Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[fisherlady]

Does anyone know if I could successfully breed bantams and LF? We have 1 LF Roo, 1 LF female and 2 female bantams. Could I breed the Roo and bantams together w/o injury?

Risk of injury depends on a number of factors...

.... size of rooster and hen, the larger the rooster is compared to the hen the greater the risk of injury
.... aggressiveness of the rooster, some roos are easy on hens, some not so much....
.... the willingness of the hen, if she readily gives in to the rooster to minimize drama then the deed is done much quicker and less likely to cause injury
.... egg size....(hope someone with more incubating experience chimes in on this one) .... In my opinion a hen who lays a very small egg who is bred with a very large too may cause a chick who has trouble turning in its shell. Not positive on this one, but if your hen lays very small eggs it probably increases risk of poor hatch rate.

It doesn't have to result I injury though... we have a LF rooster (about 8 or 9 pounds) who has frequently bred our silkie mix hen who weighs maybe 2.5 or 3 pounds and never hurt her. She did hatch out one egg which was most likely a baby of his without problem, but her eggs are medium in size.

 

[Peep-Chicken]

Risk of injury depends on a number of factors...

.... size of rooster and hen, the larger the rooster is compared to the hen the greater the risk of injury
.... aggressiveness of the rooster, some roos are easy on hens, some not so much....
.... the willingness of the hen,  if she readily gives in to the rooster to minimize drama then the deed is done much quicker and less likely to cause injury
.... egg size....(hope someone with more incubating experience chimes in on this one) .... In my opinion a hen who lays a very small egg who is bred with a very large too may cause a chick who has trouble turning in its shell.   Not positive on this one, but if your hen lays very small eggs it probably increases risk of poor hatch rate.

It doesn't have to result I injury though... we have a LF rooster (about 8 or 9 pounds) who has frequently bred our silkie mix hen who weighs maybe 2.5 or 3 pounds and never hurt her.  She did hatch out one egg which was most likely a baby of his without problem, but her eggs are medium in size.

Ok thanks. I will wait till Roo is ready and see how big he will be. Now he is 4-5 Ibs but should be same as your roos weight. Good to know he won't He hurt them if I don't breed him purposely.

 

[TeaChick]

=)

 

[pmcatnip]

We've had it go both ways. LF roo on banty hens and banty roo on LF hens. We haven't hatched any of the banty eggs to see if they were successfully fertilized but I don't see why not, and the hens are doing fine. The LF eggs with banty roo hatched and grew up fine too.

 

[Happy Flock]

Pictures of the "babies" that hatched in August. They are huge now, probably weigh about 4 pounds each. Here they are at 16 weeks:

Gorgeous teenagers Bumpercarr!

Some great news, fellow chicken lovers: 1 chick hatched today. 12 eggs to go!

 

[TeaChick]

Gorgeous teenagers Bumpercarr!

Some great news, fellow chicken lovers: 1 chick hatched today. 12 eggs to go!

Very happy for you!!!

 

[kmollyhughes]

Hi! Question... I have three broody hens sitting right now. Two silkies, and a Marans. One silkie and the Marans have been "sweet" if you could call that hiss and stare sweet. No biting when checking on them. Second silkie, and last to go broody, has always been...feisty. Since she wasn't as sweet and easy to check I only put 3 eggs under her. Well, this morning I went out and the feisty silkie was in another box. Eggs were cold. I put her back in... Dont know if she left or got pushed out by another hen??? So that leads me to the question...any hope for those three eggs?? Thank goodness I only put three under her. We really want as many chicks as possible. Today would be day 13 for the eggs.

 

[chickydee64]

Hi! Question... I have three broody hens sitting right now. Two silkies, and a Marans. One silkie and the Marans have been "sweet" if you could call that hiss and stare sweet. No biting when checking on them. Second silkie, and last to go broody, has always been...feisty. Since she wasn't as sweet and easy to check I only put 3 eggs under her. Well, this morning I went out and the feisty silkie was in another box. Eggs were cold. I put her back in... Dont know if she left or got pushed out by another hen??? So that leads me to the question...any hope for those three eggs?? Thank goodness I only put three under her. We really want as many chicks as possible. Today would be day 13 for the eggs.

my best guess is they are alright............
Had this happen with a broody who just liked to leave the box for long periods........
Don't know how cold it is where you are????????
Hopefully the worst that would happen is they might be a day late................

 

[kmollyhughes]

[COLOR=008080]my best guess is they are alright............[/COLOR]
[COLOR=008080]Had this happen with a broody who just liked to leave the box for long periods........[/COLOR]
[COLOR=008080]Don't know how cold it is where you are????????[/COLOR]
[COLOR=008080]Hopefully the worst that would happen is they might be a day late................[/COLOR]

I'm in Nevada. It was in the 50's I think yesterday. Coop was probably a little warmer. Grrrrrr. I knew I should've pulled them all into a dog kennel...but didn't want to pull them if they were ok where they were. I want to be as hands off as possible and let them do their thing. I'll let them go today and pull them in tonight. Hopefully we get at least a few chicks out of the 16 or so eggs under the girls. Please please please.....

 

[bumpercarr]

Well, Winnie went broody again today. Of course, wrong time of year to get eggs shipped or to buy chicks......grrrrr.