Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[aliciaplus3]

I am still up in the air about my broody bunch
....I still have 3 sitting on eggs and the stupid biel is back on a nest..... maybe I will just use her as an incubator as she does really well until day 19ish..... mmmmm maybe that could work in my favor

 

[1cock2hens]

I'm up to 3, 2 being salmon faverolles. also 6 eggs pipping right now at the same time!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I've got 2 happy olive egger CreamBarn chicks under momma in the dog crate in my broody run. Cream Legbar and Batman Cochin are the regular inhabitants as that is hawk safe, and gentle birds, so all appears well and safe.

I put all the Cream Legbar Barnevelder 2nd hatch under one setting hen for safety and then tried to move the other broody who had been setting half the eggs. That hen concerned me as she had been up that morning. She quickly bolted. I took her out and set the other hen with all the eggs. This hen settled quickly into a solid brood, so she will get to hatch this set. Day 18 today, and she is in proper lock down mode.

My grey Marans Barn hen is definitely wanting to brood at the end box in the main coop. I have her on a couple of eggs to test her. I will set the Bantam Cochin Barnevelder eggs if she stays.

Or, ideally, my bantam is flirting with brooding, if she sets I'll transfer her eggs back to her. Hopefully they are fertile and fresh enough. She isn't a prolific layer this summer, her 3rd year, so I had to slowly collect over about 10 days. Hopefully they'll work.

Time will tell.

 

[Faraday40]

So sorry about all the musical broodies & egg issues many people are having. I'm guessing the hens are newbies & still trying to figure things out. I've been blessed by having hens that go broody or never go broody. I can't make them or schedule it & sometimes have difficulty trying to break them, but once started, they're stubborn, determined little birds!

One trick I use is to place some eggs under the hen & some in an incubator. (It's my back up & also a way to sort eggs..... since chicks move around a lot after hatching. One breed goes under the hen & is separated from the rest.) After the incubator chicks hatch, I can leg band & slip them under the broody. If for some reason the broody fails, I won't lose the entire hatch. Also, we really, really enjoy watching chicks hatch - but not always all the chick care - so this system works for us.

As far as my non-broody hens, they're pretty understanding and tolerant of the chicks. My Welsummer likes to lay her eggs in a broody hen's nest. She wants to be a mama - just not do any of the work! LOL

My 6 yr old EE is the flock elder. She's has been through the brooding period of the rest of my flock so she's well respected. "Tyrion" likes to hang out near the nest boxes to see who's doing what - like the neighborhood gossip. I find it funny how she now visits the broody hens with their chicks. She stays a while & watches out for them (and as the top hen, no one fights it) until she gets bored and moves on. We call her "Auntie Tyrion" when she acts maternal toward these chicks. She used to be a bully in her younger years but I guess has mellowed.

BTW- Does anyone know for how long a hen will lay eggs? Tyrion just turned 6 & is still laying about 4 eggs per week. (But, she tends to stop for most of the winter.)

 

[Lady of McCamley]

BTW- Does anyone know for how long a hen will lay eggs? Tyrion just turned 6 & is still laying about 4 eggs per week. (But, she tends to stop for most of the winter.)

So glad you have faithful broodies. That is such a blessing. Mine would be better, but I already hatched this year with my first gal, and the later hens' persistence encouraged me finally to think bigger. I knew I risked over extending some, but fortunately have others just coming into set so can flex a bit.

As to length of laying years, it really depends on breed genetics, care, and individual bird.

All my commercial red sexlinks are pretty played out by 3 years. My breeder quality birds have been less prolific but overall longer laying. My California Grey, a commercial hybrid breed, has been an awesome layer, but at age 3 her egg quality is now poor.

I like the longevity of breeder quality, so I have been breeding for color and hybrid vigor for a more sustainable flock hoping to average more of 4 years productivity with reasonable laying.

I have barnyard mutts now, due to that, but they appear to be sustaining better...but I'm still only a couple of years into the project.

Some have claims of 8 to 10 years life span, but that is not the norm in my experience. Those aged lay infrequently.

Generally it is 3 years of best production with larger eggs but slowing quantity by age 3 to 4. How much beyond that is genetics and care.

Longevity has been greatly skewed by the commercial industry's selectivity for very high production then cull at 2 to 3 years of age as that prevents a lot of med need in closer quarters.

