Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[ChickyChickens]

You know, I have noticed a lot of people getting a lot of broodies when they have a barnyard mixed flock. That is when you let all the roosters and hens mate and just get a mixed breed chicken, correct????

Yep!!! LOL...Some ppl dont like mixes!! BUT i just LOVE THEM!!!

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

WOW...i have 10 broodies at the moment....

Here is a pic of one of my cockerels, he's about 9 months old. This should give you an idea of their size, when I say that the hawks pretty much leave them alone. He's weighing in at just under 10 pounds right now.

He is gorgeous! So is your grand niece (I think that's who she is) . What a big handsome boy!

Not pathetic at all...when Ida that first big 112 gram egg, Ken said, "Which chicken laid THAT one?" I replied, "I dunno - whichever one is limping I guess."

You have the best responses! Won't you be my neighbor? Haha

My first timer OEGB pullet just hatched 4 chicks (1 didn't hatch for no apparent reason) and is doing beautifully with them. Tonight they are 1 week old and today mama took them outside for the first time.

Yay!! It's amazing to see the broody take care of her chicks.

LOL, i have 10 broodies at the moment... Some pics

That is impressively! The first one is gorgeous with the all black head, I have one like that. Malificent is a mix too, with Silke and who know what else.

Yep!!! LOL...Some ppl dont like mixes!! BUT i just LOVE THEM!!!

I'm starting to love them too. I got Malificent, the chicken above, free from Craigslist and she is 2 years old and reliably lays an egg at least every other day. She's is quite feral and I can't hold her, but adjusted quickly to the flock and lays the most golden orange eggs. Don't we all love to brag?!

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

My broody is too good of a Mama. I tried to clean her cage yesterday, and took one of the chicks out. She was nuts and I almost lost a finger. Suffice to say, I cleaned the cage with her and the chicks in it.

 

[rebrascora]

I love my barn yard mixes from my first broody. They are all her offspring and I fully expect the 6 pullets to go broody themselves sooner or later because they have a lot of natural instinct like her. They hatched 14th June and started laying a couple of months ago. I was so proud and thought I was doing well getting 2 or 3 little blue green eggs a day from them.... until a few days ago when I got the ladder out and checked their mother's old sneaky broody nest up in the eves and found a mountain of eggs! (43 to be precise).
I have since started poking around in other nooks and crannies and found two more secret nests, one with 5 eggs and the other with 15, all either Tasha, the broody's, or her daughters, so it looks like these young girls are much better layers than I could have hoped for, but are going to take after their mother for being sneaky about where they lay!.
I'm pleased to report that so far none of the eggs have been bad and I've eaten some of the oldest ones from the very bottom of the 43 egg mountain and they were yummy, so there will hopefully be no waste. The cats and chucks are also being treated to scrambled eggs on a regular basis to help me get through them, but if anyone has any good egg recipes.......??
I give most of my eggs away to friends and family but I wouldn't give anyone these as I can't be certain they are OK until I crack them. 63 eggs are a lot to use up pronto, plus the 7-8 others I am averaging daily. This started out as a hobby but has rapidly got out of control!!!

I only had two hens go broody last year and I'm already overrun. If they go broody again this year, which is pretty likely, plus some of Tasha's daughters too, I am going to end up being bankrupted by the feed bill if nothing else!

The funny thing is that I had set up nests for them in buildings other than the hen house where they had shown an interest in laying, thinking I was being clever. I get the odd egg or two in these nests and I assumed I had allowed them to fulfil their need to be sneaky and lay away, but still enable me to collect them easily. The joke was obviously on me! One of their real secret nests needed a ladder and a crawl board, one needed step ladders and the other required me to remove 3 steel farm gates and an old door which were being stored against the back wall of the hayshed. Can't decide whether to try to block access to these locations now and risk them finding somewhere that I don't know about and even less accessible or leave them access, which is probably easier, and check these nests once a week!
What cheeky little monkeys they are!!!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I am very curious to hear your thoughts on the Buckeyes.....I have been interested in the Buckeyes and the Iowa Blues. I think mostly because they are said to be good foragers. I love my Doms too. I want a couple more EE's for their egg colors. But I'm very interested in your keeping 50% of your flock for the high egg count. I had been leaning in that direction but I not come up with a percentage. I was thinking of red and black sex links to carry the other breeds that I am interested in keeping. Well, I don't know if all sex links lay lots of eggs, but my little Sassy (RSL) sure does. Also, was looking at Rhodebsrs at the chicken swap yikes they were pricey! I will keep looking around at those.


