Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Marty1876]

Quote: I think your nest size is good. Hens make do in much smaller spots sometimes! Its safer for the eggs by far that way. Also, I love your nest box, I think I might put some of those around my hen house and see if the girls like them, and maybe encourage more sitting this spring.

I usually keep any mamas and babies away from a large group of birds, but allow them with smaller groups in large spaces.

 

[Johnn]

Gosh, ive missed alot on here!!, Asparagus is doing really well at the minute, he is above 4 hens in the pecking order now and is staring to get respect off the others!, he is getting along with his dad at the minute so i just hope it stays that way!, he isnt crowing or mating yet, is that normal? he between 26 and 29 weeks old (i cant believe i frogot their age!, i always knew it from day one!)Bella still isnt laying yet but i dont think she will fro a couple of months. And the mother orpington has decided to stop laying and join the chicks again, she still calls them over for food and shares what she finds, Bella does that too, Asparagus dosent!, he just keeps his food to him self!! (i dont have a pic of them alone at the minute, but anyone who is familiar with them will know which 3 they are! if you dont, they are the 3 together in the corner)

 

[Miss Lydia]

Gosh, ive missed alot on here!!, Asparagus is doing really well at the minute, he is above 4 hens in the pecking order now and is staring to get respect off the others!, he is getting along with his dad at the minute so i just hope it stays that way!, he isnt crowing or mating yet, is that normal? he between 26 and 29 weeks old (i cant believe i frogot their age!, i always knew it from day one!)Bella still isnt laying yet but i dont think she will fro a couple of months. And the mother orpington has decided to stop laying and join the chicks again, she still calls them over for food and shares what she finds, Bella does that too, Asparagus dosent!, he just keeps his food to him self!! (i dont have a pic of them alone at the minute, but anyone who is familiar with them will know which 3 they are! if you dont, they are the 3 together in the corner)

Pretty pics Johnn, your roo As. and my roo Cogburn are the same age give or take a day or 2, my roo is mating and crowing, and his Daddy is keeping him on his toes. Doesn't attack him but keeps him jumping. funny to watch too.

 

[Johnn]

Pretty pics Johnn, your roo As. and my roo Cogburn are the same age give or take a day or 2, my roo is mating and crowing, and his Daddy is keeping him on his toes. Doesn't attack him but keeps him jumping. funny to watch too.

How old is yours??

 

[gabrielle1976]

Some times they wont mate or crow if they are not head roo . Its safer for them that way lol.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How old is yours??

I'm like you i forgot the dates but i do remember we were hatching the same week and I think it was only a few days apart. and gabrielle is right sometimes they don't breed and crow if there's a dominant roo around, It took my lil guy a long time to start. I had it marked on a calendar the day they hatched and threw it away at the first of the year. darn.

 

[Johnn]

I'm like you i forgot the dates but i do remember we were hatching the same week and I think it was only a few days apart. and gabrielle is right sometimes they don't breed and crow if there's a dominant roo around, It took my lil guy a long time to start. I had it marked on a calendar the day they hatched and threw it away at the first of the year. darn.

I know the date mine hatched, it was the 5th of July, because i remember it was the frist Thursday in July, i just cant remember how many weeks they are!!,My other cockerel will be 9 this year, he is more agressive to the girls than he is to Asparagus, he dosent really mate them as much anymore because he struggles to :/

 

[stonykill]

Some times they wont mate or crow if they are not head roo . Its safer for them that way lol.

someone forgot to tell my at least 25 roosters that.....

 

[pmcatnip]

What a great thread! I'm glad so many people are going with nature's original egg hatching method.

Maybe this was asked before but search hasn't turn up anything. I don't know whether my eggs are still alive.

We've had our flock about 3 months. I bought them from a friend at work who wanted out of the "backyard chicken thing." About a month ago I put golf balls in the nest boxes (3 boxes for 9 hens and a few pullets), which triggered a broody hen so I decided to give her eggs to sit on. There are several roosters so we have no shortage of fertile eggs. And we are raising them for meat as well as eggs so we want to have a self-populating flock. (This same flock hatched a brood last summer in a brush pile at their former home--nobody knew it was going on until 20 fuzzy little chicks came out. So clearly at least one hen has the necessary instincts.)

I put 7 eggs under "Broody" on December 18. According to the perfect 21 day conditions that means they should have hatched on Jan 8. Since broody hens aren't a perfect incubator I estimated they'd probably hatch anytime this week. I work during the day and collect eggs in the evening, and on the evening of Jan 2 Broody was no longer on the eggs and they were cool. For all I know, maybe nobody sat on them all day. In mild panic I grabbed the nearest hen and put her on the eggs and she seemed to settle in there for the night. The next day I had to do the same thing. DH and I wondered if we should throw out the eggs since Broody had abandoned them for two days. We hadn't made up our minds and on the next evening, there was a new hen sitting on them, happy as a clam. "Broody 2" and has been sitting on it every day. We decided that since this is a new experiment for us, to let her brood and see what happens.

Additionally, there are now 25-30 eggs. I allowed the other hens to lay into the brood if they felt like it because I know that last year's chicks had to be laid over several days (there were only 3 laying hens last summer) so nature doesn't seem to mind if they're a little different in age.

Do you think the embryos died when "Broody 1" abandoned them? Or do you think growth was just slowed down? I'm starting to think they're dead. I am hesitant to candle them because the hen doesn't like me messing about and from what I've read you're supposed to leave eggs alone in the last several days.

 

[Miss Lydia]

someone forgot to tell my at least 25 roosters that.....

stony mine haven't ever had a problem with it either, but i have seen others post about it. I think because ours run free they have more opportunities since they can get away from each other. When my young roo goes to roost of an evening is when the head roo gives him a hard time, he never jumps him but will jump at him, and scares this lil bantam, it's like a game with head roo.