Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[CALI CHICK]

Oh and try to slip two chicks rather than just one. That way they will have each other to keep warm when momma abandons them at four weeks old.

That is what happened with my Buff Orp on her earlier hatches. She was ready to go back to being a normal chicken after only 4 weeks. We had to rehome the 2 TJ cockerels and she only had the one chick left.......which she pretty much abandoned. It was so sad. The chick did grow up and found her place in the flock but it wasn't easy for her.

The neat thing is that Buffy is doing SO awesome this time around. She has 2 pullets that are 9 weeks old and she still protects them. Last week she even decided they were old enough to join the big girls on the roosts! Usually Buffy has one on each side, but sometimes the pullets choose a random place between the other hens 2x their size!

I guess they become better broodies with age and experience.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Sneak out at night and candle one of the eggs. If its dark inside then they just haven't hatched yet. It can take longer than 21 days in the winter for eggs to hatch. If the egg is clear inside then you definitely have an infertile egg. I'd check them all at that point. Do NOT crack them open. I've done it, not worth the seeing IMO. If they are dark, give them another week. When the chicks hatch slipping some under the other broody may work. I've slipped eggs about to hatch under a different broody without problems, but I haven't tried chicks.

Oh and try to slip two chicks rather than just one. That way they will have each other to keep warm when momma abandons them at four weeks old.

I will do it tonight, cant wait now. I'm in Aussie so it's summer over here so shouldn't have any temp problems. If i put 1 chick under the broody wont it be able to be "friends" with the other broody's chicks.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

That is what happened with my Buff Orp on her earlier hatches. She was ready to go back to being a normal chicken after only 4 weeks. We had to rehome the 2 TJ cockerels and she only had the one chick left.......which she pretty much abandoned. It was so sad. The chick did grow up and found her place in the flock but it wasn't easy for her.
The neat thing is that Buffy is doing SO awesome this time around. She has 2 pullets that are 9 weeks old and she still protects them. Last week she even decided they were old enough to join the big girls on the roosts! Usually Buffy has one on each side, but sometimes the pullets choose a random place between the other hens 2x their size!
I guess they become better broodies with age and experience.

Well I've got 1 lonely chick right now who her mum stopped caring for her at 3 weeks old and she/he is going great guns she even roosts with the big girls and eats with them there are 25 she has to compete with and i even saw her peck one of the bantams and she's only 5 weeks old, not even my 14 weeks old wayndotte will do that.lol. There are always exceptions.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Hi , i asked on another thread but no one aswerd. My little Frizzle has started spending a lot of time hunkered down in a little wallow in her cage she eats and dtinks and when i let them out she comes out and scratches around but most her time is spent in her little nitch , she isjt laying eggs and she isnt sitting on any. Dovyou think she is contemplateing brooding?

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

Hi , i asked on another thread but no one aswerd. My little Frizzle has started spending a lot of time hunkered down in a little wallow in her cage she eats and dtinks and when i let them out she comes out and scratches around but most her time is spent in her little nitch , she isjt laying eggs and she isnt sitting on any. Dovyou think she is contemplateing brooding?

Is she (extra) puffed out, crabby and turns into a velociraptor when you try to move her? Then probably.
They don't have to have eggs to be a broody. My broodies have also stopped saying "boc boc" and started saying "clook clook" when they went broody, too. All signs to me they want to brood.
They sort of get flat when they sit. Will kind of growl and peck (hard) when I mess with them.
I have had just a couple of hatches, but I know there are some real experts on this thread who will chime in with more help.

 

[elsfieldchickens]

yay! comgrats

 

[Leahs Mom]

Is she (extra) puffed out, crabby and turns into a velociraptor when you try to move her? Then probably.
They don't have to have eggs to be a broody. My broodies have also stopped saying "boc boc" and started saying "clook clook" when they went broody, too. All signs to me they want to brood.
They sort of get flat when they sit. Will kind of growl and peck (hard) when I mess with them.
I have had just a couple of hatches, but I know there are some real experts on this thread who will chime in with more help.

I am a newbie! (Disclaimer right up front.) The broody I have right now never pecked me nor was she bothered when I picked her up off the nest. I tried putting her way out in the yard over about a 3 day period to be sure she meant business. Then in the night I moved her to a different location and put some ceramic eggs under her to give her a couple days in that environment before I thought she might stick it out.

So...they may all react a little different but the flattening out and "clook, clook" seem to fit!

 

[pysankigirl]

give her extra hay...mine started almost trying to cover herself up with it. She has her head into the nestbox tail out. when I mess with her she grumbles but doesn't peck at me. but she's been sitting there for a week and stopped laying so I am pretty sure it is broodiness.

 

[coyotesmommy]

Does anyone know the name of the children's story where there is a little hen who has a meat bone and nothing else but the other animals in the village each have one thing and when they put them all together they make soup to feed all?

 

[CALI CHICK]

Does anyone know the name of the children's story where there is a little hen who has a meat bone and nothing else but the other animals in the village each have one thing and when they put them all together they make soup to feed all?

It is probably an adaptaion to the old story called "Stone Soup".