This morning I spent an hour chasing a new layer away from her desired laying spot....lol.....what a video that would have made! She got up under the tiny backyard barn my hubbie keeps the mower in. I finally had to give up.....but when she came out I had already contracted with grandson number 4. He put boards around the building to block out chickens in exchange for breakfast. Even if I could reach under there for eggs I would not. We have rattlesnakes in the yard most summers and that looks like prime snake habitat to me. I just put out some new nest boxes/buckets so i hope she will like one of them. Anyone have a favorite type of nest to use for free rangers? I only have one who goes back in the coop to lay. The rest lay in easy for me to reach nests that I have put near their coop.

The jury is still out on the Buckeyes as I have not seen an egg out of one of them yet, and they are now almost 8 months old. They may be hiding eggs, as they are on the low end of the pecking order, being friendly and non-aggressive birds. But I look for hidden eggs daily and haven't found any. They may wait to lay until spring because they came to maturity in November, when the light was decreasing, and some breeds will wait until spring to start laying. That is a slight mark against them as the Rhodebars began laying in December and were hatched only 2 weeks before the Bucks, but not a complete disqualification as I have had high production breeds do the same thing.

Also I 'm only dealing with 2 pullets from one line, a gal off of eBay no less. I could not afford the hatching eggs from the Lay line (Crains Run Ranch) which has been selected for production quality. (It would have cost me over $60 for a dozen eggs shipped...with expectation of only 1/2 hatching as is with shipped eggs...a little too spendy for my blood as yet.)

The 2 roosters were very big, and very sweet tempered (I actually hated to have to process them). At 16 weeks they came to about 3 to 3.5 pounds processed (whole bird), and were tender meat. I really needed to process them later, but family vacation to see new grand baby interrupted. According to the Buckeye people on the Buckeye Facebook site, 22 to 24 weeks is ideal time to get a 4 to 5 pound bird with better breast meat.

I will be able to determine more once the Buckeye girls start laying and watch if they lay through next winter.

As to half my flock in Sex Links....YES, that is the way for me to go. I have had to glean out my older birds, and with that have now removed the last of the RSL's out of my flock, having lost a couple to predator and cold this winter. I now have too many specialty breeds (and new pullets) and am feeling it in my egg laying production. I had experimented last year with more heritage breeds in hope that they would lay a little less in overall amount but longer in life span. However, at the two year mark, I have just not experienced that with the Delawares and Wyandottes (breeder quality). I re-homed them to my friend's farm.

So looking back over the years, the best winter laying and all around laying has to go to the RSL's. Second would be RIR's, but I did not like their personalities, noisy and obnoxious (typical of many hatchery production lines). Third would be the BSL's, who may lay a little longer in life span than the RSL's...My oldest bird now is a BSL (who will have a happy forever life here as she follows my husband around in the yard like a puppy when he works there...her name is Foo Young). She is coming onto 3 years of age this February, and she is still laying pretty well through this winter (bless her heart). She's gone broody once, at 1 year of age, but didn't stick well, so I didn't use her, and she has never brooded again. I've had other BSL's, and they too laid well and one of those becoming very broody, repeatedly, and I think would have been a good broody and mother, but I never got a chance to use her as I gifted her to my daughter. Overall, the BSL"s have been particularly friendly, with quirky fun personalities, and good egg layers. I will get more of those as well, and maybe should replace with the BSL now that I think about it, but the RSL does edge them out on overall production for the first 2 years, and they are a very calm friendly bird, without so much quirkiness as the BSL (who may take after the Barred Rock in them as the Barreds had the same in your beak kind of curiosity)...at least in my backyard.

My trouble with RSL and BSL is, if you remember, I don't do heat lamps any more. And to get RSL's and BSL's, I need to purchase chicks at the feedstore unless I can find a good reliable backyard mix around here to hatch eggs from...but that so far hasn't worked out as what I have gotten from farmer eggs through the grapevine was too mixed, with every odd assortment including game (not a good laying breed).

I have had some troubles with fostering chicks in colder weather, my ideal time to hatch/brood so they are laying by June to keep up eggs during that first winter....the fosters tend to stress (and die) in the cold before they get used to running to momma for the warming hutch. I've had success with fosters in summer, but not so in winter. Only my Silkie would brood in the winter, and while she never rejected the chicks, she didn't scoop them under her wings if they were hesitant. The less assertive would lie close but not under, chilling. But I had also placed with chicks that had hatched under her, and they were so boisterous, it created a problem with grafting them in. I hope to have cured that problem with the bantam Cochins, who are a breed known for fostering well, and should go broody more frequently too.

