many questions bout hatching with broody hen

[mudchicken]

please forgive me if im asking a question already answered, but i've searched all around and cant find the answers. this chicken thing is really new and neat to me i wanna try and raise a clutch or 2 with my hens. so here goes:

1. at what age will a hen go broody? does age make a big difference? i have 4 new hampshires and 4 leghorns with one rir roo. they have been laying eggs steady now for about a month and were hatched around the 1st to 2nd week of april making them almost 4 and a half months old

2. is this too late in the year to hatch some? what is the latest you can hatch if you just have an unheated shed?

I read here to gather your eggs and put them in room air temp until you have 10 or so eggs. then you just put them into the nest box and hope one goes broody?
Any advise would be great. thanks for reading

John

 

[puredelite]

Don't really know much about the age thing, seems like to me it's my older hens that go broody more. Also some breeds are more prone to setting. I don't think that Leghorns are known to be great setters as they have been bred to be layers of quanities. Might have better luck with the Hampshire's tho. As for too late in the year, I have two hens that are setting in an old shed now and the chicks will have ample time to feather out before cold weather. Leaving eggs in a nest box usually is enough encouragement to entice a hen to set if they are in "the mood" Good luck!

 

[gryeyes]

Chickens go broody when they want to. It's hormonal. Most hatchery stock has had the "broodiness" bred out of them, because it interferes with egg production. (The hen has to sit on eggs for 21 days, plus 5 or 6 weeks of raising hatched chicks, so that's a long time without eggs getting laid.)

Leghorns and RIRs SELDOM go broody. I don't think NHRs are very broody, either. Here's a handy, handy list which will tell you (among other things) about a breed's broodiness: http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html - Ahh, I see that you may have a chance with your NHRs!!!

Even IF any of your hens decided she wanted to go broody RIGHT NOW, it's a little late in the season to start incubating eggs to get chicks which will need supplemental heat for several weeks - unless you don't mind brooding them in your house. (That's what I did, when I bought 3 day old chicks last October 1st.)

 

[mudchicken]

yeah if push comes to shove i can raise them inside. i got the ones now the beginning of april and had them in the basement the first month next to the wood stove. they liked the heat. i could do the same if the hatch end of september or something. i been learning a lot of stuff on this forum, and i have read that the nhr's ain't bad with hatching. maybe im just nervous. i at least want to know as much as i can. thanks for the replies and looking forward to more

 

[boxermom]

I've got 5 under a broody that are due to hatch in about 4 days. I will let mom raise them, so I'm not too worried about supplemental heat. They will be fully feathered by the end of Oct. I have another broody too, but am a little hesitant. She was hatched in Feb. of this year. I'm not sure if she would be a little fickle on the nest or not. She was raised by a broody, so she might do ok. The other problem is DH. He says no more this year... We'll see.