not worth it to me. I hope nobody goes broody again.

 

[abi24]

I am relatively new to the chicken world and now have my first broody hen. She is a Buff Orpington (Clarabelle) and she makes the strangest sound (growl) when you try to pet her.

Perhaps someone can help me with one small problem I am having. I have 8 nesting boxes and when Clarabelle gets up to get a drink or eat she comes back and sits in a different box.

We are trying to keep all of the eggs out of the other boxes so she will find her way back to the right one but how do we explain it to her that the eggs will not hatch if she keeps changing where she is sitting?

A map perhaps?

Thanks,

 

[Inkheart]

I have a broody Delaware hen - mind you - no roosters around - has decided on January 25th to go broosy on ONE EGG - she will NOT let me get it from her!

 

[happyhens44]

Quote:
Seperate her, and move her. she doesnt know thenesting box too wel yet, and when she gets off the other hens might take her place, make her a seperate area to eat dink and have privicy.

 

[spartacus_63]

Quote:
I have had similar issues. Another problem with keeping a broody setting in general population is that the other girls will lay eggs in her clutch. Cause problems on hatch day. Once I have a broody and a clutch, I move mother and eggs to a brooder box until hatch and then to a brooder coop until mom introduces them to the flock. You can check out the stories through my Bio-Bator link in my signature.

Good luck.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Well, just went to try candling the eggs under my EE hen... I will have to wait and hope for an opportunity when she is not on the nest... she isn't nice at all when she is hunkered down on her eggs. Today should have been day 15 for most of the eggs under her... but I don't think she really committed until 2 sundays ago(making today day 12)

 

[cybercat]

Quote:
OK this is a chicken you are bigger and she can only peck at you. I would just reach in there and get it and pull her from the next. You must be boss or else you will have no eggs. They do not lay when broody. Yes, I had to do this myself with a persisitant broody. Many many times with just one. She at least let me get the eggs even if she did not give up being a broody for 2 months. We did not have a rooster then.


I am praying we can get our broody coop built in time but I am betting it will not happen till late spring. So broodies will stay in main coop when they start which I am guessing will be real soon.

 

[Myrtle's Babies]

One of Myrtles babies named Raven is broody. She is eight months old and staying in the
nesting box. We had only one nesting box so DH made another one. She comes out to eat
and take a dirt bath. I have taken the eggs from her an put a wooden egg in the nest with.
Raven is gentle and just squawks at me.