Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[h2oratt]

Sounds good think I will go buy a Rubbermaid and make a hole. Looking forward to a hatch. I just had my first incubator hatch last week. 8 babies.
Thank you. Glad I found this thread.

 

[generaldsherman]

I let her her do it her way and everytime i thought she was setting she would come off the nest and there would be another egg in it. So i first thought April 7. And then the eighth......well i am not sure. I think now i should have taken some of the eggs away as she had a total of 13 and this morning she has pushed another one away leaving six. I think it was just too many for her to cover. She has had two hatches in the past and done a good job with both. But both of those times she began setting first on a couple of her own eggs and i swapped eggs around giving her 4-6 eggs which included a couple that were not her own.

She came off the nest this morning to eat and i saw the six eggs. I just cannot believe that not a single egg will hatch.....but could i have been so far off on the date? Well, of course I could. I know the little roo helps sit on the eggs at night but not during the day.

I would think at least 1 would hatch. Candle the remaining eggs when she gets up? (sounds like the last broody I had. I bought her from someone when she was already sitting on eggs; the previous owner had not moved or separated her, so the other hens kept laying eggs on top of her. the poor bantam momma was trying to incubate 23 eggs by herself. Most of the eggs did not make it, but 1 pulled through.) Only way to know is to wait a bit, candle, maybe float test?

 

[vpatt]

I may wait a day or two more and then maybe i will try candling. I hadn't thought of that, thanks.

 

[Bessetti]

I just set my broody up in her own space and the neighbor gave us eight fertile hatching eggs to put under her (we got rid of our roosters).ive never dabbled in hatching chicks before and I am SO excited/nervous even though since I'm using a broody as opposed to an incubator princess buttercup will be doing most of the work. I'll keep everyone updated, the eggs went under her two days ago. It is also her first hatch!

 

[fisherlady]

I just set my broody up in her own space and the neighbor gave us eight fertile hatching eggs to put under her (we got rid of our roosters).ive never dabbled in hatching chicks before and I am SO excited/nervous even though since I'm using a broody as opposed to an incubator princess buttercup will be doing most of the work. I'll keep everyone updated, the eggs went under her two days ago. It is also her first hatch!

Sounds like you have her set up to do just fine! Will look forward to seeing pictures in a few weeks!

 

[lwiese58]

I may not be doing this right, as I just clicked Reply. I don't know. But I just found this thread and since I doubt that I have the stamina to read all 2645 pages of posts to see if my question(s) have already been addressed, I hope someone can help me.

My first girl to go broody is about 5 days into it. On her second day, we got fertilized eggs and moved them and her into a little "apartment" of their own in our basement. She is a Welsummer. She seems to be committed to the task at hand, but since we have not actually witnessed her turning the eggs, I am not sure she is doing so. Is this something that can be a failure of a newbie? Also, could a few people please share what your experiences have been with first time broody hens in terms of success. Is this where the term, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch" came from? I've been warned by a breeder I know and highly respect that there is a great likelihood she will not stick it out, being her first time. Also, we have not witnessed her getting off the eggs at all. I'm a little concerned for her.

 

[fisherlady]

I may not be doing this right, as I just clicked Reply. I don't know. But I just found this thread and since I doubt that I have the stamina to read all 2645 pages of posts to see if my question(s) have already been addressed, I hope someone can help me.

My first girl to go broody is about 5 days into it. On her second day, we got fertilized eggs and moved them and her into a little "apartment" of their own in our basement. She is a Welsummer. She seems to be committed to the task at hand, but since we have not actually witnessed her turning the eggs, I am not sure she is doing so. Is this something that can be a failure of a newbie? Also, could a few people please share what your experiences have been with first time broody hens in terms of success. Is this where the term, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch" came from? I've been warned by a breeder I know and highly respect that there is a great likelihood she will not stick it out, being her first time. Also, we have not witnessed her getting off the eggs at all. I'm a little concerned for her.

First time hens can sometimes quit, but you have given her a great chance by giving her privacy and reduced distractions. Until I put a nursery camera on my hen I hadn't realized how much they do fuss with their eggs, they just don't do it when nosy humans are around!
You can encourage her to get up by scattering a favorite treat on the floor where she can see it but not reach it without getting up. Our coops, and broody areas have sand floors, so the hens can scratch close to the nest.
Replace a large feeder with a smaller dish and put her feed in it, smooth the top of the feed and then you can tell if she disturbs it.
Broodies are wonderful but they sure can be hard on the nerves! LOL

 

[nchls school]

I may not be doing this right, as I just clicked Reply. I don't know. But I just found this thread and since I doubt that I have the stamina to read all 2645 pages of posts to see if my question(s) have already been addressed, I hope someone can help me.

My first girl to go broody is about 5 days into it. On her second day, we got fertilized eggs and moved them and her into a little "apartment" of their own in our basement. She is a Welsummer. She seems to be committed to the task at hand, but since we have not actually witnessed her turning the eggs, I am not sure she is doing so. Is this something that can be a failure of a newbie? Also, could a few people please share what your experiences have been with first time broody hens in terms of success. Is this where the term, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch" came from? I've been warned by a breeder I know and highly respect that there is a great likelihood she will not stick it out, being her first time. Also, we have not witnessed her getting off the eggs at all. I'm a little concerned for her.

Of 10-12 hens to go broody for the first time in the last year, two were not successful. I believe that breeder to be wrong. There is a greater likelihood that the hen will hatch and raise her chicks. As for turning her eggs and taking breaks-stop worrying-she will do what is needed. Be careful of intruding on the hen's privacy and she will do just fine.

Note-a number of my broodies have raised three clutches in the last several months-sure beats using an incubator..

 

[PD-Riverman]

I let her her do it her way

Let me try to explain----the Natural way is for a hen to go some distance from the rest and lay her some eggs in her personal nest that she does not share, then she sets on them till they hatch----that is the natural way. The problem is "US" we took them from their natural way and penned them up----no way they can do their natural way because they are having to share nesting boxes and deal with other chickens So "we" have to help them to keep from having problems----problems that probably would not happen the natural way. "WE" got to make sure no extra eggs are added to her original set. We do this by marking the eggs and removing fresh layed eggs Daily so she does not have a staggered hatch. A Staggered Hatch is a bad thing and can cause so many problems. What happens when other hens lay eggs in her nest is they get mixed with her original, when there is more eggs than she can cover---eggs get pushed out or cold, she turns them but some of the cold dead eggs probably get pulled to the middle and other good eggs get pushed to the outside and get cold and die. Eggs get broke because of other chickens getting into her nest----it can become a MESS. I for sure would not allow a rooster to share her nest at night(but you can) which can cause more broke eggs or eggs get cold and they die. I personally move ALL my broodies and I have got it down to where out of 67 broody hens last year all 67 were moved, all 67 remained broody, all 67 hatched, and rarely a broke egg and No Problems. When they are in a private hatching pen---it becomes more natural!! Good Luck!

 

[lwiese58]

Fisherlady, thank you for your encouragement! I just looked at your pictures and really enjoyed them! You have so many beautiful birds! And your sweet dogs! Precious photos!