So this year, I hope to add some Olive Eggers as a first time hatch, then if things go well work on fostering some RSL and BSL with my broodies to get my flock back to the 50% mark.

Hope this all makes sense and proves helpful to your questions.

Lady of McCamley

 

[ochochicas]

My broody is too good of a Mama. I tried to clean her cage yesterday, and took one of the chicks out. She was nuts and I almost lost a finger. Suffice to say, I cleaned the cage with her and the chicks in it.

Yikes! My broody is not cooperative when she is laying, but when she broody she is much more mellow, thankfully. I can pick her up or bring the chicks in for weighing without too much of a fuss from her. If there were ever a perfect broody hen, I think she might be it! One night when I was taking the ice out of the waterer, she did sort of squawk and jump at me. I'm not sure what set her off, but she didn't bite or anything. My only complaint is that she didn't teach her last batch of chicks to roost on the chicken ladder with the other birds. They are 5 months old and still want to sleep in nest boxes! LOL

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I love my barn yard mixes from my first broody. They are all her offspring and I fully expect the 6 pullets to go broody themselves sooner or later because they have a lot of natural instinct like her. They hatched 14th June and started laying a couple of months ago. I was so proud and thought I was doing well getting 2 or 3 little blue green eggs a day from them.... until a few days ago when I got the ladder out and checked their mother's old sneaky broody nest up in the eves and found a mountain of eggs! (43 to be precise).
I have since started poking around in other nooks and crannies and found two more secret nests, one with 5 eggs and the other with 15, all either Tasha, the broody's, or her daughters, so it looks like these young girls are much better layers than I could have hoped for, but are going to take after their mother for being sneaky about where they lay!.
I'm pleased to report that so far none of the eggs have been bad and I've eaten some of the oldest ones from the very bottom of the 43 egg mountain and they were yummy, so there will hopefully be no waste. The cats and chucks are also being treated to scrambled eggs on a regular basis to help me get through them, but if anyone has any good egg recipes.......??
I give most of my eggs away to friends and family but I wouldn't give anyone these as I can't be certain they are OK until I crack them. 63 eggs are a lot to use up pronto, plus the 7-8 others I am averaging daily. This started out as a hobby but has rapidly got out of control!!!

I only had two hens go broody last year and I'm already overrun. If they go broody again this year, which is pretty likely, plus some of Tasha's daughters too, I am going to end up being bankrupted by the feed bill if nothing else!

The funny thing is that I had set up nests for them in buildings other than the hen house where they had shown an interest in laying, thinking I was being clever. I get the odd egg or two in these nests and I assumed I had allowed them to fulfil their need to be sneaky and lay away, but still enable me to collect them easily. The joke was obviously on me! One of their real secret nests needed a ladder and a crawl board, one needed step ladders and the other required me to remove 3 steel farm gates and an old door which were being stored against the back wall of the hayshed. Can't decide whether to try to block access to these locations now and risk them finding somewhere that I don't know about and even less accessible or leave them access, which is probably easier, and check these nests once a week!
What cheeky little monkeys they are!!!

Loved your post...yes, I've had those easter egg hunts to...almost always with new pullets. who I'm expecting to be laying, but not sure yet, so they get the "free ride" ...that is until I find the mountain of eggs they've been stashing. A favorite here is in the vinca bushes (well hidden) and then under tarps covering the wood (hadn't thought to look there for the longest time...hubby actually found it as he was gathering the extra wood).

I vote to block off to only areas you can reasonably access.

Also, you can test an egg for being good by putting it in a glass of water. If it floats, it is bad.

Eggs can keep for a long time, but I agree 63 eggs from hidden stashes would make me want to test and use them soon. If you like pound cake, that always takes up a lot! People enjoy eating those too.

Lady of McCamley

 

[ChickyChickens]

He is gorgeous! So is your grand niece (I think that's who she is)

. What a big handsome boy!

You have the best responses! Won't you be my neighbor? Haha
Yay!! It's amazing to see the broody take care of her chicks.
That is impressively! The first one is gorgeous with the all black head, I have one like that. Malificent is a mix too, with Silke and who know what else.


I'm starting to love them too. I got Malificent, the chicken above, free from Craigslist and she is 2 years old and reliably lays an egg at least every other day. She's is quite feral and I can't hold her, but adjusted quickly to the flock and lays the most golden orange eggs. Don't we all love to brag?!

