Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

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I leave my 4 year old black silkie hen in the coop with her chicks and she does fine, she protects them from my roosters. silkie roosters are very gental with chicks and will sometimes act like a mother to them i have even seen one of my silkie roosters lay ontop of a chick when it was cold and windy out. my white silkie hen went broody for the first time last week and she's laying on 4 eggs
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what age does that put her at??? i bought her from some guy last year and he didnt know her age. im new at breeding silkies and so far i have hatched 7 white silkie chicks which are 2 months old now, and hey maybe next spring ill sell them on BYC! i also have lavender showgirls!!!
 
My broody australorp managed to squoosh her one egg after it pipped. I gave her 24 hours after it pipped and checked.. Silly bird left the nest and went around terrorizing the other chickens after it had pipped, then hopped back on. /sigh. She's a great momma, but not so good at setting. So I've put my eight mutt eggs in lockdown and I've given her one of the 'clears' to sit on.
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Onward and upward!
 
Well, it's pretty chilly this morning, 42 degrees, brrrrrrr. I haven't let the chickens out yet, but I hope Puff kept her little eggs warm enough. I wish I knew what was going on in the coop while I'm at work all day. Yesterday, I found a feather in her nest that doesn't belong to her and another hen's egg. I wonder if one of the other girls took over her nest while she got out or shoved Puff out forcefully. Anyone else use an inexpensive nanny cam, ect?

Oh, forgot to add, I don't really have any idea what 4 out of the 5 eggs are she is sitting on. I have silkies, bantam cochins and faverolles in my flock. 2 fav roos and 1 silkie roo. Ironically, I have actually been trying to get away from broodies, trying to build up my fav flock, and here I am using a broody and really enjoying it.
 
Thought I would show you my hardworking mama. This is Puff.

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This morning I was concerned because its the first time I have seen her off the nest so I wanted to make sure she was still willing to go back to them. She was off for 10 mins, kicked 2 of the other hens butts just for looking at her I guess and then when one of my boys went running over there to see what the noise was all about, she gave him attitude. Mama was all business this morning, boy was she cranky. She ate and then went back and snuggled down on her eggs. Her behavior this morning gives me hope that she will no doubt be able to protect her chicks so I am pretty sure that I can leave her to raise them with the flock like I had hoped.
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Are you going to give her the chicks back when they hatch? Sorry about your baby that got squooshed, and so close to the end too.
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Yes, this is what I did last time with her. Raised a separate batch of eggs in a bator (these are a week behind the one she was sitting) and gave them to her when they were 'done'. She did a great job raising them, just doesn't seem to get the sitting part right.
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I was out of town for a week and had my daughter taking care of my chickens.

One of my Black Australorps went broody shortly after I left, so my daughter didn't bother gathering her eggs.

Problem is . . . the broody is sitting in the FAVORITE nest box where all the other hens wanna lay,,, so she's now sitting on a gazillion eggs!
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I gotta move her.

I already have a broody Silkie sitting on eggs in the dog crate that she shares with my two Seramas.

I'll have to bring in another dog crate for the Australorp and figure out what to do with the mound of eggs she thinks she's hatching.
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Just this morning I walked into the coop to see the Australorp sitting on her eggs and one of my Easter Eggers laying another one right next to her!

So that makes a gazillion +1.

Oh, and here's the kicker . . . we just sold our house . . . so we're MOVING!

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