Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[oolyboolu]

Congrats on the hatch!  They look like a happy little group!

They are so curious about everything! When ever I check on them, they poke out their wee heads and then mad dash out to see what's going on

Oh, they are so cute!  I am sitting on pins and needles here - 8 days to go!

Yay almost there! The hatch day was the worst day for waiting.. Just sayin good luck!

They are soo cute!!

I know!!! I just want to keep them with me all the time and maybe not allow them to grow up

 

[542farmgirl]

I have a 6 month old RIR who is broody. She disappeared on 10/9/14 for two days, came back, disappeared again for a WEEK, then came back and I was able to follow her to her nest where I found 32 eggs. I candled them all and tossed the ones that were on the very bottom. Most of the eggs were mysteries to me as I am no expert on candling. I gave her a brand new egg from one of my other hens last night after I got done candling all her eggs and put them back. I also just gave her a new one this morning... So far she has been broody for 11 days... she's eating ( now that I know where she is and I can feed her). How long can I let her sit on that nest? I plan to move her off her nest a bit tomorrow so that she can stretch her legs and run around.. I'm just worried that she will sit until she hatches something and with the two newest eggs, that's another 18+ days.... Any input or suggestions is greatly appreciated. I want my girl to do her thing but not at the expense of losing her.

 

[fisherlady]

I have a 6 month old RIR who is broody. She disappeared on 10/9/14 for two days, came back, disappeared again for a WEEK, then came back and I was able to follow her to her nest where I found 32 eggs. I candled them all and tossed the ones that were on the very bottom. Most of the eggs were mysteries to me as I am no expert on candling. I gave her a brand new egg from one of my other hens last night after I got done candling all her eggs and put them back. I also just gave her a new one this morning... So far she has been broody for 11 days... she's eating ( now that I know where she is and I can feed her). How long can I let her sit on that nest? I plan to move her off her nest a bit tomorrow so that she can stretch her legs and run around.. I'm just worried that she will sit until she hatches something and with the two newest eggs, that's another 18+ days.... Any input or suggestions is greatly appreciated. I want my girl to do her thing but not at the expense of losing her.

adding eggs well after a hen begins sitting on a nest is not a good idea... it will result in a staggered hatch, meaning that most of the eggs will hatch at one time, then the hen will have to set on the remaining eggs at the risk of neglecting her already hatched chicks, or get up to care for the hatched ones and abandon the remaining eggs to die before they can hatch. With a 10 or 11 day difference I would expect her to abandon the eggs and let them die rather than neglect her chicks, but that isn't a certainty.
For best results all around I would remove the newest additions to avoid trouble at hatch time. You can always place them in an incubator and maybe (certainly not a guarantee) you can graft the chicks back to her after hatch, though again, a 10 day or so difference in chicks ages is probably going to result in the younger chicks not being able to keep up to the older ones or even be picked on or injured by the older ones. If it were my hen I would either ditch the latest eggs or incubate them with the understanding that they would have to be raised by me in a brooder.

another issue.... a hen has to be able to cover her chicks, especially if the weather is chilling off.... and not only as new hatches, she needs to be able to adequately cover them for 3 weeks or more. If you have her hatch 18+chicks then at some point there are going to be some who just won't fit under her unless she is a very large hen. So expect that you will be responsible to provide her a safe and possibly artificially warmed area for a few weeks until the chicks are feathered. They won't need brooder level heat, but need it warmer than 20 or 30 degrees at night to prevent the 'overflow chicks' from freezing..

You don't say whether the hen chose a safe spot to nest. If it is somewhere that you can provide her a safety fence or cage over the nest then let her stay where she is, if it is not a spot that can be secured then you may be forced to choose between risking the move to a safe nest and the risk of loosing the hen and future chicks to a predator. At the very least you will need to set up a spot to move her to after the first chicks hatch. Cheeping chicks are at a huge risk of attracting the attention of predators.

 

[kabhyper1]

I am so impatient. I have chicks under a broody due Thursday, but they will probably come tomorrow or Wednesday. She always hatches her kids early. She must run hot. Anyway I am hearing phantom chirping. I know they aren't even internally pipped, but I hear them I tell ya! She has a buddy next to her due first of November. I stopped hatching for awhile, and man does it make a difference in the anticipation when you haven't hatched in 4 months or so.

 

[542farmgirl]

adding eggs well after a hen begins sitting on a nest is not a good idea... it will result in a staggered hatch, meaning that most of the eggs will hatch at one time, then the hen will have to set on the remaining eggs at the risk of neglecting her already hatched chicks, or get up to care for the hatched ones and abandon the remaining eggs to die before they can hatch. With a 10 or 11 day difference I would expect her to abandon the eggs and let them die rather than neglect her chicks, but that isn't a certainty.
For best results all around I would remove the newest additions to avoid trouble at hatch time. You can always place them in an incubator and maybe (certainly not a guarantee) you can graft the chicks back to her after hatch, though again, a 10 day or so difference in chicks ages is probably going to result in the younger chicks not being able to keep up to the older ones or even be picked on or injured by the older ones.  If it were my hen I would either ditch the latest eggs or incubate them with the understanding that they would have to be raised by me in a brooder.

another issue.... a hen has to be able to cover her chicks, especially if the weather is chilling off.... and not only as new hatches, she needs to be able to adequately cover them for 3 weeks or more.  If you have her hatch 18+chicks then at some point there are going to be some who just won't fit under her unless she is a very large hen.  So expect that you will be responsible to provide her a safe and possibly artificially warmed area for a few weeks until the chicks are feathered.  They won't need brooder level heat, but need it warmer than 20 or 30 degrees at night to prevent the 'overflow chicks' from freezing..

