Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Debs55]

Hello,
Wonder if someone could answer a couple of questions. I moved two broody hens with eggs to another pen a few days ago to keep them from being aggravated by the rest of my flock. I moved them at night as recommended. I went to check on them 2 hours after the move and one of them had gotten in the nest with the other leaving her eggs. They were cold to the touch. I replaced her and placed a partial barricade in front of the nest to keep them at home through the night. 1 hour later I went back to check on them and they were both out of the nest, however the second nest's eggs were not cold but had cooled down. I placed all eggs in the incubator and placed some eggs from the refrigerator in the nest to see if they would return the next morning. Both of them did return and tended the eggs for 48 hours so I replaced the original eggs under the hens and as of now all is well. My question is what temperature can eggs reach, and how long can the be unattended before the loose there viability?

Tim

I don't have exact temps but my broodies always manage to leave an egg or two when they move and when I find them they are cold. usually they still hatch as long as it is not for an extended period of time


update on my broody with the 2 clutches with 2 different hatch dates: I have 4 chickies! all 4 are from the eggs that I found abandoned, they were 2 days late but they are here. just waiting on the other ones now

 

[quailtrail]

I don't have exact temps but my broodies always manage to leave an egg or two when they move and when I find them they are cold. usually they still hatch as long as it is not for an extended period of time


update on my broody with the 2 clutches with 2 different hatch dates: I have 4 chickies! all 4 are from the eggs that I found abandoned, they were 2 days late but they are here. just waiting on the other ones now

Congrats! !!!!

 

[quailtrail]

Went to give my broody girl a special meal just for herself (warm oatmeal, flaxseed, cracked corn, BOSS, and grapes) to have her get out of the nesting box so I could put more hay in there as there wasn't much...well she had a cracked egg with her  when she noticed I was trying to grab it she started to eat it  I hope she doesn't try to eat the rest she is sitting on!!???
So I distracted her by putting some hay in the box and grabbed the cracked egg she started screeching! !!! She was not happy!!! My son was all worried as our roo started squawking at us...oh boy I hope she doesn't decide not to stay on the 4 that are left...???

Also as she was freaking out she pooped. ..I have NEVER seen a chickens poop that big!!!! Is that ok or normal? ?? Also was a dark color vs the brown they all poop...???

 

[Debs55]

Went to give my broody girl a special meal just for herself (warm oatmeal, flaxseed, cracked corn, BOSS, and grapes) to have her get out of the nesting box so I could put more hay in there as there wasn't much...well she had a cracked egg with her when she noticed I was trying to grab it she started to eat it I hope she doesn't try to eat the rest she is sitting on!!???
So I distracted her by putting some hay in the box and grabbed the cracked egg she started screeching! !!! She was not happy!!! My son was all worried as our roo started squawking at us...oh boy I hope she doesn't decide not to stay on the 4 that are left...???

Also as she was freaking out she pooped. ..I have NEVER seen a chickens poop that big!!!! Is that ok or normal? ?? Also was a dark color vs the brown they all poop...???

the poop thing is normal..we call them broody poops and yes they will look different than normal. she should be fine with the rest of the eggs. just keep an eye on her

 

[quailtrail]

the poop thing is normal..we call them broody poops and yes they will look different than normal. she should be fine with the rest of the eggs. just keep an eye on her

ok that's what I was hoping! !!! Now keeping my fingers crossed ...

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Hello,
Wonder if someone could answer a couple of questions. I moved two broody hens with eggs to another pen a few days ago to keep them from being aggravated by the rest of my flock. I moved them at night as recommended. I went to check on them 2 hours after the move and one of them had gotten in the nest with the other leaving her eggs. They were cold to the touch. I replaced her and placed a partial barricade in front of the nest to keep them at home through the night. 1 hour later I went back to check on them and they were both out of the nest, however the second nest's eggs were not cold but had cooled down. I placed all eggs in the incubator and placed some eggs from the refrigerator in the nest to see if they would return the next morning. Both of them did return and tended the eggs for 48 hours so I replaced the original eggs under the hens and as of now all is well. My question is what temperature can eggs reach, and how long can the be unattended before the loose there viability?

Tim

I would concur with the others that they are amazingly hardy. I rescued a clutch abandon by a fickle broody by swooping up my unsuspecting Silkie and plunked her down on the cold eggs. She settled in and hatched 2 of the 5...so it wasn't the best of hatch rates but I thought all of them would be lost. They are amazingly hardy, but I don't have any scientific evidence to offer other than subjective experience. There IS hope!

Lady of McCamley

 

[Lady of McCamley]

On another subject, there have been two posts recently about cleaning eggs in a nest that have been soiled by the contents of a broken egg. One person cleaned them with a minimum amount of water on a washcloth, dried them, and was careful to keep the air sac upright. The other person cleaned them off "as best I could without using water." The person who did waterless cleaning had a full hatch, even though from the post I'm left with the impression that the cleaning was incomplete. The person who used the moist washcloth still has the eggs under the hen, so no addition information there. Other than using gloves or washing your hands thoroughly before handling eggs so as not to introduce any new types of bacteria to the shell, what is the "official" recommendation for when this happens? Have any studies been done on the subject? Is thorough cleaning beneficial, even if it involves water? If water is used, is it best to dry the egg afterwards or does the action of drying disturb the bloom even further? Or is leaving some debris on the eggshell best, because disturbing the bloom is worse than the egg debris, even though the debris is a nutrient source for bacteria? Would the answer be different if the egg was soiled with broody poo vs the contents of a broken egg? Is keeping the air sac elevated important? I'd love to hear what everyone would do (has done) in this situation, and their opinions on the above questions.
--April

I try to disturb the eggs as little as possible and only dab off the mess with soft straw as I don't want to mess with the bloom on the eggs.

