Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[TeaChick]

My experiment was a complete fail. I found half the golf balls buried in very disheveled nesting material and one brown egg.
I collected the golf balls and gave them back to DS. =(
Oh, well, I tried.

 

[theadvocate19]

Okay so please forgive me, I'm just going to jump right into this one....

We are relatively new to chickens since April. We had one broody cochin bantam, total sweetheart. She has decided on two different times to go broody, this last time she made it to day 5, and died unexpectedly of apparent starvation, despite having constant access to fresh food and water. We are deeply crushed and was wondering if anybody may known of reasons why a hen may die while broody. She really was the entire family's favorite hen.

 

[TeaChick]

Okay so please forgive me, I'm just going to jump right into this one....

We are relatively new to chickens since April. We had one broody cochin bantam, total sweetheart. She has decided on two different times to go broody, this last time she made it to day 5, and died unexpectedly of apparent starvation, despite having constant access to fresh food and water. We are deeply crushed and was wondering if anybody may known of reasons why a hen may die while broody. She really was the entire family's favorite hen.

No forgiveness necessary.

Welcome!!!

Wow! No idea about your hen, but much sympathy!!!

Hope you get this figured out; I'd hate to lose my Bantam Cochin and especially not know why!

 

[theadvocate19]

No forgiveness necessary. Welcome!!!

Wow!  No idea about your hen, but much sympathy!!!
Hope you get this figured out; I'd hate to lose my Bantam Cochin and especially not know why!

Well thank you so much for the nice welcome, and yes it really was quite devastating. She was so much more than a chicken! So special. She had a proper burial with her eggs. Adorned with an adequate headstone, and flowers planted atop her grave. She was loved so dearly, and in fact she is my profile picture.

 

[TeaChick]

Well thank you so much for the nice welcome, and yes it really was quite devastating. She was so much more than a chicken! So special. She had a proper burial with her eggs. Adorned with an adequate headstone, and flowers planted atop her grave. She was loved so dearly, and in fact she is my profile picture.

My Cochin Bantam is my avatar too. =)
Yeah, we don't do headstones for pets, but mine will get a proper pet burial when she eventually dies, hopefully of old age.
She's special to me too. We all get a major kick out of seeing her waddle/toddle/ IDK what to call how she runs across the yard, but it's so cute and funny. =)
I'm trying to find a roo for her, so hopefully we can get some babies running around too. =)

 

[1TurkenLover]

Okay so please forgive me, I'm just going to jump right into this one....

We are relatively new to chickens since April. We had one broody cochin bantam, total sweetheart. She has decided on two different times to go broody, this last time she made it to day 5, and died unexpectedly of apparent starvation, despite having constant access to fresh food and water. We are deeply crushed and was wondering if anybody may known of reasons why a hen may die while broody. She really was the entire family's favorite hen.

Our Family started about the same time, my Favorite Cochin was Standard size and a Cockerel Died Suddenly, never sick not starved or picked on, Just found him next Am. ▬ https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/839219/found-my-cochin-mix-cockerel-dead-no-apparent-cause ▬ These BYC friends help me through it and will you as well.

SO Sorry for the unexplained loss.

 

[theadvocate19]

My Cochin Bantam is my avatar too. =)
Yeah, we don't do headstones for pets, but mine will get a proper pet burial when she eventually dies, hopefully of old age.
She's special to me too.  We all get a major kick out of seeing her waddle/toddle/ IDK what to call how she runs across the yard, but it's so cute and funny.  =)
I'm trying to find a roo for her, so hopefully we can get some babies running around too. =)

That is so so so true about them running across the yard to see you! Such a sweetheart, and thinking about getting another.

  Our Family started about the same time, my Favorite Cochin was Standard size and a Cockerel Died Suddenly, never sick not starved or picked on, Just found him next Am. ▬  https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/839219/found-my-cochin-mix-cockerel-dead-no-apparent-cause  ▬ These BYC friends help me through it and will you as well.  SO Sorry for the unexplained loss.

And thank you so much for the linek, it was quite useful!

 

[Dook]

Sorry for your loss ;___; she must have been rather determined to sit if she did not eat? I get worried about my girl sitting there not moving all day, so I move her water and food bowls right in front of her and she starts to chow down and drink LOTS of water! She doesnt seem to touch them otherwise. (even though they are very close normally)

 

[Dook]

I started my own little thread to keep track of my girls first hatching progress > https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/845455/kaz-gets-to-be-a-muma and was then linked here!

In short, the story is: Kaz is a very broody bantom X something (mystery chicken) she's the only one who's been broody of all the chooks I've ever had in 4 years, and she started being broody at only 6 months of age!

I tried to break her out multiple times, but she's soon back to broodiness within a week anyway. We decided we'd give her some eggs to hatch so she can finally be a muma! (she is now 11 months old!)

We ended up giving her 11 eggs from a breeding farm nearby, all Pekin bantom eggs. (we even got the choice to pick and choose colours as they were kept separately by colour and type!) Ended up getting a few of all of them..mainly because there wasnt many eggs in each pen! =) The parent birds are SO CUTE! I can't wait to see the babies!

I put the eggs near her yesterday and let her put them under herself. They'll be due not long before Kaz's 1st birthday! (She and the others were all put in an incubator on the 1/1/13) And her eggs were put in yesterday, 30/12/13!


^ This is when we gave her the eggs! She put them all underneath herself =D

I guess I can update again when I candle the eggs progress and when they are due to hatch! *looking forward to it!*

 

[Dook]

Quick question.... do rats pose a threat to the muma chicken or her babies/eggs? We have a rat problem here (catch at least 1-2 /day in a rat zapper...they outsmart normal rat traps!) I was worried about them getting in to her... I'm hoping she'd peck them if they did...but I'm not sure if they are destructive/eat at chickens or their eggs alive or anything like that?

I have put snake wire around her mini pen to prevent them getting in..but if they REALLY wanted to..they'd probably be able to climb in the top. I used to find the fake plastic eggs in the big pen out of the nest with chew marks on them.. so I thought something...rat or even perhaps possums like to eat eggs?