Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[lawatt]

shoot, my last bunch of hatching eggs (mostly isbars) are delayed by a day, as the person who shipped them apparently wrote the wrong zip code for my address & the package ended up somewhere on the northern CA coast. should be delivered tomorrow, but just hoping the poor eggs can hold out for an extra day!

 

[Funky Feathers]

My two broodies sitting on my Call Duck eggs:

 

[karlamaria]

Well today one of my week old chick crowed no kidding lol, it was adorable, sad as I can not have roosters but cute. Can you really sex chicks by the tail? 3 have tails growing out, 3 do not. Also how does one tell the color of eggs that will be laid by ear color? I mean all there is ,is yellow fuzz around the holes in there heads. I'm thinking these will be white birds, there Wong feathers are growing out and it's yellowish white. . When will the ears turn white or red? ( for egg color)

 

[bobbieschicks]

I have a little partridge chantecler hen thats been broody forever and we can't seem to break her of it. Today at the feed store they had 2 day old chicks so I thought I'd see if she would adopt them. I brought 2 home and set her up in a nesting area off by herself in the barn and then gave her the chicks, I lifted up her wing and tucked them underneath and she settled down so happily that I went back to the store for 6 more chicks!! She's got them all under her now and she's purring contentedly making all the new chicken mom noises to them. I'm so pleased, it's the best of both worlds, broody raised chicks and they're all pullets!! Hopefully all will go well and she turns out to be a good mom.
I think that these extremely determined broodies are maybe the best moms? 

Glad it went well. I'm hoping to accomplish a similar thing at the end of the month.

 

[Skipspin]

I THOUGHT I POSTED THIS YESTERDAY BUT CAN NOT FIND POST....I HAVE A HEN THAT HAS HATCHED OUT 18 CHICKS, THIS IS THE MOST I HAVE EVER HAD A HEN HATCH OUT, ANYONE OUT THERE WITH THIS MANY FROM ONE HEN. WHEN I POSTED YESTERDAY I THOUGHT THERE WAS ONLY 17 BUT THIS MORNING HAD ANOTHER ONE.

Our neighbor has smaller mutt/game hens and one of them hatched out 18 last month. She said she's never had one hatch that many before. This isn't a large bird at all, so she much have really done a good job.

 

[Johnn]

Those chickens sure are pretty! I have 2 Porcelain D'Uccle eggs that I got from a breeder and 10 Silver Phoenix eggs bred right here. Each hen has six so I'm hoping for a good hatch!

Thanks! I don't think I have seen a "Phoenix" hen before, I will have to look them up. I bet they will be pretty though!

 

[Johnn]

My two broodies sitting on my Call Duck eggs:

I love your broodies! what breed in the bottom one? You will have to post pics when the ducklings hatch, I love to see ducklings with a hen!

 

[Branumdragon]

I had one due to hatch on Wednesday... we heard it moving around on Wednesday, but it didn't hatch.

 

[OHfarmerswife]

anyone have experience making nipple waterer for chicks?

 

[trameghan]

This is my first time with a broody. Today is day 21 but I'm not sure things are looking good. She started out with 7 eggs. 3barred rock/EE and 4 EE eggs. At day 7 one of the EE eggs was kinda smashed and cracked. Day 14 one of the bown eggs was cracked and made a huge mess in the nest box. it looked like she had eaten most of the contents. she had red goop on her beak. Last night i deciced to check on her. She is still with the rest of the flock and I hadn't collected the extras in about 2 days since i didn't want to distrub her so close to hatch date. Well, i found a fully fomed dead chick. no shell anywhere to be found. it stunk real bad and i had smelled something the day before but i couldn't figure out what it was. Anyway, the chick was spread out straight and looked like it was wet when it died. I don't know if it hatched or if the egg was broken first. Only a couple shell chips stuck to its head. I still have 4 eggs under her and I'm going to move her to a dog pen tomorrow. Do I give up on this batch and give here a few new one? What could have happened to the chick? I tried candeling the eggs but my flashlight just isn't bright enough. I can see the air space but can't tell if there is any movement or not. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!