Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

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are you saying the EE's have hatched and thats why she's getting off the nest? if she is through brooing then she might give up on the guinea eggs. Hard to say.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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adorable!! cuteness overload.. Congrats..

 

[Miss Lydia]

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18 eggs left? wow she's gonna have her hands full [so to speak]

keep us updated on how she is doing and when the big day gets here..

 

[artsyrobin]

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are you saying the EE's have hatched and thats why she's getting off the nest? if she is through brooing then she might give up on the guinea eggs. Hard to say.

yeah, the ee's hatched night before last, and since she is in my studio i ca watch when she gets off, right now i have the eggs in my shirt till the babies take a nap and then i'll try slipping them under her again...hate to have the guineas this close....

 

[bobcart]

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Yep, I had heard 12-18 eggs of that breed's egg size was about max. I started with 16 thinking figuring I'd get rid of the bad ones early. Well, then two more were laid in there within 12 hours and before I had marked them, so I had to let them be. No way to tell. She is very very flat and wide. I think her cluck is a mantra and must be "think wide" in chicken. She is pretty amazing and can keep all 18 warm when I check, but I think it is hard work with that many and she rotates them in and out.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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are you saying the EE's have hatched and thats why she's getting off the nest? if she is through brooing then she might give up on the guinea eggs. Hard to say.

yeah, the ee's hatched night before last, and since she is in my studio i ca watch when she gets off, right now i have the eggs in my shirt till the babies take a nap and then i'll try slipping them under her again...hate to have the guineas this close....

yep thats a bummer, since these chicks hatched already she feels obligated to take them out but still has eggs to hatch. I hope they hatch. let us know. Do you have a bator, I don't so I'd be putting them in a basket under a heat lamp and misting them and turning them every 2 hrs probably, I had to do 10 duck eggs like that once.

 

[artsyrobin]

ok, will do that then.... will keep you posted, would it work to take the chicks out?

 

[Miss Lydia]

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The reason I had to do duck eggs was my female followed her sisters to the river down below our house and she stayed the night down with them, of course i was frantic and tried to convince them to come home but nope they got a taste of open water and loved it, so I had to wait till the next day for her to come back and she walked right into the coop and got back on her eggs. I had to keep them in my bedroom in a cornor in a basket with the heat lamp and sprayed warm water on them every 2 hrs and turned them, had only read about doing this so didn't really know if it would help. But all 10 hatched so I guess I did help some. My drake who lived at the river at the time[ I hadn't adopted him yet] was the one who brought them home. So when i saw him coming up the hill with the girls I took the eggs back down and put them in the nest just like she had never left them. And thank goodness she never did again. I saw someone talking a person through hatching duck eggs with out a bator I will see if I can find the thread. If your going to try and do this on your own then i would leave mama and chicks alone and take the guines eggs out of the nest. How long is she staying off the eggs?

 

[artsyrobin]

she has just started poking around with the babies this morning, long enough for them to be cool to the touch- wonder if i put them under her at night would work? and a heat lamp during the day? they are in a little cage so she is close to them just not brooding them

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Might work, will she get on the eggs on her own at all? my frizzle hatched 2 chicks and still had 3 eggs to go, when she was through brooding she rolled those eggs out from under her and never looked back. When are the guineas hatch day?