Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[stonykill]

Quote:
Mine is only 12 weeks! And I had two start the same day. I wondered what that weird kazoo honking noise was until I figured it out. LOL. I have three known roos with that group and am going to try to rehome two if I can.

mine started the Kazoo crow at week 11. He is 13 weeks now. The other 3 haven't started yet.....

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I don't know, I picked the eggs up at day 20 and heard peeping, but didn't jiggle. hopefully someone else will be able to tell you.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
Mine is only 12 weeks! And I had two start the same day. I wondered what that weird kazoo honking noise was until I figured it out. LOL. I have three known roos with that group and am going to try to rehome two if I can.

mine started the Kazoo crow at week 11. He is 13 weeks now. The other 3 haven't started yet.....

I have 1 more roo that I'm sure of he's a week younger than my kazoo one haven't heard him make a sound. Maybe with 3 roos sounding off he feels intimadated.

 

[CayuseRanch]

Hi everyone. Sorry it took me so long to update. Was a very busy week for me at work. If only being a chicken farmer could make you rich! lol. My broody momma hatched her last egg Tuesday morning. That was officially the 15th day. They were really spread out. All together of the 14 eggs, 9 hatched. One died day one and one died on Mon. The seven are 2 barred rock, three EE, one white rock and one that is black and unknown, may turn out to be a barred rock, but right now looks solid black and I don't have any solid black breeds laying yet lol.

For those of you who seperate mom from the flock, when do you integrate her and babies back in?


Here is a photo for your viewing pleasure.

 

[artsyrobin]

Quote:
so the babies don't have a problem with the heat?? that has me a little worried putting them outside, since we are looking at 100 temps?

so far three have hatched under the broody- silky- but babies are cochin/nn cross - here are the first 3, one still to go...

 

[kannna]

Can they get any cuter?!? THanks for sharing! My latest hatch is a dud so it's nice to see some successful hatches

 

[DAFox]

Quote:
I don't integrate Mom and chicks with the flock. I keep them separate until the chicks are feathered or she is done with them, depending on the weather. Then, Mom goes back with the flock in a rabbit cage for a couple of days. Then, she is let go with the rest.
I keep the chicks separate until they are about the same size as the adults. During this time, I work on taming them. I find that broody raised chicks are wilder than hand raised birds.
Dale-Ann

 

[hillbillycitygirl]

first time chicken farmer with questions.....

We started with chickens about 3 months ago and I have about 40 in our flock, some as old as 3yrs and some that were hatched in April...
here are my questions:

my wyandotte went broody on Tuesday;
originally she only had one RR egg under her, but today when I put feed out she hopped down and I noticed she had two new eggs under her, one is a wyandotte and the other is one that one of my RR's lays once a week, its a double yolk, massive egg (its longer than my hand is wide)

#1.
should I leave her in the henhouse with the rest of the chickens? or should I take her somewhere else?
#2.
will the large egg hatch? I am not even sure the two RR eggs are fertile, but we have three roos, one bantam who sticks with his girls, one wyandotte who sticks with his girl and a pheonix who just kinda watches the flock and makes alot of noise...
#3.
how soon can I check to see if the eggs arent bad? is there a thread on here somewhere about how to candle eggs and what to look for?
#4. is it okay that one egg showed up on Tuesday and the other two arrived sometime today? (Friday)

She seems very serious about this whole broody thing and got quite mad at me when I went over to her nesting box (it had a fake egg in there too and I wanted to remove it..she got all pissy at me) lol

I have no idea what I am doing with this whole broody chicken thing, I was kinda hoping there would be some bantam eggs under her because I love my little mini-me chickeroos....is it too late so sneak a few of those under her?

Thanks!!!

ps...I started reading through this whole thread and there are almost 300 pages, I would have kept on reading but that would take me a few days so I just decided to post my questions. Thanks guys!!

~J

 

[Skittlez]

hillbillycitygirl
Yesterday 11:23 pm first time chicken farmer with questions.....

