Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[fisherlady]

cute pics!! @fisherlady
 after a few google searches I see some rhode island red in him too with his yellow legs... but he sure does look like your guy too, I wonder if a cross between the two??  does it result in anything like that?  thank you for the help though! 

I would go with a cross...i did some searching and didn't find anything pure bred with the yellow legs. he could be a cross from a Jersey Giant,Australorp or Langsham but no way to know for sure. He is going to be a beautiful rooster no matter what parentage though!

 

[fisherlady]

Have any of you hatched shipped eggs with saddle cells under a broody? Out of the six eggs that I have developing 2 have saddle cells. I know people who hatch them in incubators, but I havent heard much about broodies.

I have no personal experience so can't help you directly...but I can tell you that in my experience an egg has its best chance when under a broody. I will be very interested in hearing what other folks have had happen ... and hopefully how your experience goes.

 

[Citychick11]

hello all, unrelated question, this is my son's rooster "jewel" wondering if anyone knew what type he was? he won him in a contest and we have no clue what type he is... we have only silkies....he's pretty young, just getting in his tail feathers and just started crowing a few weeks ago.

Could he be a Jersey Giant?

 

[ChickyChickens]

Could he be a Jersey Giant?

He could be!!

 

[appps]

The other one springs to mind is australorp. I'm don't know much about either but believe the colour of the legs are also important in deciding along with eye colour. So maybe you could try doing a bit of searching on what those would be for each.

I notice yours has different coloured legs to the photo below. Quick search shows jersey giants have black legs with yellow on the bottom of their feet.

Here is a good chart for characteristics http://www.backyardpoultry.com/wiki/index.php/Chicken_Breeds_Chart

 

[ChickyChang]

The two sister, NAMELESS (top) and Ebony (Bottom) have gone broody today!!!!

 

[KV Silkies]

thank you for help on rooster, he really does look like the jersey giants, but yeah the yellow legs throw me, I see the rhode island red legs in him, and he has a little reddish hue to his feathers too. very pretty guy, but HUGE too, although we have only silkies and him, so anything looks huge.

 

[Citychick11]

thank you for help on rooster, he really does look like the jersey giants, but yeah the yellow legs throw me, I see the rhode island red legs in him, and he has a little reddish hue to his feathers too.  very pretty guy, but HUGE too, although we have only silkies and him, so anything looks huge. 

Maybe he's a mix.

 

[appps]

Need some advice from experienced hatchers.

Today is day 21. Nothing happening yet that I can see. We just let the chooks out for the morning so our broody got off the nest and we held my mobile phone torch next to the eggs without touching them and could see that they all had very large air cells.

Now here lies my problem. These are long distance shipped eggs,two were broken during transit (which I discarded) so it wasn't a gentle flight. I rested them before setting. One of the air cells I have just seen is lying across the top (middle) of the egg rather than up the big end like the rest of them.

Do I trust it to the care of my silkie or should I take it out and put it in the incubator in an egg carton to get the air cell up to the correct spot?

I do have one in there that I think stopped developing around day 14 but I'm not sure which as I can't see my pencil mark anymore. Not sure if it's this one or not.

 

[Citychick11]

My broody hen is doing some strange things to the nesting material. She's on day 16 and yesterday she covered all the eggs in bark chips and straw and poo. Is this a hen's version of lockdown? Or is she nuts? I think she lost her broodiness the other day. It seems she has let the eggs cool too much. I don't have much hope of anything hatching. I'm just waiting till day 21 or so to see what happens. I think she is not a super dedicated broody. She's a barred rock. Maybe she just needs practice. It's her first time.