Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[NottinghamChicks]

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Awwwww

What a great shot.

 

[stonykill]

thanks Miss Lydia. I'm worried about that little one. Maybe I can entice her with a nice little safe nest......

 

[OrpingtonManor]

love the pics

Here are a couple of my broody mamas and their grafted chicks...
in the nest box

moved to the tractor

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hope so stony, when our one hen left and we couldn't find her, she brought her 10 chicks home and i was so happy to see she had made it through the 21 days, well come evening we couldn't get her to go into the coop with her brood, so my dh says leave them outside they'll be altright, Not, sometime in the night a predator got her, she put up a good fight protecting her chicks, when I heard the commotion I ran outside and found my hen badly wounded and no chicks anywhere. I put her into our small coop and in the morning she was still alive but in shock. I clean her wounds up but I could tell she wasn't going to make it, but would you believe I heard peeping and found 3 of her chicks scattered around in the woods close to our home. I put them with mom, and we went to Church, when we got home I walked around to the front of the house there stands another chick looking up at one of my bantam hens as if saying "are you my mother" I could not believe that chick was still alive and healthy, it was June but still gets into the 50" at night, well I caught it and put it with mom and sibs. but by night fall i knew mom wasn't going to pull through ,so took the chicks into the house and they next morn found mom dead. So moral is when they leave and nest elsewhere I don't think they feel as safe going back into the coop as they do when they stay home and nest with the flock around, she was full game hen too and they are flighty birds too, it was sad broke my heart, I loved that girl. But one of her chicks [hen looks just like her].sorry this took so long.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

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Great idea, very useful thread.

 

[imaturtlefan]

I just thought Id post here, because, I just did my first hatch ever. Well, of chickens or birds anyway, I hatched various lizard species before, but thats very different... I thought for sure none would hatch...heres what happened
1) my hen pooped on the eggs
2) I washed them with water
3) hen pooped on them again
4) I used lysol wipes on them to clean them
5) I moved the nest to a separate place on day 17, thought it would be easiest to just pick up the entire nest and move them, to a separate small coop I had just bought so theyd be safer, 3 eggs rolled out of the nest and fell (but didnt break)... after everything, I was fairly sure if any hatched, I might get lucky with 1 or 2... but...
Saturday I went to the coop, and this is what I saw...

by evening I had 4 Sizzles, and 3 Easter egger chicks!

I just put another batch under another broody silkie...this one has kicked 2 eggs out, pooped on them, and got up and sat on another egg one of my layers laid, but is now back on them...I really dont have much hope for them, but after this batch, I think Ill let her have them at least for a week, and then see what I can see...

 

[ADozenGirlz]

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Holy cow, if it weren't for bad luck...
I am pretty sure Lysol wipes are NOT in the Broody play book.

I would've just left them alone, poop and all, but that's just me. I figure mama hens have been taking care of hatching business long before we ever thought to insert ourselves into the process, so why mess with it?

 

[imaturtlefan]

Quote:
Holy cow, if it weren't for bad luck...
I am pretty sure Lysol wipes are NOT in the Broody play book.

I would've just left them alone, poop and all, but that's just me. I figure mama hens have been taking care of hatching business long before we ever thought to insert ourselves into the process, so why mess with it?

Like I said...Im a newbie, however, I do research everything I do...I read all the pros and cons of cleaning the eggs... and the eggs were so bad, they smelled awful, like vomit, it was a nasty gooey coating on all of them, so I decided to use the lysol wipes, because I figured, its either going to kill the germs, or kill the eggs, but, I had read that some people had sick weak chicks from allowing germy, dirty ones to hatch... and I didn't want that... figured Id see what happened. Didnt think lysol wipes would be all that much different than using a bleach solution, like a lot of people do. Anyway, every egg that was fertile hatched, so Im stoked. The one that didnt hatch, I didn't really think was fertile anyway, because I hadnt seen my rooster with her at all, and she was a full sized hen, and my roo was a bantam frizzle...
But yeah...Im letting my other silkie just do her thing... and see what happens, guess Im kind of experimenting and seeing what works best for my bunch, so Im anxious to see how this one does on her own...

 

[twister]

Just got around to uploading pics of Cotton w. her two babies. Our first hatch..she is such a great mommy! showing them how to eat, clucking for them to follow her lead... (babies are not silkies, they are leghorn cross)

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Holy cow, if it weren't for bad luck...
I am pretty sure Lysol wipes are NOT in the Broody play book.

I would've just left them alone, poop and all, but that's just me. I figure mama hens have been taking care of hatching business long before we ever thought to insert ourselves into the process, so why mess with it?

Like I said...Im a newbie, however, I do research everything I do...I read all the pros and cons of cleaning the eggs... and the eggs were so bad, they smelled awful, like vomit, it was a nasty gooey coating on all of them, so I decided to use the lysol wipes, because I figured, its either going to kill the germs, or kill the eggs, but, I had read that some people had sick weak chicks from allowing germy, dirty ones to hatch... and I didn't want that... figured Id see what happened. Didnt think lysol wipes would be all that much different than using a bleach solution, like a lot of people do. Anyway, every egg that was fertile hatched, so Im stoked. The one that didnt hatch, I didn't really think was fertile anyway, because I hadnt seen my rooster with her at all, and she was a full sized hen, and my roo was a bantam frizzle...
But yeah...Im letting my other silkie just do her thing... and see what happens, guess Im kind of experimenting and seeing what works best for my bunch, so Im anxious to see how this one does on her own...

I wasn't trying to be judgmental, I was actually amused at the mental image of Lysol wipes on hatching eggs, it just struck me as funny for some reason. You're doing a brilliant job, newbie or not, informing yourself and calling the shots as you see fit. You had a fabulous hatch and that's what matters. Well done and congratulations!