You don't say whether the hen chose a safe spot to nest.  If it is somewhere that you can provide her a safety fence or cage over the nest then let her stay where she is, if it is not a spot that can be secured then you may be forced to choose between risking the move to a safe nest and the risk of loosing the hen and future chicks to a predator.  At the very least you will need to set up a spot to move her to after the first chicks hatch.  Cheeping chicks are at a huge risk of attracting the attention of predators.

I only added new eggs because I thought she wouldn't leave her best until she got a fertilized egg. But I didn't even think about this (obviously) and now I feel like a total dingus..

She made her nest at the base of a big tree. We thought about moving her but instead built her a shelter around the tree.

Will she sit on the eggs until they hatch? Or will she at some point give up? I guess that's my biggest concern. I imagine her sitting there until she gets a chick or turns into a fossil.

Thank you for your input and wisdom!!

 

[fisherlady]

I only added new eggs because I thought she wouldn't leave her best until she got a fertilized egg. But I didn't even think about this (obviously) and now I feel like a total dingus..

She made her nest at the base of a big tree. We thought about moving her but instead built her a shelter around the tree.

Will she sit on the eggs until they hatch? Or will she at some point give up? I guess that's my biggest concern. I imagine her sitting there until she gets a chick or turns into a fossil.

Thank you for your input and wisdom!!

Usually a hen will set until they end up with a chick, though I have had young hens give up before the full time is up, so having an incubator handy is always a good thing.
Building a barrier around her right where she is works fine and is less likely to stress her than trying to move her anywhere.
If you aren't sure of the viability (fertility) of the large group of eggs she started with then you could take a couple of days and gather a dozen eggs you know are likely to be fertile and swap them out for the other eggs. This will extend her setting for another couple of weeks but since she is only day 11 or 12 it isn't a horrible amount of extra time.
as far as candling... you don't need to worry about a lot of detail when you candle, typically I only look on around day 10 or so... fertile eggs will have a definite darker area and a defined and solid air cell which stays put at the round end of the egg even when you tip the egg back and forth, sometimes you are lucky enough to see veins or other detail but I don't worry about it if I don't see it, especially with brown egg shells.
If you are candling during the day then take a very thick towel or blanket with you and cover your head with it and look at the egg while under the towel or blanket so it is as dark as possible. If you see development in a few of the eggs then most of them are probably fine and I would just let her continue as is, but that is up to you.

 

[cwrite]

Babies!! My goobers hatched! 5 Friday morning, 1 later that day, and 1 on Saturday

there are 3 eggs still left but Mama doesn't feel like moving so I guess I'll give them till the end of Tuesday. I'm so in love with these little peeps!!!

so cute!

 

[kabhyper1]

Okay guys, I'm not an inexperienced broody user, but I may have done something stupid this morning, and I would like some reassurance please. Everyday around 10 am or so I take the broodies out of their totes and put them in the yard to go to the bathroom. Then I put them back on nest and feed them breakfast which consists of cracked corn, grit, and crumbles all mixed up in a scrambled egg. Anyway Today is day 19, but in my dingy tired stupor this morning I took them off like I always do. I remembered the day and quickly gently candled one of the eggs and it looks internally pipped and the air cell is huge!!! I Hurried and put momma back on them. She was only off maybe 2 minutes. Did I screw up pretty badly doing that? Oh yeah and she was extra special grumpy today, she went after her other broody friend who she has known since birth so that was my second clue she knew something I didn't.

 

[fisherlady]

Okay guys, I'm not an inexperienced broody user, but I may have done something stupid this morning, and I would like some reassurance please. Everyday around 10 am or so I take the broodies out of their totes and put them in the yard to go to the bathroom. Then I put them back on nest and feed them breakfast which consists of cracked corn, grit, and crumbles all mixed up in a scrambled egg. Anyway Today is day 19, but in my dingy tired stupor this morning I took them off like I always do. I remembered the day and quickly gently candled one of the eggs and it looks internally pipped and the air cell is huge!!! I Hurried and put momma back on them. She was only off maybe 2 minutes. Did I screw up pretty badly doing that? Oh yeah and she was extra special grumpy today, she went after her other broody friend who she has known since birth so that was my second clue she knew something I didn't.

The eggs should be fine... I have had my hens get off of the eggs on day 19 or 20 without a problem. Some hens tend to set tight the last few days, others don't seem as bothered by it. I even had one young hen (first time broody) voluntarily get off of the nest when there were external pips and she was off for about 15 minutes and got back on and the hatch didn't seem to suffer for it.

 

[rebrascora]

Even if it had been 10 mins or more, I really don't think it would have been a problem.
It sounds like you really spoil your broodies! Mine get same as everyone else gets and I leave them to decide when they want to get off but they always have food and water within reach. They get extra treats of scrambled egg/yoghurt etc to share with the babies when they hatch, but if word got out that broodies get scrambled egg every morning, I would never have any eggs to feed them because they would all want to be broody and nobody would be laying!

Surely the working girls deserve as much of a treat as the ones on maternity leave!

Anyway, good luck with your imminent hatch. I hope it all goes very smoothly.

Regards

Barbara