Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

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She's already getting off the nest several times a day to teach her older chicks to eat. This morning about an hour after that picture was taken she brought her oldest chick out to eat. Judging by the poop she left she also came off the nest while we were gone between breakfast and lunch. As long as the eggs stay warm they will be fine.
 
ameliadanielle said:
When our white silkie attempts being broody, she stands over the eggs. For days she will stand there. Not sitting on them. Our other partridge silkie actually does sit on the eggs but the few times she has it only lasts a day. I have separated them with a nest of eggs to try and get them to go broody, they just aren't very good at it. I thought at first it was because they might be too young, but we've had them since last summer and they were adults and already laying eggs when we got them. They lay eggs, they just don't do well being broody. That's why we got the current silkie hen. She was broody when we brought her home.
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Yes. it is a pain that some hens just don't make good broodys. One of my serama went broody but spent more time off the nest than on. I gave her away as a pet as she was very friendly flying to my shoulder when ever she had the chance. A good broody is a great bird to have.
 
I got the silkies initially just to be broodies. We have great weather really for raising chickens, it stays warm the majority of the year. We have two months of cold weather, it never snows and rarely dips below freezing more than 3 or 4 days a year, it's humid. It's a swamp. We don't want to raise tons of babies. Just a few here and there. So I thought having some broodies would be great instead of getting an incubator and raising them in the house. But our first two silkies just didn't do it. A buff orpington was my broody last time. So our other two silkies are just pets now. Our chicken keeping started out as strictly just for eggs only. Egg factories. Now we've made pets out of them, we have some that are plain useless but we love them. A broody hen is really nice. My buff orpingtons are just naturally so nice and they are used to me fussing with them every day, I think that's why my BO didn't attack me like this silkie. She's an older hen, and still doesn't like us too much yet. She loves being in the garage, not having to share food or deal with the other chickens right now, when I go sit outside with her she will come out and eat and drink, if I move she goes right back to the nest box. That's how we know when the first four chicks were born. She gets off the nest. Luckily since then I've been checking. Only the yellow one has gotten tangled in her feathers 3 times now. I'll hear it in there peeping away, usually she stands up and it falls out of her feathers but I have had to untangle it. She lets me do that without beating me up too much about it. The three dark ones born on Saturday haven't gotten tangled up not even once. Maybe that yellow one is just too active in there. It's always moving around under her and poking it's head out on one side and then scooting around under her to get to the other side and poke it's head out. I can tell it's that one because it's the only yellow one. Lol. When she leaves the nest to eat it comes with her and walks right between her legs and stays there the whole time. The other babies stay in the nest. This silky is a totally different mom than our BO.
 
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Brought her babies out again to eat. The yellow one was tangled in her fluff and stuck underneath her AGAIN. I got it out, it looks like something is wrong with it's wing on the right side. It's drooping. I don't know if all the struggling around that's causing it to get tangled also broke it's wing or if I did it untangling it. I always try to be gentle but they are so tiny. None of the others are getting tangled in her feathers, just that one. She was dragging it around the garage by its wing, that's where it was tangled this time. No other pips from her other eggs and this morning was exactly 21 days for the silkie eggs. So tonight when she gets off the nest to eat before she goes to bed, I may check those eggs for signs of life and see if I hear anything or candle to see if they were any good or not. I may also take the yellow one inside to the brooder. I've got 6 chicks just a couple of days older than that one. The other chicks are having no problem but this one is constantly getting stuck in her feathers. Especially now that it has a droopy wing... I feel like I should keep an eye on it. If feather sexing is right, the wing feathers are very obviously different lengths apart, so I'm thinking it's a girl. The rest could be boys for all I know, I haven't looked. Wouldn't want to lose my only girl if that was the case. Hopefully it's wing was just tired from its body being suspended by it and hopefully it isn't broken.
 
My broody Marshmallow has a chick two days old, two that are one day old, and one that was born today. The older chicks have started leaving the nest so she gets up and teaches them stuff, while the young one sits in the nest and tries to wobble towards her. She keeps stepping on it.
 
The bad part is the chick I'm having problems with is the oldest. Lol. It's been a problem since it came out of the shell. It just does not get along with silkie feathers apparently. The four younger ones are doing great.
 
Violetsfeathers said:
My broody Marshmallow has a chick two days old, two that are one day old, and one that was born today. The older chicks have started leaving the nest so she gets up and teaches them stuff, while the young one sits in the nest and tries to wobble towards her. She keeps stepping on it.
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By tomorrow the youngest chick will be mobile and then all should be fine. Until tomorrow keep an eye on them.
 
Crossing my fingers that some of the eggs left in the nest have or are hatching. She didn't get up and out and eat again before dark as has been her routine. The whole time she's been brooding she always ate and drank and pooped morning and night. Today she's been out a lot more often, but the last time she didn't come out to eat and poop at night was Friday when the first chick hatched. I was going to check the unhatched eggs tonight when she left the nest box but she is staying put right now. I'm sure this means I will be cleaning poop out of the best box... again. Lol.
 

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