Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Lady of McCamley]

Hi all, new to byc here what a resource.
I just need someone to tell me everything will be ok. I have a buff O that has been sitting on her eggs for one week. I set her up in a rabbit cage inside the coop. My concern is I don't think she's gotten out of the nest since Monday (6days). At first I had the cage closed and caught her out of the nest on Monday and let her out of the cage. She wondered about for an hour then I had to go back to work so I put her in her nest and I'm pretty sure she hasn't gotten up since. The cage was closed until Saturday and there is no sign of her pooping or eating. On Saturday I opened the cage door and moved her food and water next to her nest. Since then she has eaten some (or at least knocked her food over) and drank some water but i still haven't seen her get out of the nest. I'm worried about her fouling the nest but it doesn't look like she has yet. I keep fighting every urge to intervene, and pull her out for a little bit. This is her first time trying to hatch. My plan is to leave her be and leave the cage open. Somebody back me up. I have many questions about what to do when the chicks come, but this is my only pressing issue.

I would leave the door open and don't intervene unless others are bothering her. Isolation is best to protect the hen from others, but not good if the hen is too confined. Place food and water that can't be tipped close by the nest and provide an area to stretch and poo.

Incubating eggs is hard work, 24x7 kind of work. Your hen is getting up, usually once a day to eat and drink and poo, you just aren't there to see it.

If she messes in the nest, gently clump and remove it. I like using a deep layer of pine shavings with a layer of timothy hay on top. It nests well and allows easy clean up and addition of more materials without disturbing the hen and eggs too much.

Good Luck
Lady of McCamley

 

[LisaLouHoo]

Hi all, new to byc here what a resource.
I just need someone to tell me everything will be ok. I have a buff O that has been sitting on her eggs for one week. I set her up in a rabbit cage inside the coop. My concern is I don't think she's gotten out of the nest since Monday (6days). At first I had the cage closed and caught her out of the nest on Monday and let her out of the cage. She wondered about for an hour then I had to go back to work so I put her in her nest and I'm pretty sure she hasn't gotten up since. The cage was closed until Saturday and there is no sign of her pooping or eating. On Saturday I opened the cage door and moved her food and water next to her nest. Since then she has eaten some (or at least knocked her food over) and drank some water but i still haven't seen her get out of the nest. I'm worried about her fouling the nest but it doesn't look like she has yet. I keep fighting every urge to intervene, and pull her out for a little bit. This is her first time trying to hatch. My plan is to leave her be and leave the cage open. Somebody back me up. I have many questions about what to do when the chicks come, but this is my only pressing issue.

As long as the cage is open and she has access to food/water and can get out to poo, she should be good. When I had a broody last August, she would get off the nest every day or at least every other day. Sometimes I would get worried if I thought she was off the nest too long, but she did just fine and hatched some nice babies. The problem might be that another hen might go to her nest when she is off the nest and mess with the eggs or lay one in with them so you might want to mark the eggs to make sure you just have the ones you started with. My broody was a Buff O, too. She did everything right, so this year when she goes broody, I can totally trust her. I think you're doing fine and I hope you get plenty of nice chicks.

 

[kimmerjo]

Ok so I have 4 little fluffy butts The first hatched Friday...there are still 4 eggs under Luna should I get rid of them??

 

[bumpercarr]

Ok so I have 4 little fluffy butts The first hatched Friday...there are still 4 eggs under Luna should I get rid of them??

No, wait until she leaves the nest. She will either push them out from under her, or just leave with the chicks that have hatched. Sometimes, they take an extra day or two. She knows when it's time to give up on those eggs. I put food and water close by so that she doesn't have to leave earlier than she wants to in order to get food and water.

It sort of sounds like you've got eggs that were added over several days. Usually, I let mine sit on one or two and then replace them all when I'm ready for her to brood a hatch. The first one or two are losses, I just throw them away. Some folks have wooden eggs that they let the broodies sit on until they are ready to place eggs under them.

Anyway, congrats on the fluffy butts!

 

[CarolinaHen]

Just gave my broody Silkie some Serama eggs. I hope she has better luck with them than I have had in the incubator.

