Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[ChickyChickens]

Where are you?
Somewhere on the Internet, so true though!

In South Africa...lol!

 

[Faraday40]

New to this thread & broodys in general....

Last summer, we had an accidental broody. When she couldn't be broken, I gave in & allowed her to be a mom. 5 out of 6 hatched & "Princess Lay-a" was a perfect mom. She even adopted an extra 4 chicks of the same age. (I was lazy & didn't want to set up a brooder, so she did it for me.) Sometime around 3.5 weeks, we sold all the chicks. She looked for them in the garage (were we relocated her nest) & then started laying a week later.

Now (7 mo later) I am catching Princess sneaking into the garage again. (She had a molt, then rest period, & is laying again.) Could she be looking for her nest/ broody cage?

My next question is how do you determine a "broody's spread" to figure out how many eggs to give? Is it the area covered when she flattens out including all the fluff or just the area of her body? I have a bantam Orpington - lots of fluff & my accidental broody - smooth body. I think both may go broody, so I want to know which I should use.

Bantam Orp, Cookie (nickname "the Bantam Menace")


Mutt, Princess Lay-a

 

[Lady of McCamley]

New to this thread & broodys in general....

Last summer, we had an accidental broody. When she couldn't be broken, I gave in & allowed her to be a mom. 5 out of 6 hatched & "Princess Lay-a" was a perfect mom. She even adopted an extra 4 chicks of the same age. (I was lazy & didn't want to set up a brooder, so she did it for me.) Sometime around 3.5 weeks, we sold all the chicks. She looked for them in the garage (were we relocated her nest) & then started laying a week later.

Now (7 mo later) I am catching Princess sneaking into the garage again. (She had a molt, then rest period, & is laying again.) Could she be looking for her nest/ broody cage?

My next question is how do you determine a "broody's spread" to figure out how many eggs to give? Is it the area covered when she flattens out including all the fluff or just the area of her body? I have a bantam Orpington - lots of fluff & my accidental broody - smooth body. I think both may go broody, so I want to know which I should use.

Bantam Orp, Cookie (nickname "the Bantam Menace")


Mutt, Princess Lay-a

Yes, Princess Lay-a may be looking for her favorite brooding spot. She looks to be game or game mix, and they LOVE to brood.

Typically a hen will brood, tend to the chicks until 4 to 6 weeks (games and bantams, especially Silkies, often mother even longer), then fledge the chicks. In the process the hen typically molts somewhere in that. Then takes a rest. After a period of time, usually 8 weeks or so, some sooner some later, will lay again. How long the hen lays before brooding again depends upon the breed and her frequency of brooding...games tend to be frequent brooders. Some hens brood once, even mother chicks, and NEVER brood again.

As to coverage of eggs. Games are sleeker, and small to medium build, with not a lot of fluff. Orps, Cochins, and Silkies are fluffier types which helps them spread more simply because of all the feather fluff. The spread is the amount of space their under body and fluff covers when they are in a setting position, Think of them sitting on a plate. How much of the "plate" do they cover when they sit on it? (The eggs will be in the cavity created as they hunch on their legs, covered by full chest, legs, bum, and wings held close) Now put eggs under her. Give her eggs until you start to see one peeking out from under her. That's too many. Take away one or two until all eggs are equally hidden underneath her and she can turn them with ease and sit on them again with full coverage.

Typically games and bantams can hold 6 full size eggs, more of their own size eggs. Weather temperature factors in as well. Stay smaller in cooler weather as the egg on the edge will be affected by the colder temps. Those hens like your fluffy bantam Orp (and my bantam Cochins) can cover more in cooler weather as the fluff helps.

As to who to use. Princess Lay-a has shown herself to be a faithful broody and mother. I always use the proven hen over the unproven hen...but then I would give the unproven hen some inexpensive eggs and give her a chance too so that I end up with two proven hens.

Enjoy your broodies.
Lady of McCamley

 

[Faraday40]

Thanks for clarifying "the broody's spread" to me.

Princess has become a favorite. (excellent layer & a successful broody!) She started laying Jan 3rd 2014 in the middle of an artic blast (temps were -35 to -10'F for a few days). Her eggs are between a pink & cream color. By Feb she was laying daily. Only took off a max of 1 day a month! End of May she stopped to hatch & raise a family. By mid July, she was laying again! Her molt & break were Nov-Dec, so now she's laying again. She never pecked at us when broody, but had a nasty-sounding scream. The flock likes to search the garage if left open ( they know where the food is stored), but Princess is darting inside as soon as she sees an opening. I haven't really seen her trying to take over a nest yet.

