Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[AmericanMom]

Fortunately, very few of our broody hens can count.

LOL... No kidding! Thankfully although she is one of my best broodies and very protective of her chicks, she will take on anything she is a kitten for me, allowing me to check her babies, get close and feed them.. First time I have ever taken chicks, I once gave her more lol... But I really wanted these EE/Blue orpington chicks

 

[maranfarmer563]

My silky had bad eggs so I gave her 14 babies out of the incubator with no problems

 

[minamisfit]

All of them hatched, here's the first to come say hello! Very hyper and healthy

Mamas beak makes it look super hilarious!

 

[ChickyChickens]

All of them hatched, here's the first to come say hello! Very hyper and healthy




Mamas beak makes it look super hilarious!

Cute! I love the momma!

 

[cwrite]

My silky had bad eggs so I gave her 14 babies out of the incubator with no problems

Sorry about the eggs, but great that she still got babies!

@minamisfit - your pics are lovely.

About 15 more days for me to wait for me. It's going so slowly....

 

[ochochicas]

About 15 more days for me to wait for me. It's going so slowly....

The crazy thing is that the 21 days go by so slowly...

...then you have all these cute little chicks running around and before you know it you look out in the yard and can't tell them apart from their momma because they've grown up so fast. Then you want to have eggs again so you can hatch more babies!

 

[maranfarmer563]

Nope

 

[krista74]

will a non broody hen hatch eggs?

No.

In order to hatch eggs successfully, a hen has to sit on them almost continually (ie: be broody with them) for 21 days. Otherwise the egg is not able to develop.

Further to this, it is not possible to make a hen go broody either. Broodiness is a hormonal change in the bird, and nothing we can do as owners can bring on that change.

Unless you have either a broody hen, or an incubator, you will not be able to hatch chicks.

Krista

 

[cwrite]

Day 7: I caught Snowy off the nest again today & took the opportunity to check if I missed any infertile eggs. I took 12 out from under her when I did the swop & found 2 more today! How she covered 14 eggs when she is such a slender bird I can't imagine. She clearly just wanted ALL the eggs.

 

[JaceAgain]

Can I see pics of everyones chick set ups? For those that let broody mama tend them in the coop? I should probably move her to the floor?