Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[bhj123]

Has anyone had any experience with hatching bantam eggs under a large fowl hen?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Has anyone had any experience with hatching bantam eggs under a large fowl hen?

I've had mixed eggs, bantam and large under both bantam and large with no issues.

A chick is a chick is a chick as far as the mom is concerned. And while bantams are small (except for a few of the exceedingly small ones), they are not that much smaller than the other chicks and if hatched together by the mom do well.

The only thing to determine is how many...you can get more bantam under a large fowl, less large fowl under a bantam. So a large fowl covering bantam is easier than the other way around.

Lady of McCamley

 

[bhj123]

Ok. Thank you. I was asking more if my LF hen will crush my bantam eggs.

 

[bhj123]

Would putting large eggs under her help her not crush or crack any of them?

 

[daniellea2912]

I don't know the brooding tenacity of an Ameraucana hen, but my hatching book rates them as good to fair broodies. That may or may not be strong enough for an incompletely tame hen to remain broody if she's picked up off the nest repeatedly. Be very careful and watch for any reluctance to go back to her nest as soon as she sees her eggs, and be sure that her nest is in a quiet and dimly lit area to encourage broody behavior..

Since you're keeping her broody to raise shipped chicks, be sure that there are either ceramic eggs, or throw-away eggs, or something else under her that she thinks are eggs. I would use a minimum of 2, but 4 might be better. I don't know if this is true or not, but I've been told that the "average" broody will abandon her brood after 7-10 days if there's no eggs in the nest, or 28-30 days if there's eggs but no hatch or detectable chicks in the eggs. Since she's going to need to brood for 5 weeks total, it is important to do everything to encourage her to remain broody. Is there any way to get the chick delivery moved up 1-2 weeks?? Some hatcheries will try to rearrange things if you call and explain the broody hen situation.

Well, good news- I got my Meyer order moved up a week to the 21st. So that will put her having a total brood time of 4 weeks instead of 5 which I am sure she will appreciate! I did have to cancel my olive eggers from the order and add something else because they weren't available but I can always get them next year

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
Excellent!! Was Meyer very sympathetic to the situation and work hard to help you find a solution, or were they unconcerned and simply able to change your delivery date easily? I've had excellent customer service from many of the large hatcheries, but I haven't ordered from Meyer.

 

[daniellea2912]

Excellent!! Was Meyer very sympathetic to the situation and work hard to help you find a solution, or were they unconcerned and simply able to change your delivery date easily? I've had excellent customer service from many of the large hatcheries, but I haven't ordered from Meyer.

I was very very happy with their customer service. I did the online chat thru their website (I am at work and I answer the phones so calling them wasn't as good an option) I was literally chatting with her for at least 30-40 mins. She checked the status on all the breeds I had ordered, when they weren't all available she sent me a complete list of what was available that day so I knew my choices for substituting. She also answered the many questions I had and thoroughly explained the possibility of over-hatch (me being able to get the breeds that weren't available if they ended up hatching more than they planned for that day) and how to have the best chance of getting them if that did happen. Couldn't have asked for a better experience. Only con to them is sometimes it seems like their computers are a little slow but they always apologize for it.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Would putting large eggs under her help her not crush or crack any of them?

Are bantam eggs more fragile or do they have thinner shells than LF eggs? If not, then I wouldn't think they'd be any more breakable than LF eggs. I would think that a hen with a variety of egg sizes would simply arrange them under her so that she had equal pressure on all of them, since if she were elevated off the small eggs by the larger eggs the small eggs wouldn't be kept as warm and might fail to hatch (I don't know this for sure, but it seems reasonable). How heavy is the hen? What breed is she? Most hens that are less than 8 lbs don't have a frequent problem with crushing eggs, and if they do it's usually more of a "not being careful" situation than just simply being too heavy. A friend of mine had a broad breasted turkey hen go broody, and she put 10 turkey eggs and 4 LF chicken eggs under her (the turkey hen was probably 28-30 lbs). Not a single egg was broken, not because a 30 lb bird should ever be brooding, but because she was very careful!!

Disclaimer: I don't have any experience with bantam eggs. Just thinking logically and writing it down.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
That's wonderful. Customer service reps can make or break a business, and I've always had good experiences with the reps at hatcheries. Can't blame them for having slow computers this time of year -- everyone is calling hatcheries, so their system is probably at maximum capacity. At least it didn't crash!!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Ok. Thank you. I was asking more if my LF hen will crush my bantam eggs.

Are bantam eggs more fragile or do they have thinner shells than LF eggs? If not, then I wouldn't think they'd be any more breakable than LF eggs. I would think that a hen with a variety of egg sizes would simply arrange them under her so that she had equal pressure on all of them, since if she were elevated off the small eggs by the larger eggs the small eggs wouldn't be kept as warm and might fail to hatch (I don't know this for sure, but it seems reasonable). How heavy is the hen? What breed is she? Most hens that are less than 8 lbs don't have a frequent problem with crushing eggs, and if they do it's usually more of a "not being careful" situation than just simply being too heavy. A friend of mine had a broad breasted turkey hen go broody, and she put 10 turkey eggs and 4 LF chicken eggs under her (the turkey hen was probably 28-30 lbs). Not a single egg was broken, not because a 30 lb bird should ever be brooding, but because she was very careful!!

Disclaimer: I don't have any experience with bantam eggs. Just thinking logically and writing it down.

I've not noticed my bantam eggs being more fragile...if anything they seem thicker shelled and hardier when I crack them for breakfast.

But all eggs are different, some more thin shelled than others. Avoid using any thin shelled or overly porous egg as they do crush easily and lead to a poor hatch (and often aren't good quality to begin with also causing embryo problems).

But no...bantam eggs are not naturally thinner shelled than large fowl...at least not in my limited personal experience (I only have 2 laying bantams...and have hatched bantam eggs purchased from another farmer).

I've mixed and matched with no issues...but I have not had a full nest of only bantam eggs with a large fowl hen...but I can't imagine it would cause any issues if they are healthy strong eggs.


Lady of McCamley