You asked about any studies on the subject...I do have one to offer that is related to float testing for viability of overdue eggs for Cranes in a last ditch effort to save eggs of an endangered species.
https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/resshow/gee/cranbook/chap04.pdf (scroll to page 11 of the adobe pdf or page 69 of the actual article).

While not discussing cleaning messy hatching eggs, you can glean from the study that water is not an egg's friend. It will mess with the bloom on the egg, and too much water will cause bacteria to flow across the membrane into the egg/chick (has to do with increasing the rate of osmosis due to the difference of temperature from the internal egg to the outside water). Thus any substantial amount of water must contain a disinfectant to attempt to protect the almost hatched chick from bacteria crossing the shell/membrane barrier. Also moving the eggs too much can interfere with the hatching position.

So, I don't like to use disinfectants when I know there is a natural bloom present that likely does the job better than I would. So I don't wash off my eggs...I just dab gently with straw. I find the best nest material to be a deep layer of pine shavings with soft timothy hay on top (the kind of timothy hay bedding you get for small animals at the pet store). The soft hay clumps with messes for easy removal, and the dry hay dabs nicely. The deep layer of pine shavings add further moisture protection and cushioning. I can tidy up a poo mess or egg mess pretty easily and quickly that way. I don't bother with smudges on eggs as the bloom is there to protect them from the natural conditions and I don't want to over handle the eggs and possibly disturb the hatching position (see p. 12/13 or 70/71 of that article)...I figure chickens have been hatching babies for a long time before we were there to intervene with a lot of hygiene and sanitation and my attempts to over help may often hinder.

My thoughts
Lady of McCamley

 

[Sydney Acres]

Hello,
Wonder if someone could answer a couple of questions. I moved two broody hens with eggs to another pen a few days ago to keep them from being aggravated by the rest of my flock. I moved them at night as recommended. I went to check on them 2 hours after the move and one of them had gotten in the nest with the other leaving her eggs. They were cold to the touch. I replaced her and placed a partial barricade in front of the nest to keep them at home through the night. 1 hour later I went back to check on them and they were both out of the nest, however the second nest's eggs were not cold but had cooled down. I placed all eggs in the incubator and placed some eggs from the refrigerator in the nest to see if they would return the next morning. Both of them did return and tended the eggs for 48 hours so I replaced the original eggs under the hens and as of now all is well. My question is what temperature can eggs reach, and how long can the be unattended before the loose there viability?

Tim

There's probably a huge variability between breeds and even between individual embryos. That's why breeders worry so much about vigor in their flocks. The fragile birds are quite high maintenance and don't survive the realities of life, whereas the vigorous birds (embryos) are strong enough to get past those inevitable hardships. Many of the rare breeds have so few numbers that keepers are, by necessity, coddling along every bird, to the point that in some flocks they almost all have to be incubator hatched and brooded indoors because they have such poor vigor, and one dip in temperature during incubation or one good draft kills them all. With flocks selected for vigor, it takes extreme conditions, or really prolonged adversity, to create illness or death. So while someone may be able to provide some times or temperatures that have been documented, it may not apply to your eggs.

Since nothing obviously fatal happened, like the eggs froze, or were left out for 12 hours at 35 degrees on day 7 of incubation, it's probably worth trying to hatch them. You can always candle at the standard times to see if you've got life. If you're sure that the embryo(s) died after candling, you can throw the eggs away then to prevent them from exploding and soiling the nest.

I'm currently going through my first hatches, 5 eggs under a hen and 11 in the incubator. I keep wanting to know all the exact information, all the available data and numbers so I can manage these hatches properly. Then I realize that nature is quite resilient, and that the species would have died out a long time ago if perfection was required for reproduction. Perfection might increase your numbers, but the vigorous ones find a way to overcome minor insults. I sometimes feel like an intellectual ping pong ball, first reading all the "research information," then reading about someone buying refrigerated fertile eggs from the local Whole Foods market, putting them in a homemade "incubator" consisting of just an electric skillet with a towel inside, and getting some to hatch. Apparently doing everything wrong doesn't guarantee total failure, and doing everything right doesn't guarantee any success. But then, we need hope and variety to keep life interesting, and to force us to keep an open mind.

Good luck with your eggs. Please post again to let us know how everything turned out.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
Thank you for this information, and the recommendation for bedding material. I have mine on a thick layer of very soft straw (not sure what type), in a cardboard box that is set on top of 4-5" of aspen shavings. But I'm finding that the straw, while very soft, does get easily moved to the side, so the eggs get closer and closer to the bottom. When the hen is off the nest I occasionally push straw from the sides underneath the eggs to prevent them from sitting on the cardboard. It's probably too late to add shavings to the bottom of the box without completely disrupting the nest, but the timothy hay might stay in place better than the straw, and would be easy to add a little at a time.

 

[chicken farmer]

Can someone please make me a long photo with something with livestock/gardening/ etc because I made a Farm buy sell trade page and I need a cover photo but I don't know how to make one so I would REALLY appreciate it if someone could make me a calloge of homestead or livetock pictures thanks so much and it said it has to be 400 pixels long or somehting....thanks soooo much