Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Lady of McCamley]

I love seeing pics of all the broodies and their babies....sniff, sniff...spring has sprung once again.

Thank you to all who are posting photos.
Lady of McCamley

 

[saltandpepper2]

I need help! So, I had a BCM hen go broody. I was really excited about it, and put 7 eggs under her, one being a blue egg. Well, She DEMOLISHED that blue egg, and soiled the nest. I had to throw away 4 eggs that had gotten really dirtied, and replaced them with new eggs, ( all brown this time!) My Question is, she went broody on Saturday. So the eggs have a 4 day difference. Will this cause any problems? Only 3 original eggs are left. The rest are new. Any advice?

 

[Sydney Acres]

I need help! So, I had a BCM hen go broody. I was really excited about it, and put 7 eggs under her, one being a blue egg. Well, She DEMOLISHED that blue egg, and soiled the nest. I had to throw away 4 eggs that had gotten really dirtied, and replaced them with new eggs, ( all brown this time!) My Question is, she went broody on Saturday. So the eggs have a 4 day difference. Will this cause any problems? Only 3 original eggs are left. The rest are new. Any advice?

And people say animals are color blind!!! I wonder if she destroyed it because it was so different from the other 6, or because she knew that it wasn't her egg because of the color? I wonder if she would have done that if all the eggs had been blue? Interesting behavior. Most broodies will hatch anything you put under them, but maybe she's more discriminating.

A staggered hatch that is more than 2-3 days apart is never desirable, as the broody will need to chose between leaving the unhatched eggs to take care of the chicks, or staying on the late eggs and hope the chicks can take care of themselves. Typically 3 days is the maximum, but not all broodies read the book. Did you mark which eggs are the original and which are the new one?

Since you have this situation, you have a few options:

First, if you have an incubator, or can borrow/buy an incubator, you can finish out the late-hatching eggs in the incubator, then try to graft those chicks back to her when they're one day old. The problem is that the other chicks will then be 5 days old, if everyone hatches on time, so the hen may not accept new chicks that late, or the age difference between the chicks may be too much and the younger babies could get injured if the older chicks are aggressive.

Second, if you have another hen go broody you can have the second hen finish out the newer eggs.

Third, if you finish out the newer eggs in the incubator and don't want to graft them on to the broody, you can always brood them separately.

Fourth, you can wait and see what happens, and accept that the embyros in the newer eggs will die on day 18-21 of development if the hen leaves the nest before they hatch to take care of the early chicks.

Fifth, if you marked the older or newer eggs so you can tell them apart, you can remove one group of eggs now, or when they're first candled, either to an incubator or to another broody hen, or destroy them. I have a friend that candles all her eggs, then removes and boils the ones that aren't developing and feeds them back to the chickens. She doesn't like any egg to go to waste.

I can't think of any other options. Sorry. Maybe some of the more experienced poster will have a better option for you. Please keep us posted as to how this turns out.

 

[K Epp]

She answered my question. Right through the LF flock, turkeys, goats, cats, and a dog.

 

[Sydney Acres]

She answered my question. Right through the LF flock, turkeys, goats, cats, and a dog.

That is just precious -- and with both hens coparenting full time, as opposed to trading off duties. Too cute!!

 

[K Epp]

What I found interesting is even though both are first time mothers they put the babies in between them to go through the crowd.

 

[Sydney Acres]

What I found interesting is even though both are first time mothers they put the babies in between them to go through the crowd.

That must have been amazing to see! Good mothering instincts are definitely selected in nature. The babies with good mothers are the only ones that survive to produce the next generation.

 

[emw0012]

Thanks fisherlady!
Three of the four have hatched now. I guess I am just worried about the chicks because one of the other hens went up to lay her egg and was pecking at them. Hopefully, they will be safe under the mother? We may try to move them tomorrow so the other hens can go about their business. One was nice enough to lay in the other nesting box but the rest don't seem up for changing. I put food and water up their and both mom and babies ate and drank.

 

[saltandpepper2]

And people say animals are color blind!!! I wonder if she destroyed it because it was so different from the other 6, or because she knew that it wasn't her egg because of the color? I wonder if she would have done that if all the eggs had been blue? Interesting behavior. Most broodies will hatch anything you put under them, but maybe she's more discriminating.

A staggered hatch that is more than 2-3 days apart is never desirable, as the broody will need to chose between leaving the unhatched eggs to take care of the chicks, or staying on the late eggs and hope the chicks can take care of themselves. Typically 3 days is the maximum, but not all broodies read the book. Did you mark which eggs are the original and which are the new one?

Since you have this situation, you have a few options:

First, if you have an incubator, or can borrow/buy an incubator, you can finish out the late-hatching eggs in the incubator, then try to graft those chicks back to her when they're one day old. The problem is that the other chicks will then be 5 days old, if everyone hatches on time, so the hen may not accept new chicks that late, or the age difference between the chicks may be too much and the younger babies could get injured if the older chicks are aggressive.

Second, if you have another hen go broody you can have the second hen finish out the newer eggs.

Third, if you finish out the newer eggs in the incubator and don't want to graft them on to the broody, you can always brood them separately.

Fourth, you can wait and see what happens, and accept that the embyros in the newer eggs will die on day 18-21 of development if the hen leaves the nest before they hatch to take care of the early chicks.

Fifth, if you marked the older or newer eggs so you can tell them apart, you can remove one group of eggs now, or when they're first candled, either to an incubator or to another broody hen, or destroy them. I have a friend that candles all her eggs, then removes and boils the ones that aren't developing and feeds them back to the chickens. She doesn't like any egg to go to waste.

I can't think of any other options. Sorry. Maybe some of the more experienced poster will have a better option for you. Please keep us posted as to how this turns out.

Thank you so much for the help! I think she Destroyed the blue egg because it was the only one that is colored, she accepted all of the new eggs, even if they did smell like sharpy! ( I marked them so that I could discard of any new eggs that got put in the nest. Unfortunately, I didn't think of marking the older and the new eggs... I think I will set up an extra incubator that I have on day 18 for the new eggs, in case she leaves them for hatched chicks. Do you think that would work? This is my first time, so I really am trying. Oh! and I crack open one of the soiled eggs, and it had already started to form! There her tiny blood veins all over the inside of the shell... Very interesting.

 

[K Epp]

I put my abandoned eggs in my incubator and came home to another turkey poult.