We started with chickens about 3 months ago and I have about 40 in our flock, some as old as 3yrs and some that were hatched in April...
here are my questions:

my wyandotte went broody on Tuesday;
originally she only had one RR egg under her, but today when I put feed out she hopped down and I noticed she had two new eggs under her, one is a wyandotte and the other is one that one of my RR's lays once a week, its a double yolk, massive egg (its longer than my hand is wide)

#1.
should I leave her in the henhouse with the rest of the chickens? or should I take her somewhere else?
#2.
will the large egg hatch? I am not even sure the two RR eggs are fertile, but we have three roos, one bantam who sticks with his girls, one wyandotte who sticks with his girl and a pheonix who just kinda watches the flock and makes alot of noise...
#3.
how soon can I check to see if the eggs arent bad? is there a thread on here somewhere about how to candle eggs and what to look for?
#4. is it okay that one egg showed up on Tuesday and the other two arrived sometime today? (Friday)

She seems very serious about this whole broody thing and got quite mad at me when I went over to her nesting box (it had a fake egg in there too and I wanted to remove it..she got all pissy at me) lol

I have no idea what I am doing with this whole broody chicken thing, I was kinda hoping there would be some bantam eggs under her because I love my little mini-me chickeroos....is it too late so sneak a few of those under her?

Thanks!!!

ps...I started reading through this whole thread and there are almost 300 pages, I would have kept on reading but that would take me a few days so I just decided to post my questions. Thanks guys!!

I will try to help you with a few questions.

#1 It really depends on your flock and your coop set up to determine if you need to move her or not. If the other hens are forcing her off her nest, or pileing on top of her, I would either block off an area for her or move her. If you move her, do at dark. Is the nest box she is in a single box? Is it attached to anything? Sometimes you can just move the whole box, then you won't get pecked to death and shouldn't upset momma too much. I currently have 2 broodies in the dining room, and just moved another broody and her chicks to the basement brooder room. I like to keep my eye on them.

#2 Double yolkers don't usually hatch and survive, but there is always an exception to the rule. I personally would not incubate a double yolker, but that is just me.

#3 You can candle on day 7 and see if any veins and embryos are developing. There is a sticky on candleing that is really good. It is at the top of the page under this section.

#4 Adding eggs at a different time within a few days should hatch at the same time. Broodies have some kind 6th sense so to speak and rotate the eggs so they develop around the same. Now is the time to give her the bantam eggs if you want her to hatch them out.

Good luck with your broody, and don't forget pics of the new fuzzy butts when they hatch!​

 

[hillbillycitygirl]

Quote:
I will try to help you with a few questions.

#1 It really depends on your flock and your coop set up to determine if you need to move her or not. If the other hens are forcing her off her nest, or pileing on top of her, I would either block off an area for her or move her. If you move her, do at dark. Is the nest box she is in a single box? Is it attached to anything? Sometimes you can just move the whole box, then you won't get pecked to death and shouldn't upset momma too much. I currently have 2 broodies in the dining room, and just moved another broody and her chicks to the basement brooder room. I like to keep my eye on them.

#2 Double yolkers don't usually hatch and survive, but there is always an exception to the rule. I personally would not incubate a double yolker, but that is just me.

#3 You can candle on day 7 and see if any veins and embryos are developing. There is a sticky on candleing that is really good. It is at the top of the page under this section.

#4 Adding eggs at a different time within a few days should hatch at the same time. Broodies have some kind 6th sense so to speak and rotate the eggs so they develop around the same. Now is the time to give her the bantam eggs if you want her to hatch them out.

Good luck with your broody, and don't forget pics of the new fuzzy butts when they hatch!

about moving her, she is in a pretty large coop, and I put some fake eggs in the other nesting boxes to encourage the hens to lay elsewhere, there are 7 nesting boxes for about 13 hens....all connected in a row...
if I move her to another little box in that room would that work? I dont know if her Roo would like to be away from her, he is sticking pretty close (sitting ontop of her box) can I just put a little box in a corner for her or will other hens still bug her? should it be higher or lower than the current nesting boxes? (I seriously have never done this before.)