Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[minamisfit]

Give her till at least day 23, if she was off of the nest longer than usual at some point (especially early on) that you weren't aware of it could have easily slowed hatch down by a day or two...

hoping it works out for you and her!

Thank you. It scared me the first time I saw her off the nest I thought it would harm the eggs, then I read that some can survive even up to 8 hours! That's crazy

 

[tvlgal85]

I had 2 Broody gals hatch out 8 eggs each. They were both 1st timers and did a fantastic job. Although, they both decided is was time and they ditched their chicks during really bad storms. I had to stand out in the rain and wind catching those poor confused babies to put them in the coop. You hear the horror stories of bad mamas and I was very fortunate.

 

[minamisfit]

I have one egg pipping! Yay!!! Have any of you guys ever owned a broody tetra tint? Since she is a high egg production breed I wasn't expecting her to go broody, I hope she's a good mama..

 

[fisherlady]

I have one egg pipping! Yay!!! Have any of you guys ever owned a broody tetra tint? Since she is a high egg production breed I wasn't expecting her to go broody, I hope she's a good mama..

I don't have any TTs, but I believe they are a leghorn and Rhode Island Red cross? Depending on the source of the RIR the broody tendencies may be passed on from that line. They are often used as production birds now but RIR is a heritage bird and some strains still maintain their broodiness.

 

[AmericanMom]

Ok, Broody has hatched out all that are going to hatch 10/11 are doing fine, the last one had piped but when I checked this evening the pip was facing down, I think it may have suffocated?? Anyways, 6/10 of those eggs were EE and I did something I have never done, I took chicks from a perfectly good broody.. I left her with 4..

I really REALLY wanted these EE chicks for next year and would be heartbroken to lose even one to the rouge cats that hang around.

 

[fisherlady]

Ok, Broody has hatched out all that are going to hatch 10/11 are doing fine, the last one had piped but when I checked this evening the pip was facing down, I think it may have suffocated?? Anyways, 6/10 of those eggs were EE and I did something I have never done, I took chicks from a perfectly good broody.. I left her with 4..

I really REALLY wanted these EE chicks for next year and would be heartbroken to lose even one to the rouge cats that hang around.

I can understand your concern.... you did leave her 4 and honestly a hen is happy with 2 or 12... so she will be fine! Congrats on the good hatch!

 

[AmericanMom]

Cant really see in these photo's but trust me, they are cute!!

 

[AmericanMom]

I can understand your concern.... you did leave her 4 and honestly a hen is happy with 2 or 12... so she will be fine! Congrats on the good hatch!

My Molted java is such a great broody, she stood up for me and watched me take them, kept checking under herself to make sure she still had them, when I was done she just settled herself back down and didn't give me a moments notice lol

Very satisfied with what I believe is the last broody hatch of the year

 

[fisherlady]

On another broody thread we were discussing variables that could effect when or if a hen goes broody and I did a post about hatcheries... since broody tendencies are often an issue of discussion I decided to copy my post over to this thread also.
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I wanted to clarify something about hatcheries... they aren't necessarily a bad thing, and the quality of the birds they provide can vary greatly depending on a couple of factors....
if the hatchery raises it's own stock and has employees who are enthusiasts of chickens in general then they may very well pair up their breeders with an eye toward a bit better quality birds. If the employee is a fan of one or two particular breeds they may 'work on' those breeds and the hatchery will be offering some decent birds of that breed. They won't be the show birds that a quality breeder produces regularly but there may be some nice examples of the breed.
if the hatchery actually gets it's hatching eggs from independent breeders (a common practice if a hatchery wants to offer 50 different breeds but doesn't have the space to keep that many birds on premises) then the quality of the birds they offer are basically at the mercy of the breeders that they buy from. And if they have 3 breeders who provide them Barred Rock eggs then you have a chance of getting some so/so birds, some nice birds and some really nice, near heritage birds all in the same shipment. It all depends on the goals (and even ethics) of the breeder they are buying from. Some breeders put more emphasis on personality and heritage traits such as broodiness or meatiness, other breeders worry more about having hens who can maximize egg production and they don't care much about the heritage traits.

Given these variables I'm sure you can see how there can be so much of a wide array of possibilities even within a single breed... the devil is in the details when it comes to producing high quality heritage type birds... and unfortunately details can take a lot of time and dedication to get right!

 

[bumpercarr]

My Molted java is such a great broody, she stood up for me and watched me take them, kept checking under herself to make sure she still had them, when I was done she just settled herself back down and didn't give me a moments notice lol

Very satisfied with what I believe is the last broody hatch of the year

Fortunately, very few of our broody hens can count.