Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[little]

that is a great picture

 

[DBerryhill]

Well, life got crazy and I have been spending most of my time with the birds extending "poultry point" ( yes...chicken math struck again) I noticed egg numbers were lower than normal but have been working crazy hours and was out of town for a week. Today I found this :

I am super exited about the chick, and I'm hoping I get at least one more so it's not an only.
Problem is the nest is a mess with random eggs from different hens. Eggs are soiled. Some broken. And a foul odor :/ I don't want to interrupt any possible chicks but I want to get the smell out! Opinions please...should I candle tonight or just give it another day or two. Thanks in advance!

 

[fisherlady]

Well, life got crazy and I have been spending most of my time with the birds extending "poultry point" ( yes...chicken math struck again) I noticed egg numbers were lower than normal but have been working crazy hours and was out of town for a week. Today I found this :


I am super exited about the chick, and I'm hoping I get at least one more so it's not an only.
Problem is the nest is a mess with random eggs from different hens. Eggs are soiled. Some broken. And a foul odor

I don't want to interrupt any possible chicks but I want to get the smell out! Opinions please...should I candle tonight or just give it another day or two. Thanks in advance!

I would candle them as soon as it is possible...it actually may be easier since she already has a chick. I would get the material needed to replace all of the nesting material. If you can find a low cardboard box which would fit into the area she is currently in that would be awesome. It will be easier if you have help but you can do it alone....

If you have a really low box (cut down sides till they are about 2 inches high) then you can make a new nest with the spare bedding and then pull the eggs one by one and candle them. Sort them based on development age, any that look really close to hatch you can probably give back to her after you are done. Ones which are developing but far behind can be switched to an incubator if you are interested in hatching them out. Sloshy or smelly ones get pitched.

Once you get the eggs all out from under her and temporarily in a safe spot out of the way you can pick her up and remove her from the nest, along with her little one. This is where an assistant comes in handy. Quickly remove all the contaminated nesting material and slide the other nest box back into the same site. The hen will be wanting back into the nest right away, you can let her back in and let her settle with her chick, then slip any good eggs back under her.

Using a cardboard box isn't necessary, it just makes the nest swapping go quicker. Some hens will tolerate moving to a totally different nest area pretty well once they have a chick hatched, so if you want her to be somewhere else you can do that also. Just prepare the new area, pull the eggs and candle. Move hen and hatched chick to the new area and give her back the eggs... hens tend to settle with less fuss once they have a hatched baby, though it isn't a guarantee.

 

[DBerryhill]

@fisherlady Ok...Im grabbing the light and heading out in the dark. I figure I will remove the nasty ones, leave the close ones. I dont have a incubator. So...I may just mark the middle ones for now and sort it out tomorrow in the daylight. I have a friend that incubates that lives a few miles over. I may see if she wants to take them on. I would feel bad about letting them die when they have come this far. This was unplanned...I have 24 teenage chickens separated from my flock, and ducklings separated out. Im out of places to separate! sheesh. Thanks for your input. I have only candled eggs once for a project years ago. Here is to hoping I remember something

Editing to add update:
Now Im super scared...I was halfway through...tossed out two that were bad. I reached up under my hen and grabbed the next one and it was chirping...big enough hole to see a beak!!!!! I hope hope hope I didnt mess things up!!!!!!! That one got put right back under broody. Most of the eggs were black with the air bubble. Several were solid black (that was a new one for me...but Im guessing maybe close to hatching? they were heavy) and about 5 were I would guess half way developed. How am I supposed to sleep tonight now? lol

 

[ChickyChickens]

My broody has got three totally adorable chicks! Here other 8 eggs are pipping/zipping! I cant wait....I hope all of them hatch!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi. It's been several weeks since I last posted as my computer has been down. I reported back in May that my hen was sitting on 14 of her own eggs which she had stashed in a nest up in the roof space but I moved into an old sideboard adapted to me a brooder. Well amazingly she hatched all 14 eggs and the chicks are now 3 weeks old and although she still mothers them they are integrated into the flock and she has been taking them up to roost for the past week despite my best efforts to keep them in the sideboard/brooder.

