Natural breeding thread

[Virginiachickens]

yes. She is incubating the remaining egg and nursing the newly hatched chick. She will refuel and poop when she absolutely has to, and not before. The chicks are her priority.

Yes. It has the absorbed yolk to metabolize first; it does not need any other food and to some extent any other food can be unhelpful. Indeed, some old poultry handbooks recommended not giving any food to chicks before the yolk had clearly been absorbed (the bulge at the bum disappeared) or 3 days had passed.

Hatching is exhausting, and it can take days for a chick to fully recover (some have an easier time of it than others and recover quicker). Think of them like babies; sleep mostly, little look around, back to sleep, longer wake periods every day through the first week. You will probably need to support the second chick e.g. by confining the mum and the first hatched, as the late arrival could get left behind very easily when they leave the nest and start exploring their world.

Thank you!

 

[fluffycrow]

X2 on everything Perris has said.

What I would say, and this is mostly anecdotal, is that even when there are no more eggs and the chick(s) have hatched, don’t be too worried if she’s reluctant to leave the nest.

Some hens take longer than others to go out with their chicks. So far, my most experienced hens seem to leave the nest faster. Since I’ve only got two of those, this is far from a pattern.

Going from “broody” to “mother” takes time. She realises that the chicks have hatched, but her instincts, especially if she’s new to this, aren’t always in sync. The chirps and activity levels of her chick(s) will force her to start moving sooner rather than later.

I hope everything goes well with this new little family. Watching broodies interact with their chicks is such a magical sight

 

[Miriahbrown]

Does the outside temp impact eggs when a broody hen is sitting? It's May here and typically 80's and up, but we have had rain and a weird weather drop to 50's and overcast and drizzly. This is very unusual here and I'm unsure if it matters. It's day 8 of her sitting on her eggs and she is doing great, I just don't know if the temperatures can negatively impact the eggs

 

[fluffycrow]

Does the outside temp impact eggs when a broody hen is sitting? It's May here and typically 80's and up, but we have had rain and a weird weather drop to 50's and overcast and drizzly. This is very unusual here and I'm unsure if it matters. It's day 8 of her sitting on her eggs and she is doing great, I just don't know if the temperatures can negatively impact the eggs

Extreme temperatures can negatively impact the eggs, yes.

Your temperatures are not extreme. Im sure that some peeps here regularly have hens hatch eggs in such temperatures. Heck, even my 35+ degrees Celsius loving hens were able to hatch chicks in similar temperatures last year.

Your girl has got this, she’s more than capable of keeping these eggs warm enough. They can even deal with the extremes, though experience helps.

 

[Miriahbrown]

Extreme temperatures can negatively impact the eggs, yes.

Your temperatures are not extreme. Im sure that some peeps here regularly have hens hatch eggs in such temperatures. Heck, even my 35+ degrees Celsius loving hens were able to hatch chicks in similar temperatures last year.

Your girl has got this, she’s more than capable of keeping these eggs warm enough. They can even deal with the extremes, though experience helps.

Thank you so much! This is so comforting to read. We will have 3 days of drizzly and 50's and my daughter read all about broody chickens and is in charge of this process and has been worried about this and none of her books mentioned outside temps, just the typical months that people let chickens hatch eggs.

 

[BDutch]

Thanks for all the responses. I got a bit behind on my own thread. Personally I don’t mind if you go off topic a bit as long as it is interesting read. But Im glad we are ontopic again with @Virginiachickens question.

One more advice for Virginia/co-readers: Best not interfere if you have any doubts if you need to, or not. In general your broody knows better what to do than you. I believe most problems in hatching with a broody come forth from limited space and staggered hatches.

Beside the nest-box a broody (later mama with chicks) needs to go out to eat, drink, poop, walk, and take a dustbath. A small space (confined separating) or a crowded coop/run with many other chickens can both cause problems. A broody that seeks a place outside the coop while she is free ranging is a risk (predators) but often goes surprisingly well.

A staggered hatch is not much you can do about around hatch time. It’ a human problem we hate to see the eggs that are about to hatch get abandoned by the mother who chooses to keep the first hatched alive . It’s probably not something the broody gets very upset about. This is why people find it important to give a broody marked eggs that all start on the same day, and therefore will hatch shortly after each other.

I wrote this for you and all readers because I have made mistakes, to interfere with broodies during the process, in the past too. My personal conclusion is: if there is enough space, enough compartments (nestboxes in several areas), there is no need to interfere within a harmonious flock.

 

[Altairsky]

I'll type it here because maybe some people might find it relevant.
I have a hen who can't stop laying. She's an EE and she's like 30 eggs in 30 days. She is so much in a hurry that sometimes she lay an early soft shelled egg because she doesn't give it time to get a shell.
The only way to give this poor hen some rest is to let her hatch some chicks every time she goes broody. Lucky for her, she goes broody every 3 months (1 month lay, 1 month sit, 1 month raise babies, 1 month lay, and so on). However she really struggle to switch her egg laying machine off even when she's broody. She's been sitting on eggs for 5 nights, and she still laid one egg every day. Yesterday it was finally a fairy egg, but today however she laid a large soft shelled egg, broke it, and made a mess in the nest.
I changed the nesting material, but the eggs now are filthy. Any experience with the hatch rate of eggs with yolk contamination? Replacing the eggs is a no. She's almost 1 week into sitting and I need her to hatch the eggs of an old lady, and she already has all I got.

 

[Perris]

Any experience with the hatch rate of eggs with yolk contamination?

sorry, no.

If the yolk has dried and set, might it come off with a gentle scrape? If not, I think I'd try to wash it off under running tepid water, as a compromised bloom in a clean nest maybe less risky than bacteria-friendly egg yolk on top of the bloom. Or treat the most affected eggs one way and the least affected the other? Or try both removal methods?

 

[fluffycrow]

My experience with this is also incredibly limited.

I'll type it here because maybe some people might find it relevant.
I have a hen who can't stop laying. She's an EE and she's like 30 eggs in 30 days. She is so much in a hurry that sometimes she lay an early soft shelled egg because she doesn't give it time to get a shell.
The only way to give this poor hen some rest is to let her hatch some chicks every time she goes broody. Lucky for her, she goes broody every 3 months (1 month lay, 1 month sit, 1 month raise babies, 1 month lay, and so on). However she really struggle to switch her egg laying machine off even when she's broody. She's been sitting on eggs for 5 nights, and she still laid one egg every day. Yesterday it was finally a fairy egg, but today however she laid a large soft shelled egg, broke it, and made a mess in the nest.
I changed the nesting material, but the eggs now are filthy. Any experience with the hatch rate of eggs with yolk contamination? Replacing the eggs is a no. She's almost 1 week into sitting and I need her to hatch the eggs of an old lady, and she already has all I got.

Last year’s inexperienced broody, Galadriel, which ended in failure. I can’t for the life of me remember how many eggs she started with. At one point she was down to 4 or 5. One broke, everything got covered. In the end, one egg hatched. The rest of the story, most of you know.

I’d agree with lightly cleaning the eggs, depending on embryo activity. If it’s really bad, then losing the bloom seems the best choice in a bad situation

 

[Altairsky]

Well, I'll leave everything as it is then, and I'll let you know the hatch rate in 20 days! The filthier eggs are 20% covered in yolk, which isn't too bad. I have the feeling that the hen will eventually clean the eggs herself by rubbing against them and turning them. I'll let you know how it goes.
The only time I had filthy eggs was when another broody ate one of her own eggs, but it happened at day 16th (blood and fluff everywhere) so very close to hatching day. I had 70% hatch rate that time.