Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Lenka]

@Lenka
Lockdown should be on Sunday evening if you set them on the evening of the 7th as I'm understanding it. Day 21 should start at the same time as set on the 28th.

Thank you!

 

[winteree]

So does a broody hen automatically turn the eggs that she's sitting on? I keep freaking out that she doesn't so that... Funny when I used to have silkies and knew less about incubation I didn't give it a second thought... Don't know why this Wyandotte is freaking me out.

Also non broody question.. If I set my eggs in the incubator Wednesday night.. Of week before last, is lock down Saturday night or Sunday? (Day 18)? Sry if not the right place to ask this...

yes lock down is on day 18 here are a few links i hope they help
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101 (the part about hatching\lockdown is closer to the end)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/incubation (this one has the baseline numbers for humtdiy etc)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching (this one is for assisted hatching)

 

[Triple Willow]

I have a mixed flock with six Black Australorps included in the bunch. Of the six, three are broody. None of the other five breeds have produced a broody. Gotta love Aussies!
They are sitting on Black Copper Marans, Americana and Rhode Island Red eggs.

One of these Aussies became broody as a pullet last year. She hatched out some chicks and her pullets were laying themselves by the time their broody mama turned a year old.

Broodies are an amazing creation.

 

[chickenlisa]

Thank you! I've never had much luck with Broodies...our oldest hen was broody 1 summer, let 1 chick hatch and killed all of the others as they hatched (or her sisters did). she hasn't even tried to be broody since...We've had a few be good mamas, but they are no longer living...and this one who is sitting now and so mean is good! She has hatched ducklings for us too a few years ago! She is amazing...she still lays a nice smaller blue egg too (when she's not setting.)

I just found the pics of Meanie when she had her duckling babies...only 2 years ago (and I thought it was more!) She really is a good Mama!

 

[Tabatha]

How long after a broody hatches her eggs will she start laying again?

 

[daniellea2912]

How long after a broody hatches her eggs will she start laying again?

My broody hen laid an egg exactly 4 weeks later. She is still mothering her chick but seems to be starting to slowly weaning her. She doesn't call her over to tell her to eat much anymore, doesn't worry when the baby strays away from her etc. But if the baby squawks or gets upset, the momma still comes running

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Update on the Buckeye hatching...(from those expensive shipped eggs).

Whew...what a day....I've had smoother hatches than this, especially with my faithful Silkie.

After a very quick peek, 2 babies were freshly hatched this morning, and 1 egg had a large pip hole. I came home after 6 hours of being gone to find 2 chicks fluffed and thriving, 1 zipping, and 1 chick outside the nest box chilled and gasping its final breath, AND tiny black ants crawling all over it! (Those darn ants

....will have to really treat the box when I can get the hatching process over and can move mom and chicks!)

I couldn't tell if mom had rejected it because it was a "failure to thrive" or if it had been accidentally pushed out/fallen out of the nest box insert (think wooden box with 1 1/2 inch lip setting inside the big nesting box) and mom couldn't coax it back in/get it back in since she was caring for the zipping one...mental note...I am going to do away with this small box insert as it may be creating a "stranded" issue with the newly hatched wobbly chicks...one hatch back (Marans) I also found a cold dead chick on the outside of the box. I thought it had died from omphalitis (which it clearly had a bad case of) and had been rejected and put there by mom, which it may have been as it's empty shell was beside it, but now.....hmmmmm.

Did a quick nest clean up again ridding some fortunately well formed poo from mom, tossing out ants with it...Mom was really, really mad as she desperately wanted to sit on the chick that is currently zipping.

I then brought the chilled runt gasping to the house. Overall it looked okay. Maybe a slight case of unclosed naval??? With possibly a little bluing/swelling at the naval. And crawling with ants! I decided to treat it as if it had a mild case of omphalitis (naval infection) since I had read chilling at hatch can bring that on. (Thoughts back to last hatch with this case...did the chick get rejected because of omphalitis, or get stranded outside this nest box insert and THEN get omphalitis...hmmmm...getting rid of the insert for sure...I had put it in as I had trouble with eggs rolling and clunking....apparently this insert is not the solution.)

Back to the gasping chick...After washing it in warm water (held under a gentle faucet) to clean off the ants and warm it up quickly, it revived in my hand...I fed it some Chick Saver with Sulmet in water solution (for any infection) from an eye dropper to boost it. Next I washed the naval with Clorhexiderm and applied bacitracin. I then dried the shivering chick with a hair dryer on warm/slow setting and placed it in our mini incubator...which had now warmed up...After about 30 minutes it was looking much brighter, and after 2 hours, little runt was chirping madly to be let out of the tiny incubator. It overall looked good, and the naval area had dried and closed tight, so I replaced it with mom...who was furious at being disturbed again as she was still tending the zipping one...I watched as the now 3 boisterous chicks vied around her to find a place, with the runt still weaker than the others...not sure how the Silkie is handling this round...extending her brood to 5 weeks waiting for shipped eggs may have been a bit much or trying to sit on 3 full size chicks with 1 zipping and 2 unhatched is simply too much....to date as I think back, she has always hatched 3 full sized that survived...but she hunkered down on the zipping chick and clucked at all hatched to move under her.

I placed the Chick Saver/Sulmet water solution in with the chicks in case there is some bacterial infection lurking. I did decide Mom had her wings full with 3 running around and 1 zipping, so I pulled the final 2 eggs that had no signs of pipping or zipping...candling them I discovered 1 egg was visible slosh and toss but the other definitely had a dark object, clear air sack, and possible life, so I placed it in the mini incubator to give it a chance to hatch as it might have been one of the incubator started eggs that developed a little more slowly. Time will tell.