They have all been incredibly healthy until a couple of days ago when one appeared to be having problems pooping an I'm guessing it was suffering from what you guys call "Pastie Butt". Dirty vent and cheeping when trying to poop and nothing coming out. I did twp warm salt water baths yesterday and after the second one a decent sized poop came out but it is still cheeping and straining. Do I continue with the warm baths or will it sort itself out now? The poop that came out appeared perfectly normal.

I'm curious to know what the odds are of 100% hatch rate? I understand it is more likely with a broody than an incubator but how many people actually get 100%.
She sat really tight and only came off every other day to eat and poop and I was horrified to discover that she had badly soiled the nest and eggs when I checked them a few days before hatching. I wondered if she had done this to increase the humidity of the nest? I was therefore even more amazed that all chicks hatched and were healthy. Is this common with broody hens or do they normally keep the nest and eggs clean? I had read that people had rejected hatching eggs that were even slightly soiled which they were intending to incubate, so I thought perhaps my chicks would be poorly if they hatched from such filthy eggs. How wrong could I be! Nature really is amazing!

Anyway, I just wanted to update my story and share my good fortune with people who understand.

Now I have a lot of back reading to do on the forum to catch up with what's been going on whilst my system has been down!

Best wishes to everyone

Barbara

Of course I half expect to go in each morning and find that one has died, but so far, apart from my "pastie butt" all are fine. Long may i

 

[bobbieschicks]

Sadly there was one dead chick that looked like she had smashed it and another smashed egg with nothing alive.

There are four more eggs, two with pips but no chirps. So I doubt there's anything in them alive.

I'll let her sit the rest of today and then tomorrow I'll take everything out. If she continues to return to the nest I'll give her throw away eggs until next week.

I'll give her some of the EE chicks to raise.

 

[rebrascora]

Sorry to hear that your hatch is not going well, Bobbieschick. It must be heartbreaking to find dead chicks. I hope your broody takes consolation in her EE chicks when you get them.
I'm still reeling from my beginners luck but it's entirely down to my little Tasha. When I bought her 6 months ago, no body would bid for her at auction and I was told I could have her for £5. She not very pretty and was supposed to lay blue eggs but she doesn't, she lays little ivory ones, but she more than redeems herself as a wonderful mother. It's amazing how she manages to keep all 14 chicks with her all day (free ranging) and then gets them all up to roost with her at night. When I catch the one that needs it's bum bathing, she gives me such a hard time, but I know she's just protecting her chicks and it's great that she has such a strong instinct to do so.

Anyway, I must head back up to the yard with some warm water now to give it another bath so fingers crossed I get things moving again!

 

[Angiebubs]

DBerryHill: I just had a similar situation. I reached Day 18 and left them alone (I have a hard time keeping my hands off) After eggs started hatching under mutiple hens (all set the same day), I went to check her and it smelled AWFUL! Like dead road kill, I reached under and found a dead chick with the shell gone and some membrane left. I assume it hatched? Anyhow, I did as someone else suggested, I put a cardboard box with top removed right next to the nest box, moved her eggs into it, set her into it, and cleaned out the shavings in the box-then quickly put her back in. She still managed to hatch a couple others although not all of them that had been viable hatched. One other thing I might have done differently: She belly was matted and stunk. Every time I would reach under her after that my hand smelled bad. I think if your hen is comfortable enough with you and she had dried stuff on her tummy, I may have used a warm damp clothe to wash some of it off to prevent bacteria? Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Also-I accidentally picked up eggs partially hatched and they still hatched fine. I wouldn't recommend it but don't think it affected them to much so I think you should be fine.

 

[DBerryhill]

@Angiebubs. The chick that was hatching didn't make it. I think I got most of the yuck out. I'm just going to give it a few days and see what she does. I just hope I at least get one more so I don't have a lone chick. my broody has been very tolerant, but I'm getting the vibe if I do much more she will leave the nest.