LofMc

 

[Faraday40]

So glad you have faithful broodies. That is such a blessing. Mine would be better, but I already hatched this year with my first gal, and the later hens' persistence encouraged me finally to think bigger. I knew I risked over extending some, but fortunately have others just coming into set so can flex a bit.

As to length of laying years, it really depends on breed genetics, care, and individual bird.

All my commercial red sexlinks are pretty played out by 3 years. My breeder quality birds have been less prolific but overall longer laying. My California Grey, a commercial hybrid breed, has been an awesome layer, but at age 3 her egg quality is now poor.

I like the longevity of breeder quality, so I have been breeding for color and hybrid vigor for a more sustainable flock hoping to average more of 4 years productivity with reasonable laying.

I have barnyard mutts now, due to that, but they appear to be sustaining better...but I'm still only a couple of years into the project.

Some have claims of 8 to 10 years life span, but that is not the norm in my experience. Those aged lay infrequently.

Generally it is 3 years of best production with larger eggs but slowing quantity by age 3 to 4. How much beyond that is genetics and care.

Longevity has been greatly skewed by the commercial industry's selectivity for very high production then cull at 2 to 3 years of age as that prevents a lot of med need in closer quarters.

LofMc

Tyrion is probably a mutt. She came from a breeder who showed Amerucanas but decided to get into fancy rolling pigeons. So he put all his breeds together in the barn to let them live out their lives as a layer flock. That's where her egg came from. Her eggs have always been a very pretty blue in spring but fades by fall. Her 1st 2 years were not as productive as my other birds. Maybe 3-4 eggs per week + winters off. However when she turned 3, all of a sudden her production increased up to 5 eggs per week (but still took winters off). Her Leghorn mix "sister" laid daily and took a max of 1 day off per month - not even a break for molting until she was 2! Sadly, her giant eggs were very fragile when she turned 3. They'd break more often than not. I was afraid the hens would become egg eaters, so I had to put the leghorn down.

Tyrion's eggs are bigger with age but shell strength is still good. From late Feb - early Sept she lays about 3-4 eggs per week. With her adventurous lifestyle, I never thought she'd live this long. (She was a hen that liked to chase squirrels, steal dog food, fly over the fence, grab cookies from toddlers, investigate new things, beat up the roosters, etc. She even chased off a hawk once!) She calmed down a lot in her 3rd year. Perhaps her reduction of risky behaviors reduced her stress and allowed her to lay more.
I'm sure it's also her genetics.

 

[1cock2hens]

I'm up to 10 little ones! 4 eggs left in all, I will candle them tonight.

edit: I looked closer at the eggs, held them for a second, one is moving inside and the other three arent, if i had to guess i have one more baby coming


pretty positive 4 are pure faverolle!
I wonder what all these Mug(american gamefowl)/saipan x salmon faverolle mix chicks will look like.

 

[PortlandHen]

I candled last night and I realized I’m bad at counting. Ha! I’m down to 8 eggs (started with 12 and lost 4). Totally thought I had 7 left for so long.

4 silkies are moving in their eggs! 4 other eggs are too dark to see through... so I wait! Four more days.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Second set of Cream Legbar-Barnevelder olive egger chicks are hatching.

I took a quick look under mom tonight and heard a peep with some fluff...other eggs were not hatched yet...so hopefully tomorrow morning I'll have a bunch.

Banty is off the nest again, sigh. She keeps tempting me that she'll brood her own eggs. Instead she laid another...I think she is almost there as she spent a lot of time on the nest today.

Oh well....the grey Marans-Barn is happily brooding and flattened like a pancake on the banty eggs in the main coop. Hopefully I can get her to hatch...means I'll have to shift these olive eggers in about 2 weeks...but hey....I can do that...right? (Just where did I put that second dog crate???)

LofMc

 

[igorsMistress]

Hi

Congratulations to everyone on your littles!

We have a production RIR that's broody, first time for her and us, although we've had a flock of pigeons that hatched regularly. Ruby has been setting Turken x Bresse and Cream legbars. We're starting small with 6 total, 3 of each.

I'm thrilled to share this experience with our oldest GS. He's going to help with candling next Sunday, although he wants to check every day. Very happy to have this thread to read through for any pointers too.