Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[howfunkyisurchicken]

One of my EEs had some egglets hatch today. Two tiny Cochin babies, so cute. She's still got 9 more to go, and I can hear TONS of peeping coming from under her. Hopefully when I open the coop in the morning they'll be finished hatching so I can move them to a more permanent location. She's currently sitting in a 5-gallon bucket turned on its side. I had 3 chickens and a turkey all go broody around the same time, so I just ran out of places to put them all! New babies are SO exciting, I can't wait to get a final count!

 

[nickie]

Please forgive me if this question has already been asked, I don't have time to read all 956 pages...

I have my first (I think) broody. She decided yesterday to spend all afternoon on the nest, got up in the evening for a quick stroll and then back on. This morning she was off for roughly 3 hours and then back on... My question is: does it take a few days of prep for them to sit full time? If she really is broody I'm going to throw a couple eggs under her and let her go with it, but I don't know when or how I will know if she's going to stick. Right now she stole all the golf balls from the other nests and is sitting on those.

 

[perchie.girl]

Please forgive me if this question has already been asked, I don't have time to read all 956 pages...

I have my first (I think) broody. She decided yesterday to spend all afternoon on the nest, got up in the evening for a quick stroll and then back on. This morning she was off for roughly 3 hours and then back on... My question is: does it take a few days of prep for them to sit full time? If she really is broody I'm going to throw a couple eggs under her and let her go with it, but I don't know when or how I will know if she's going to stick. Right now she stole all the golf balls from the other nests and is sitting on those.

I think that whole falsie stealing behavior is a pretty good hint.... LOL.....

Sounds like you have a broody in the making. But time will tell.

deb

 

[Miss Lydia]

I think that whole falsie stealing behavior is a pretty good hint.... LOL.....

Sounds like you have a broody in the making. But time will tell.

deb

I agree with deb, sometimes it takes a week or more for them to finally settle but it sure sounds like she is getting serious. Congrats keep us posted.

 

[Miss Lydia]

One of my EEs had some egglets hatch today. Two tiny Cochin babies, so cute. She's still got 9 more to go, and I can hear TONS of peeping coming from under her. Hopefully when I open the coop in the morning they'll be finished hatching so I can move them to a more permanent location. She's currently sitting in a 5-gallon bucket turned on its side. I had 3 chickens and a turkey all go broody around the same time, so I just ran out of places to put them all! New babies are SO exciting, I can't wait to get a final count!

let us know what you end up with.. Congrats!!

 

[bobbieschicks]

One of my EEs had some egglets hatch today. Two tiny Cochin babies, so cute. She's still got 9 more to go, and I can hear TONS of peeping coming from under her. Hopefully when I open the coop in the morning they'll be finished hatching so I can move them to a more permanent location. She's currently sitting in a 5-gallon bucket turned on its side. I had 3 chickens and a turkey all go broody around the same time, so I just ran out of places to put them all! New babies are SO exciting, I can't wait to get a final count!

Congrats on the new fuzzy butts! Can't wait to see pics!

 

[bobbieschicks]

I agree with deb, sometimes it takes a week or more for them to finally settle but it sure sounds like she is getting serious. Congrats keep us posted. 

Yep she's headed to serious. Before she went broody Topsy did the same thing and so did Smokey, They would hang out in the nest box all day and then for three nights in a row. They were still laying eggs. As soon as they quit laying and stayed put at night I called them broody.

Congrats!

 

[nickie]

Thanks for the input... She gave me an egg yesterday and then did her evening stroll, but slept on the nest. I haven't been able to get my hand under her to find out if there is an egg today or not. I'm waiting to see if she gets up for an extended period tomorrow... I still wish she could have done this before I hatched 2 batches of chicks and a batch of ducklings. She would have saved me so much work.

 

[effie]

Ok I posted at christmas some new babies that hatched from my broody BO mamma. I also had another broody mamma hatch some out in FEB. I posted some pics of the first hatch babies and there was one in particular that looked like she was gonna be real pretty. I have a BO roo with mostly BO hens with a couple Barred rock hens thrown in there. So when both hens went broody i just gathered up eggs and sat under them. Well, when the BO roo mixed with the BR hens I got some pretty chickens but an anomally that I want to test. The girls from the mixed mom and dad look like little partridges while the boys are always gray--both batches that way---i want to hatch a third batch to see what they do. LOL Anyway, some ask me to post some pics of what she looks like and I have to say she is the prettiest hen in the house--we call her aptly "pretty girl".
Here she is



here is one of the roos I got-they both looked the same from different hatches.


and got this girl from the second batch--she isn't marked as pretty as the first girl but still nice.

the first girl I posted looked like this when she was young

thought I would post --it is kinda cool to see that they grow up to look like sometimes.....

 

[bobbieschicks]

Ok I posted at christmas some new babies that hatched from my broody BO mamma. I also had another broody mamma hatch some out in FEB. I posted some pics of the first hatch babies and there was one in particular that looked like she was gonna be real pretty. I have a BO roo with mostly BO hens with a couple Barred rock hens thrown in there. So when both hens went broody i just gathered up eggs and sat under them. Well, when the BO roo mixed with the BR hens I got some pretty chickens but an anomally that I want to test. The girls from the mixed mom and dad look like little partridges while the boys are always gray--both batches that way---i want to hatch a third batch to see what they do.  LOL  Anyway, some ask me to post some pics of what she looks like and I have to say she is the prettiest hen in the house--we call her aptly "pretty girl".
Here she is



here is one of the roos I got-they both looked the same from different hatches.


and got this girl from the second batch--she isn't marked as pretty as the first girl but still nice.

the first girl I posted looked like this when she was young

thought I would post --it is kinda cool to see that they grow up to look like sometimes..... 

Very pretty!