Cookie is young. She started laying end of Sept, then went broody end of Oct. I kept explaining to her that it was a bad time to hatch & removed her from the nest often. After almost a week, she went back to sleeping on the roost, but she also stopped laying. May have been a minor molt. She just started laying again on Christmas. Yesterday & today, she seemed to spend a lot of time in the nest, but she's not trying to sleep there yet.

Are there ways to encourage a broody?

 

[A6chickenhome]

I love my barn yard mixes from my first broody.  They are all her offspring and I fully expect the 6 pullets to go broody themselves sooner or later because they have a lot of natural instinct like her. They hatched 14th June and started laying a couple of months ago. I was so proud and thought I was doing well getting 2 or 3 little blue green eggs a day from them.... until a few days ago when I got the ladder out and checked their mother's old sneaky broody nest up in the eves and found a mountain of eggs! (43 to be precise).
I have since started poking around in other nooks and crannies and found two more secret nests, one with 5 eggs and the other with 15, all either Tasha, the broody's, or her daughters, so it looks like these young girls are much better layers than I could have hoped for, but are going to take after their mother for being sneaky about where they lay!.
I'm pleased to report that so far none of the eggs have been bad and I've eaten some of the oldest ones from the very bottom of the 43 egg mountain and they were yummy, so there will hopefully be no waste. The cats and chucks are also being treated to scrambled eggs on a regular basis to help me get through them, but if anyone has any good egg recipes.......??
I give most of my eggs away to friends and family but I wouldn't give anyone these as I can't be certain they are OK until I crack them. 63 eggs are a lot to use up pronto, plus the 7-8 others I am averaging daily. This started out as a hobby but has rapidly got out of control!!!

I only had two hens go broody last year and I'm already overrun. If they go broody again this year, which is pretty likely, plus some of Tasha's daughters too, I am going to end up being bankrupted by the feed bill if nothing else!

The funny thing is that I had set up nests for them in buildings other than the hen house where they had shown an interest in laying, thinking I was being clever. I get the odd egg or two in these nests and I assumed I had allowed them to fulfil their need to be sneaky and lay away, but still enable me to collect them easily. The joke was obviously on me! One of their real secret nests needed a ladder and a crawl board, one needed step ladders and the other required me to remove 3 steel farm gates and an old door which were being stored against the back wall of the hayshed. Can't decide whether to try to block access to these locations now and risk them finding somewhere that I don't know about and even less accessible or leave them access, which is probably easier, and check these nests once a week!
What cheeky little monkeys they are!!!

43 egg mountain, holy smokes!

 

[A6chickenhome]

New to this thread & broodys in general.... Last summer, we had an accidental broody. When she couldn't be broken, I gave in & allowed her to be a mom. 5 out of 6 hatched & "Princess Lay-a" was a perfect mom. She even adopted an extra 4 chicks of the same age. (I was lazy & didn't want to set up a brooder, so she did it for me.) Sometime around 3.5 weeks, we sold all the chicks. She looked for them in the garage (were we relocated her nest) & then started laying a week later. Now (7 mo later) I am catching Princess sneaking into the garage again. (She had a molt, then rest period, & is laying again.) Could she be looking for her nest/ broody cage? My next question is how do you determine a "broody's spread" to figure out how many eggs to give? Is it the area covered when she flattens out including all the fluff or just the area of her body? I have a bantam Orpington - lots of fluff & my accidental broody - smooth body. I think both may go broody, so I want to know which I should use. Bantam Orp, Cookie (nickname "the Bantam Menace") Mutt, Princess Lay-a

You're Princess Lay-a looks like she is a sweetie and a good mama.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Find the chicky....

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Hey guys, it's normal for my broody Mama to start molting after the chicks are born, right? She has been shedding a ton of feathers, it's crazy!

Oops, and I made the mistake of buying "Chick Starter" from TSC instead of "Chick Starter/Grower". The first is intended for turkeys and other poultry and has a higher protein content (24%). I will be switching them tomorrow when I get the correct feed. Hope I didn't do any long term damage.

 

[fisherlady]

Hey guys, it's normal for my broody Mama to start molting after the chicks are born, right? She has been shedding a ton of feathers, it's crazy!

Oops, and I made the mistake of buying "Chick Starter" from TSC instead of "Chick Starter/Grower". The first is intended for turkeys and other poultry and has a higher protein content (24%). I will be switching them tomorrow when I get the correct feed. Hope I didn't do any long term damage.

Not a problem on the different feeds, we often give the little ones the 24% for the first couple of weeks and I have never noticed a problem.

 

[ochochicas]

The change in feed can cause the hen to start molting. One of my broodies started to molt when the chicks hatched but the other one did not. It was probably time for her to molt anyway since she was just coming up on a year old. Her feathers will be growing back as the chicks are weaned and she'll be ready to lay again!