Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[usainpoult]

Thank you! I arrived home from work today to lots of peeping and two gorgeous fluffy butts under the broody!

At least one is full polish chick as definitely has the 'hairdo'. I think this is day 20, so fingers crossed for more chicks by tomorrow if we're really lucky.

It looks like there might be some more zipping going on underneath, but I hesitated to lift my lovely broody. She was already sitting quite high over the eggs so I suspect there was some action underneath. Still trying to sit on my hands and not interfere... very hard to resist!

 

[CHICKENFARMER22]

So she has fertilized eggs or what.  If she has fertilized eggs to sit on separate her.  Otherwise you want to break the broodiness.

She has fertilized eggs. I separated her and she is still clucking like a broody. I put her in my other coop. She saw the eggs in there but now she's dust bathing so I hope she sits on them

 

[kilby]

She has fertilized eggs. I separated her and she is still clucking like a broody. I put her in my other coop. She saw the eggs in there but now she's dust bathing so I hope she sits on them

I have a question. How long has it been between sittings?
previous in this forum they have said you can collect eggs for up to 21 days for setting up. Seven days is the ultimate however for quality and efficiency. Or how long was she sitting before leaving. If it was a week already then you better not add more eggs. She will ignore the late hatches and they will die under normal circumstances.

 

[CHICKENFARMER22]

I have a question.  How long has it been between sittings?
previous in this forum they have said you can collect eggs for up to 21 days for setting up.  Seven days is the ultimate however for quality and efficiency.  Or how long was she sitting before leaving.  If it was a week already then you better not add more eggs.  She will ignore the late hatches and they will die under normal circumstances.

She just went broody Saturday. I went and checked on her tonight but she isn't sitting on the eggs. I wonder if she is not broody anymore or if she's scared or something

 

[Ren2014]

I guess I'm talking about getting pups, not having a 4 year old adult dog who knows their business.

I wish I had a dog or two that knew what to do to protect our flocks before we got them, but we didn't. I'm dealing with trying to figure out the best breed and breeder to buy from at this point. Thanks for sharing your story, it helps me make a decision about which breed.

Great Pyrenees or Anatolian. Protecting comes natural. Try checking out some rescue orgs. Good luck finding the right one for you.

 

[Ren2014]

Thank you! I arrived home from work today to lots of peeping and two gorgeous fluffy butts under the broody!

At least one is full polish chick as definitely has the 'hairdo'. I think this is day 20, so fingers crossed for more chicks by tomorrow if we're really lucky.

It looks like there might be some more zipping going on underneath, but I hesitated to lift my lovely broody. She was already sitting quite high over the eggs so I suspect there was some action underneath. Still trying to sit on my hands and not interfere... very hard to resist!

CONGRATULATIONS to you

 

[Pure Poultry]

At the moment I have one broody hen. She is a very large Light Sussex. She is sitting on 20 eggs and amazingly, covering all of them with ease. The eggs are a combination of Barnyard Mutts, Ancona, Brown Leghorn, Light Sussex, Buff Pekin and Mottled Pekin and are hopefully all fertile by a Barred Rock roo. He has only been here for a month so I don't know if the eggs are fertile and although he mounts the Pekins I doubt he was able to fettilze their eggs. I guess only time will tell. Due to hatch on the 27/09/15 (09/27/15 for America) in about 18-19 days

 

[Faraday40]

My broody collected a bunch of eggs & is currently sitting on 11. (She's a bantam orp sitting on mostly full-sized eggs. Amazing!) I never let her have that many before, but she's so fluffed out, I see no eggs when she's flat. I guess I'll get the number down in a week & simply toss the clears.

 

[Johnn]

Daffy has been accepted into Bella and Lacey's family now!

 

[fisherlady]

My broody collected a bunch of eggs & is currently sitting on 11. (She's a bantam orp sitting on mostly full-sized eggs. Amazing!) I never let her have that many before, but she's so fluffed out, I see no eggs when she's flat. I guess I'll get the number down in a week & simply toss the clears.

Sounds good, we almost always find 1 or 2 clears in any clutch.