Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[nubbin]

Yay broody chicken mammas! I have a broody who has been on eggs for about a week and I'm noticing her poops are getting really lose. I saw an earlier comment about switching to a leaner feed to help with this. Does 'lean' mean less protein or more? I am over thinking it but my feed store doesn't have lots of options.

 

[Jeniferl29]

I put my 12 Welsummer eggs under broody Cochin bantams tonight. Everybody keep your fingers crossed for me. These eggs came through the mail and the box looked like they had a rough trip. I hope they are not scrambled.

 

[oletymer]

I have a silkie and banty orp that are sitting on eggs and I heard chirps come from the box, So excited to see what it looks like, But I also have a homemade incubator with 9 about 14 days old, once the egg pips I will ad it to there nest for them to hatch out, the reason I put them in the bator is my silkie is a wonderful sitter but she kept
going back to a different area after her food breaks

I didnt want the eggs to go cold, she is sitting on 2 eggs now and the one chirping is hers, it should be out by morning...

 

[1AcreRooster]

I have a silkie and banty orp that are sitting on eggs and I heard chirps come from the box, So excited to see what it looks like, But I also have a homemade incubator with 9 about 14 days old, once the egg pips I will ad it to there nest for them to hatch out, the reason I put them in the bator is my silkie is a wonderful sitter but she kept
going back to a different area after her food breaks

I didnt want the eggs to go cold, she is sitting on 2 eggs now and the one chirping is hers, it should be out by morning...

 

[Jharper]

Well, I think it was this thread that I said earlier that I had only one more broody to stop raising her brood? Well now my LBOEGB is trying to hatch some. Looks like I got one trying to finish up the season I reckon. She was sitting on two big ole eggs, one PRIR and one Dominique egg and one of her own which aren't fertilized.

 

[McCaskill]

HELP my broody was on 12 eggs I candled the other day and threw on out that wasn't developing to day ( day 11-12) I event out and found my hen out for her daily bath and food and stuff so I checked the eggs and one had busted all over the others so I took them and wiped of all the gunk with a damp rag, but I noticed I only had nine so now I'm missing an egg and I candled again can't see any movements but I noticed one of the eggs was dead so now I'm down to 8 plz tell me I did the right thing

 

[chick lovers]

I know how frustrating that can be. It just happened to my broody the other day and it killed 9 chicks that were close to hatching. I didn't know how long it had been but it could have been a day anyway we cleaned them off but it was too late. They had died but as long as you caught it in time I think they should be okay. Good luck. Hope you do better than I did
Dan

 

[Jharper]

Well, I think it was this thread that I said earlier that I had only one more broody to stop raising her brood? Well now my LBOEGB is trying to hatch some. Looks like I got one trying to finish up the season I reckon. She was sitting on two big ole eggs, one PRIR and one Dominique egg and one of her own which aren't fertilized.

Never mind False Alarm! It took her three hours to lay and egg! LOL!

 

[CarolinaHen]

My Polish hen is considering going broody. She has sat on her nest for 3-4 hours the last couple of days and has been there for 6 or more today. I know she won't stay long enough to hatch them. Hoping my other broody decides to sit on them when he quits because my incubator is full :/

 

[omilona]

OK, so we are at the half way point of my first attempt at letting broodies hatch. I started off with chickens 2 seasons ago when I got some true Ameraucanas, SLW, and cuckoo marans from a breeder.Then this year we got some Black australorps and EE from M macM (mites don't get me started).Anyway.One of the australorp girls became determinedly broody. After a whole day fixedly watching the australorp, one of the ameraucanas went broody. So I ordered a total of 16 eggs rumpless araucana from two different breeders figuring if one package was mishandled then we had a chance if they came from two places. One breeder sent me 4 silkie eggs which was great as I had been seriously tempted by the silkie/showgirl pix. So I left the eggs to settle over night and set half under each. The Australorp is an unbelievable incubator. In 12 days I have only seen her off the nest once. She has all the eggs still. The ameraucana pushed all but 7 out of the nest. She gets out for 10 minutes every day. Mamas have been great. I am just a little worried about the fact that when the eggs first went out to the girls was when the heat wave was happening here in NY are. I read that sometimes the eggs hatch a day or two early then. Anyone have any experience on this?



We also had the rat story from hell, but that is a story for another day, and after 1200lbs of concrete and 8 lbs of rat poison it seems we have subdued the vermin, for the moment.