Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

I did it
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, she now has 5 eggs and I have 5 in my bator. They are all on about day 7, and the ones I already had in my incubator are on day 17. The ones I gave her have great veining, and I expect her to do well. Mine, are not as good. I can not see any veining in the ones I took from her, so we will see how it goes. Hopefully we'll have some babies soon!
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I like to set eggs under the broody & in the incubator at the same time. Although my tiny broodies can't cover too many chicks, they're small enough to just put inside the brooder. (I made a brooder out of a Pack N Play & have a home-made ecoGlow.) Mama covers what she can & the overflow goes under the fake broody. She's there to teach all the babies the secrets of chicken life. We had a hen hatch 2 eggs & then kept slipping more chicks under her as they hatched. The final total was 26. Talk about a happy hen!!! By 1 week, 21 chicks went to their new owners & then we allowed mama to free range with the flock & her remaining chicks.


Do you have a separate hatcher & incubator? I ask because usually on day 18, you stop turning & increase humidity by adding more water or sponges. Eggs on day 7 need less humidity & turning 3xs per day. Not sure if they can be incubated together.
 
No, I don't have a seperate incubatoe but I have figured something out that should help with that. They will not be turned for a few days and I am not going to raise the humidity super high, everyone says they should be all right. Plus the new ones, I'm not even sure they are developing at this point, so I'm trying to get past my first batch of eggs first.
 
Hi guys

I'm a newbie, both to chook raising and the forum. :) I used to help my grandparents raise theirs when I was a kiddo, but that was a looong time ago.
So anyway, we now have these two beautiful Light Sussex hens and one magnificent rooster boy, and in middle of September one of the girls got broody. We put her on some eggs, she managed to break a couple in the very first days, since we were still figuring out coop logistics etc. She was left with 6, and yesterday we came to the 21 days mark. Around lunchtime, when she got out for her little break, I went and checked them, one was pipping and I could hear peeps as well. Plenty of movement, too. By evening it had stopped and since this morning there was nothing, just the hole a bit bigger, but no more moves, no sounds, no progress to zipping. The membrane is dry around the pip hole and there is no response to gentle taps. :(
Should I try and help in any way or it's already past intervention? It's been more than 30 hours since the first pip. I suspect it's malpositioned, but I'm not sure I'm checking it properly with the candle.
Can you help me here, please?
 
Hi guys

I'm a newbie, both to chook raising and the forum. :) I used to help my grandparents raise theirs when I was a kiddo, but that was a looong time ago.

So anyway, we now have these two beautiful Light Sussex hens and one magnificent rooster boy, and in middle of September one of the girls got broody. We put her on some eggs, she managed to break a couple in the very first days, since we were still figuring out coop logistics etc. She was left with 6, and yesterday we came to the 21 days mark. Around lunchtime, when she got out for her little break, I went and checked them, one was pipping and I could hear peeps as well. Plenty of movement, too. By evening it had stopped and since this morning there was nothing, just the hole a bit bigger, but no more moves, no sounds, no progress to zipping. The membrane is dry around the pip hole and there is no response to gentle taps. :(

Should I try and help in any way or it's already past intervention? It's been more than 30 hours since the first pip. I suspect it's malpositioned, but I'm not sure I'm checking it properly with the candle.

Can you help me here, please?

Good chance that it died because the mum left at the wrong time. If it's got it's beak out and not responding then it's probably dead, but you could try and open that one up if it's out from under the hen, however at this stage moving the hen at all greatly reduces the chance of any successfully hatching, so if she's sitting tight still, leave it for the next 3 days. The chick should have come out of the egg within 36 hours of sticking its beak out, but if the egg got picked up, moved, candled, or came out from under the hen for any reason at all then the chance of survival is very very low.
 
Thank you!
It's been about 30 hours since the pipping out, but it hasn't responded at all, all day. I assume it's dead by now. :(
I'll try removing it from the coop tomorrow.
Hopefully the rest are still viable. My daughters are truly heartbroken. I am, as well. :(
 
I always baby my broody hens with great room service HA
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but i truly believe that mother raised chicks have a great advantage, but i also believe that incubators of the best quality are necessary & can be very helpful in many cases ,plus very necessary if a broody hen suddenly leaves her eggs..?so you need a good back up & thats when you will really need an incubator on hand, so my method is always rewarding my Aussie hens for their remaining a faithful broody & they wont go hungry i bring food & clean water to them each day & pet them & call them good girls ,so we understand each other well they allow me to pet them with out becoming upset in any way & at one point i had 6 broodies sitting & some going on 2 to 3 months & one is still sitting in her nest box & I continually rewarded them every day & bringing them treats & food, but since most of my young Aussies went broody at such a young age they were all just turning a year old , i was not going to risk it, because of how young most of them were & if they possibly didn't get it & would not sit long enough to hatch chicks , so no one was sitting on any hatching eggs this time around , they all had golf balls
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but next spring they will be sitting on hatching eggs, so this was just a dry run to see if i can depend on my Aussie girls & that's how i found out they will really stick to it, since no one wants to see a hen leave her eggs to die, so that's my method of first testing my broody hens, i have to say Aussies have the best temperaments & are the best layers to boot..!plus they are greatest broodies ever..!
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here is a pic of my beautiful HUPP Blue Aussie hen gone broody & loving it .
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Good evening! We have had our first chick hatch today - day 20! Yay! The mama seems to be doing fine, and there are at least three more that I could see when I candled them. My question is, can I (should I) move her to fix nest problems? She is in a cardboard box with pine shavings, but she has maneuvered enough that the eggs are now sitting directly on the cardboad. Should I try to do something, like add more nest material under them, or just leave her now that they've started hatching? I planned to not disturb her at all during these last few days, but I could hear her feet on the cardboard, so I gently felt around. I'm worried about them getting broken...
 
Good evening! We have had our first chick hatch today - day 20! Yay! The mama seems to be doing fine, and there are at least three more that I could see when I candled them. My question is, can I (should I) move her to fix nest problems? She is in a cardboard box with pine shavings, but she has maneuvered enough that the eggs are now sitting directly on the cardboad. Should I try to do something, like add more nest material under them, or just leave her now that they've started hatching? I planned to not disturb her at all during these last few days, but I could hear her feet on the cardboard, so I gently felt around. I'm worried about them getting broken...
At this point I would leave the nest alone as any disturbance could cause even more of a problem. Good luck.
 

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