 

[fisherlady]

Just gave my broody Silkie some Serama eggs. I hope she has better luck with them than I have had in the incubator.

Good luck!! I'm sure Mother Nature would be happy to show us who knows best! LOL

 

[CarolinaHen]

Good luck!! I'm sure Mother Nature would be happy to show us who knows best! LOL

I certainly hope so! I've failed miserably with the last two hatch attempts. My Japanese Bantam eggs hatch great, but either there is something amiss with the breeding pair of Seramas I have, or they just don't like the incubator. My Silkie girl will give me the answer to that question. She is an amazing broody!

 

[motherhen68]

I have a question and need help!!!!!!!!!!!!, this is the first time hatching eggs and I'm doing it with one of my Broody Australorps, she has been sitting on 9 eggs for 8 days, I candled them on day seven and 1 was iffy if it was viable but I left it being unsure of myself. Sometime time when I was at work this evening I came home to discover only 8 eggs and the other eggs had egg yolk drying on them with feathers stuck to some of them, it looks like she probably tried eating up the bad egg cause I only found part of the shell in her nest and the other eggs sitting in hay and egg white debris starting to dry on them, I did clean them off the best I could with a bearly moist washcloth with a few drops of water on it in the middle of the washcloth, trying to rub gently the dried crusted egg debris and feathers off the other eggs while keeping the air sack end tilted up and drying them with the washcloth part that wasn't damp! Are these other eggs done for, what would have been the best way to handle this situation so I'll know if I did alright or are these eggs probably done for?

 

[Sydney Acres]

I have a question and need help!!!!!!!!!!!!, this is the first time hatching eggs and I'm doing it with one of my Broody Australorps, she has been sitting on 9 eggs for 8 days, I candled them on day seven and 1 was iffy if it was viable but I left it being unsure of myself. Sometime time when I was at work this evening I came home to discover only 8 eggs and the other eggs had egg yolk drying on them with feathers stuck to some of them, it looks like she probably tried eating up the bad egg cause I only found part of the shell in her nest and the other eggs sitting in hay and egg white debris starting to dry on them, I did clean them off the best I could with a bearly moist washcloth with a few drops of water on it in the middle of the washcloth, trying to rub gently the dried crusted egg debris and feathers off the other eggs while keeping the air sack end tilted up and drying them with the washcloth part that wasn't damp! Are these other eggs done for, what would have been the best way to handle this situation so I'll know if I did alright or are these eggs probably done for?

I'm probably not the best person to advise you how to clean hatching eggs, having never had to do it before, but I may be the only one up right now so I'll answer anyway.

I doubt that your other eggs are in trouble. Eggs break in the nest all the time. You have two choices -- either wash them and rub off some of the bloom, or leave the broken egg debris on them and know that there's bacterial contamination growing on it. It sounds like you were careful, both with the cleaning and with handling the egg. Right or wrong, I would have done the same thing. You didn't mention if you wore gloves or if you washed your hands first, but that can be a good precaution to avoid adding additional contamination to the eggs

Did you mark the one that was iffy? Do you know for sure that it was the one that broke?

I have been told to not overwhelm first time broodies, as they are more likely to break eggs, or fail to cover them all adequately, or fail to turn them regularly. I don't know what the right number is, it probably depends on the hen, but I've been told by one source to give a first timer no more than 8 eggs, and by another source to give her no more than 6 eggs.

Did the broody have egg yolk smeared all over her breast? That can be very irritating to the skin. If she's tame enough she might let you wipe it off without it affecting her brood. If she's not tolerant of handling it might be best to leave it on her.

I wouldn't give up on the remaining 8 eggs. I would candle them on schedule and hope for the best. Hopefully someone with more experience in this will answer this question for you in the morning. Maybe there is something that can be used as a disinfectant wipe to minimize the amount of bacterial contamination, or maybe nothing else is necessary. But this is a really important question for us first time hatchers, as it will likely happen to all of us some day.

Good luck with your hatch.

 

[kimmerjo]

. So I now have 5 fluffy butts!!! Luna did kick one egg out of the nest last night..so I candled it and no movement so I just disposed of it. I figure she knows more than me. So 3 more eggs to go