Luna is no longer broody

WickedChicksNH

Crowing
Oct 2, 2017
1,022
2,217
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New Hampshire
Well after months of being broody, (like 3 months at least) Luna's eggs didn't hatch and now she is no longer broody, it's so good to see her out every day now.
However i have 6 fertile assorted bantam eggs coming in, in a few days.. .looks like I am incubating them myself. if she goes broody while I am incubating them I will tuck them under her when they are a day old

lunaizzybuds.jpg
 
It will probably take her a bit to recover from setting so long. Hopefully you have an incubator?
I have my incubator waiting. i've hatched a few chicks from it.

I really don't mind hatching them myself. it's actually a joy, i would rather not have her go broody again any time soon, she lost weight, though she came out once a day to eat drink and dust bathe.
until the last week.
 
Sometimes broody hens are more work than just hatching and brooding them yourself.

Very true. My sister bought a breeding quad of black Bantam Cochins, she had four gorgeous show quality birds, a roo and three hens. One hen went broody, and we excitedly waited 21 days for the hatch. Most of the chicks hatched in the night, and we found them dead in the nest. There were still four more eggs hatching, so we set up a camera in the coop, and low and behold, the hen was slaughtering the chicks as soon as they hatched. I managed to save three chicks from that hatch, and afterwards we never let that hen brood again.

To make a long story short, it was a lot of work, and from a dozen eggs only three babies survived. Before she went broody we discussed putting the eggs in the incubator, but my sister was determined that the broody would know best, and do a great job.
She didn't.
 
Very true. My sister bought a breeding quad of black Bantam Cochins, she had four gorgeous show quality birds, a roo and three hens. One hen went broody, and we excitedly waited 21 days for the hatch. Most of the chicks hatched in the night, and we found them dead in the nest. There were still four more eggs hatching, so we set up a camera in the coop, and low and behold, the hen was slaughtering the chicks as soon as they hatched. I managed to save three chicks from that hatch, and afterwards we never let that hen brood again.

To make a long story short, it was a lot of work, and from a dozen eggs only three babies survived. Before she went broody we discussed putting the eggs in the incubator, but my sister was determined that the broody would know best, and do a great job.
She didn't.
Unfortunately not all are good moms. I am always worried when I use a hen that hasn't successfully set before. I have had hens attack chicks too. I suppose they have no idea where those chicks came from. They just like setting.
 

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