Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[hokankai]

I have a broody silkie! My first broody silkie ever! Unfortunately she is trying to sit out in the run...on the cold sand! I can't see her successfully incubating anything in the damp cold sand. I want her to sit, but I also want to keep her and her babies safe. She has never liked laying in the coop for some reason, just doesn't really like going in there at all, so I'd hate to pen her up in their small coop.

Any ideas???

 

[Johnn]

I have a broody silkie! My first broody silkie ever! Unfortunately she is trying to sit out in the run...on the cold sand! I can't see her successfully incubating anything in the damp cold sand. I want her to sit, but I also want to keep her and her babies safe. She has never liked laying in the coop for some reason, just doesn't really like going in there at all, so I'd hate to pen her up in their small coop.

Any ideas???

Could you not put a broody box over the place were she sits and see if she will sit in there?

 

[rlhagan56]

Okay, I am on foal watch so tired and busy most of the time lately. I have a question and no time to read anymore on this interesting thread lol. It finally dawned on me 2 days ago that my Barred Rock Banty is broody. We are overwhelmed with eggs, and if I had taken more note of her strange change to a cluck sound I would have saved those extra banty eggs from my 3 banty hens! So I started putting banty eggs under her, I have no idea if they are fertile, or will hatch. Yesterday I noticed the other banty hen in the same pen had put an egg under her in the same nest, then again today. I will move her back to the other side and leave Mr. banty roo in.

My question is how long will they sit on eggs if they don't hatch, or iff they have been sitting and eggs are stuck under them say, 5 days later? Do they sit on them till they hatch, can they count lol?

 

[chickenmomma16]

Wanted to share a pic of the chicks first day out side. It was full of dust bathing, sun bathing (during the "sun breaks" I live in Washington after all...), and playing "keep away" with worms longer then they were tall

Broody Mama did a good job keeping all 9 chicks close by and the others stayed away. She didn't want to stray too far from the coop door.

 

[lawatt]

Just found this thread. I did have some trouble when I let two broodies share the "broody apartment." One of them, a d'Uccle, hatched out yellow chicks with stripes. The other, a bantam Cochin, hatched out some yellow with stripes and some dark brown chicks. The d'Uccle conceived a hatred for anything that didn't look like her own chicks, and began attacking. She killed two little browns before I figured out what was going on. Since then I've tended to keep broodies in their own little enclosures . . . but even that doesn't always work. Another broody (an EE/Silky cross) with seven chicks of all different hues still went off the deep end and started killing chicks belonging to another hen when they wandered into her pen, even when they looked like her own. I guess they really do know the voices of their own chicks!

Needless to say I don't incubate eggs from either of those hens. Not good genetics.

That said, not all hens go bonkers. The bantam Cochin sisters I have are able to share chicks without anyone getting hurt. And one of my Icelandic hens went broody again when her single chick was a month old. When the new chick hatched, both mother and daughter raised it. It was really funny to see that little month-old girl brooding her baby sister!

thanks for this! i just got home from work and am now faced with The Decision -- the two who went broody over the weekend, who were causing such disruption yesterday, are snuggled into a nest box together (have been since yesterday evening), sitting on some fake eggs. my choices are:

a) move one tonight to a pen that i can close, & hope that she settles in to her new digs, or

b) maybe wait another day & see if they are sharing the box without trouble, & then just let them co-brood?

they'd be getting their (real) eggs at the same time, so should all hatch at once... not sure what's the best approach? any thoughts?

thanks!!

 

[kannna]

That's a quandry. Where are they in the pecking order in relation to each other? I know Betty, the avatar there, is head hen and would never share her broody nest with an underling. If they are somewhere in the middle and tend to get along on a regular basis, I would put them together in their own special area and see what transpires.

 

[lawatt]

That's a quandry. Where are they in the pecking order in relation to each other? I know Betty, the avatar there, is head hen and would never share her broody nest with an underling. If they are somewhere in the middle and tend to get along on a regular basis, I would put them together in their own special area and see what transpires.

they're both kind of middle -- not high, not low. one is larger (australorp), but the other is a bit feistier (crested cream legbar). they've been in the nest together for 24 hours, and don't see any evidence of squabbling, but hard to say...

edit, 5 min later: i just checked underneath them, and the australorp has ALL the eggs, the CCL is just hanging out hopefully, so perhaps i'd better move her. wish me luck!!

 

[hokankai]

So I put up a wall next to the nest to block SOME of the draftiness...and she moved next to an open part of the fence. I also put some eggs in there and she keeps randomly moving around. I think she might be...ahem...a little special needs in the broody department.

I don't get her eggs until Saturday so we have some time to work out the kinks. I'm going to put a large bin with a hole in the side in the corner she's been laying her eggs in for the last several months. Should I just lock her up in it? Wait for her to be committed to put her in it? Or what? I don't want her out in the open though because the wind would quickly cool the eggs or chicks.

 

[mirandamiranda]

I found this thread a few days ago when my Welsummer went broody and have been reading through the first few pages with great interest. And today I gave her some real fertile eggs! I managed to get some locally which saved some expense, I am worried that she will not last the course as she is only a year old and this is her (and my!) first attempt at hatching. I'm so glad to have all the information here.

She is tucked away safely from her flockmates and I have begun the countdown... My daughters are all thrilled to bits that we are going to watch our own little chicks hatch out!

Miranda

 

[OHfarmerswife]

I found this thread a few days ago when my Welsummer went broody and have been reading through the first few pages with great interest. And today I gave her some real fertile eggs! I managed to get some locally which saved some expense, I am worried that she will not last the course as she is only a year old and this is her (and my!) first attempt at hatching. I'm so glad to have all the information here.

She is tucked away safely from her flockmates and I have begun the countdown... My daughters are all thrilled to bits that we are going to watch our own little chicks hatch out! 

Miranda

Good luck Miranda! It was so exciting with the first one, I now have 9 more eggs under a second broody & 7 in my incubator!!!! DH is expanding the coop.