I just checked again after leaving mom and babies for about a half hour to see if the "reject" runt chick has integrated back into the brood or was hovering outside the nest insert again. Fortunately all babies are under Mom. Will check again later tonight to make sure nobody's fallen out. Hopefully I will have 4 live and thriving chicks in the morning.

Will update then.

Photo below of little revived runt. Hopefully it's made it past the worst.

Always something to learn with each hatch!

Lady of McCamley

 

[Lady of McCamley]

How long after a broody hatches her eggs will she start laying again?

Totally depends on the hen. Some hens lay relatively soon again...others take weeks.

The average is probably about 6 to 8 weeks as most hens stay with the chicks for 6 weeks, then integrate back into the flock, then begin to lay again.

Lady of McCamley

 

[winteree]

I'm glad every ones hatches are going well for the most part

it's always fun to see what hatches

 

[Sydney Acres]

Update on the Buckeye hatching...(from those expensive shipped eggs).

Whew...what a day....I've had smoother hatches than this, especially with my faithful Silkie.

After a very quick peek, 2 babies were freshly hatched this morning, and 1 egg had a large pip hole. I came home after 6 hours of being gone to find 2 chicks fluffed and thriving, 1 zipping, and 1 chick outside the nest box chilled and gasping its final breath, AND tiny black ants crawling all over it! (Those darn ants

....will have to really treat the box when I can get the hatching process over and can move mom and chicks!)

I couldn't tell if mom had rejected it because it was a "failure to thrive" or if it had been accidentally pushed out/fallen out of the nest box insert (think wooden box with 1 1/2 inch lip setting inside the big nesting box) and mom couldn't coax it back in/get it back in since she was caring for the zipping one...mental note...I am going to do away with this small box insert as it may be creating a "stranded" issue with the newly hatched wobbly chicks...one hatch back (Marans) I also found a cold dead chick on the outside of the box. I thought it had died from omphalitis (which it clearly had a bad case of) and had been rejected and put there by mom, which it may have been as it's empty shell was beside it, but now.....hmmmmm.

Did a quick nest clean up again ridding some fortunately well formed poo from mom, tossing out ants with it...Mom was really, really mad as she desperately wanted to sit on the chick that is currently zipping.

I then brought the chilled runt gasping to the house. Overall it looked okay. Maybe a slight case of unclosed naval??? With possibly a little bluing/swelling at the naval. And crawling with ants! I decided to treat it as if it had a mild case of omphalitis (naval infection) since I had read chilling at hatch can bring that on. (Thoughts back to last hatch with this case...did the chick get rejected because of omphalitis, or get stranded outside this nest box insert and THEN get omphalitis...hmmmm...getting rid of the insert for sure...I had put it in as I had trouble with eggs rolling and clunking....apparently this insert is not the solution.)

Back to the gasping chick...After washing it in warm water (held under a gentle faucet) to clean off the ants and warm it up quickly, it revived in my hand...I fed it some Chick Saver with Sulmet in water solution (for any infection) from an eye dropper to boost it. Next I washed the naval with Clorhexiderm and applied bacitracin. I then dried the shivering chick with a hair dryer on warm/slow setting and placed it in our mini incubator...which had now warmed up...After about 30 minutes it was looking much brighter, and after 2 hours, little runt was chirping madly to be let out of the tiny incubator. It overall looked good, and the naval area had dried and closed tight, so I replaced it with mom...who was furious at being disturbed again as she was still tending the zipping one...I watched as the now 3 boisterous chicks vied around her to find a place, with the runt still weaker than the others...not sure how the Silkie is handling this round...extending her brood to 5 weeks waiting for shipped eggs may have been a bit much or trying to sit on 3 full size chicks with 1 zipping and 2 unhatched is simply too much....to date as I think back, she has always hatched 3 full sized that survived...but she hunkered down on the zipping chick and clucked at all hatched to move under her.

I placed the Chick Saver/Sulmet water solution in with the chicks in case there is some bacterial infection lurking. I did decide Mom had her wings full with 3 running around and 1 zipping, so I pulled the final 2 eggs that had no signs of pipping or zipping...candling them I discovered 1 egg was visible slosh and toss but the other definitely had a dark object, clear air sack, and possible life, so I placed it in the mini incubator to give it a chance to hatch as it might have been one of the incubator started eggs that developed a little more slowly. Time will tell.

I just checked again after leaving mom and babies for about a half hour to see if the "reject" runt chick has integrated back into the brood or was hovering outside the nest insert again. Fortunately all babies are under Mom. Will check again later tonight to make sure nobody's fallen out. Hopefully I will have 4 live and thriving chicks in the morning.

Will update then.

Photo below of little revived runt. Hopefully it's made it past the worst.

Always something to learn with each hatch!

Lady of McCamley

My goodness, you had quite a night. It sounds like you got home just in time. Hopefully Little Runt will do well through the night and grow into a beautiful red bird.

Where did you get your Buckeye eggs from?

I've had some problems with ants invading my bee hives, and have found that cinnamon works quite well. I get the large spice jar from Costco, and sprinkle a 2" wide circle fully around the hive. The ants don't like to cross the cinnamon barrier. It should be safe for the chicks. If you try it, please let me know if it works well for you.