Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

what time is it were you are?! its 11.54pm here!, the Orp best have the chicks in bed now, if not it will not look good on her mothering skills..

Wow, time zone shock! I am in CO and it is 5pm here. Virginia would be 7pm.

 

[bobbieschicks]

what time is it were you are?! its 11.54pm here!, the Orp best have the chicks in bed now, if not it will not look good on her mothering skills..

It says you asked this question about an hour ago, that would have been 7:30pm Sunday evening.

 

[bobbieschicks]

It was easier than I expected to get the broodies and babies inside. Before it got dark around 8pm I went out and made sure they got inside.

Topsy was squatted down warming her chicks so I just scooped her, and her babies who were under her wings, up and deposited the lot of them inside.

I found Smokey nearby scratching the ground and snatched up her two chicks put them inside and quickly grabbed up Smokey and put her inside too.

Went back out at 8:20pm and everyone else had gone in too. All is peaceful

Oh and by the end of next week I shouldn't have to help them back in. Once they get their wing feathers the moms teach them how to fly up or flap up the ramps. It's usually just the first couple of days before that get messy as I'm not willing to let them stay outside at night if they can't get the babies to follow inside.

 

[darkmatter]

 

[Chicken Tamer]

awww sooooo cute

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

Good news and bad news...
Good news is, Tilda is absolutely sitting tight on her clutch. She is aggressively protective of them.
Bad news is, she is allowing someone to lay in her nest because apparently she feels no amount of eggs is too many.
I fancied I would be able to remove new eggs when she gets up to stretch and eat, but I am not always there to nab them when she gets up (I think it is super early in the morning). She started with 11 eggs I gave her on Thursday afternoon, and as of yesterday afternoon she had 13 of them.
I have to profoundly disturb her to get at the new eggs (the ones I gave her are marked) and she is brutal about keeping me away from them (I have the peck-marks to prove it!).
Does anybody have any ideas about how to handle the situation?
I can't move her and the clutch, because she loses her mind when I even peek into the nest. She has started to screech when I walk into the coop, now.
I just don't want her to get so many eggs under her she can't keep them all warm.

 

[Chicken Tamer]

what are u hatching and why dont u cover the nesting box or move her???

 

[perchie.girl]

Good news and bad news...
Good news is, Tilda is absolutely sitting tight on her clutch. She is aggressively protective of them.
Bad news is, she is allowing someone to lay in her nest because apparently she feels no amount of eggs is too many.
I fancied I would be able to remove new eggs when she gets up to stretch and eat, but I am not always there to nab them when she gets up (I think it is super early in the morning). She started with 11 eggs I gave her on Thursday afternoon, and as of yesterday afternoon she had 13 of them.
I have to profoundly disturb her to get at the new eggs (the ones I gave her are marked) and she is brutal about keeping me away from them (I have the peck-marks to prove it!).
Does anybody have any ideas about how to handle the situation?
I can't move her and the clutch, because she loses her mind when I even peek into the nest. She has started to screech when I walk into the coop, now.
I just don't want her to get so many eggs under her she can't keep them all warm.

Is there a way you can put some chicken wire over her nest box. when I discovered this going on with my girls I built an enclosure right around the nest box. Right inside the coop. That way I could put the hen her very own food and water. I really hate messing with a broody because I feel its her time she doesn't need to be worrying about what I am up to.

If you cant do this, an option is to move her to her own broody inclosure. Nest box with a small run I have seen them as small as two feet by four feet made of PVC pipe covered with either chicken wire or a mesh to keep other chickens out. Then its a one time move get her out of the nest boxes and into her own Queendom.

 

[Aris]

Since this thread is all about the pictures of little fuzzy butts ,here are my two mutts ,starting to feather out, I just can't take a better picture of them ,they don't want to stay still for me

.

With the experience I have from my flock, I think the red chick final colours will be red or buff(buff is a lighter version of red right?) with black tail and some black feathers at the wings,neck ,the barred one will be darker of a barred rock like most of my barred mutts.
Soon I will have as gift some mutt bantams which came from a broody too, so I will try post a pic of them.
I am not a chicken snob ,how could I, both my LF and bantam flocks are mutts,but is almost impossible to find pure breeds here in Greece except dual purpose hybrids like ISA brown and Black Sex Link.

 

[Pecked2Death]

I just asked this question of someone else on the board/group, because I have a RIR hen that has gone super broodie (broody) and will not move, however the other RIR I have pushes into the nest with her (you'd think there was only i nest box - not 5!)

Anyway The lady told me to wait until a few days before hatching and then move the eggs and mum to the bottom - Give her the same sort of conditions etc and she should still sit on the eggs - the other thing was the higher sides. I liked the moving down as I feel the hen should feel pretty committed to the eggs and would move with them and then I have not worries about transitions later.

This comes from someone that has never hatched an egg, broodie or incubator - I know how to poach one though