Aweosme!! Lol mine are very tame!!! NAd i get about an egg from everyone a day!! Just not lately though....

 

[vpatt]

The jury is still out on the Buckeyes as I have not seen an egg out of one of them yet, and they are now almost 8 months old. They may be hiding eggs, as they are on the low end of the pecking order, being friendly and non-aggressive birds. But I look for hidden eggs daily and haven't found any. They may wait to lay until spring because they came to maturity in November, when the light was decreasing, and some breeds will wait until spring to start laying. That is a slight mark against them as the Rhodebars began laying in December and were hatched only 2 weeks before the Bucks, but not a complete disqualification as I have had high production breeds do the same thing.

Also I 'm only dealing with 2 pullets from one line, a gal off of eBay no less. I could not afford the hatching eggs from the Lay line (Crains Run Ranch) which has been selected for production quality. (It would have cost me over $60 for a dozen eggs shipped...with expectation of only 1/2 hatching as is with shipped eggs...a little too spendy for my blood as yet.)

The 2 roosters were very big, and very sweet tempered (I actually hated to have to process them). At 16 weeks they came to about 3 to 3.5 pounds processed (whole bird), and were tender meat. I really needed to process them later, but family vacation to see new grand baby interrupted. According to the Buckeye people on the Buckeye Facebook site, 22 to 24 weeks is ideal time to get a 4 to 5 pound bird with better breast meat.

I will be able to determine more once the Buckeye girls start laying and watch if they lay through next winter. 

As to half my flock in Sex Links....YES, that is the way for me to go. I have had to glean out my older birds, and with that have now removed the last of the RSL's out of my flock, having lost a couple to predator and cold this winter. I now have too many specialty breeds (and new pullets) and am feeling it in my egg laying production. I had experimented last year with more heritage breeds in hope that they would lay a little less in overall amount but longer in life span. However, at the two year mark, I have just not experienced that with the Delawares and Wyandottes (breeder quality). I re-homed them to my friend's farm.

So looking back over the years, the best winter laying and all around laying has to go to the RSL's. Second would be RIR's, but I did not like their personalities, noisy and obnoxious (typical of many hatchery production lines). Third would be the BSL's, who may lay a little longer in life span than the RSL's...My oldest bird now is a BSL (who will have a happy forever life here as she follows my husband around in the yard like a puppy when he works there...her name is Foo Young). She is coming onto 3 years of age this February, and she is still laying pretty well through this winter (bless her heart). She's gone broody once, at 1 year of age, but didn't stick well, so I didn't use her, and she has never brooded again. I've had other BSL's, and they too laid well and one of those becoming very broody, repeatedly, and I think would have been a good broody and mother, but I never got a chance to use her as I gifted her to my daughter. Overall, the BSL"s have been particularly friendly, with quirky fun personalities, and good egg layers. I will get more of those as well, and maybe should replace with the BSL now that I think about it, but the RSL does edge them out on overall production for the first 2 years, and they are a very calm friendly bird, without so much quirkiness as the BSL (who may take after the Barred Rock in them as the Barreds had the same in your beak kind of curiosity)...at least in my backyard.

My trouble with RSL and BSL is, if you remember, I don't do heat lamps any more. And to get RSL's and BSL's, I need to purchase chicks at the feedstore unless I can find a good reliable backyard mix around here to hatch eggs from...but that so far hasn't worked out as what I have gotten from farmer eggs through the grapevine was too mixed, with every odd assortment including game (not a good laying breed).

I have had some troubles with fostering chicks in colder weather, my ideal time to hatch/brood so they are laying by June to keep up eggs during that first winter....the fosters tend to stress (and die) in the cold before they get used to running to momma for the warming hutch. I've had success with fosters in summer, but not so in winter. Only my Silkie would brood in the winter, and while she never rejected the chicks, she didn't scoop them under her wings if they were hesitant. The less assertive would lie close but not under, chilling. But I had also placed with chicks that had hatched under her, and they were so boisterous, it created a problem with grafting them in. I hope to have cured that problem with the bantam Cochins, who are a breed known for fostering well, and should go broody more frequently too. 

So this year, I hope to add some Olive Eggers as a first time hatch, then if things go well work on fostering some RSL and BSL with my broodies to get my flock back to the 50% mark.

Hope this all makes sense and proves helpful to your questions.

Lady of McCamley

The local feed mill is raising Black Sex links right now.....so I just need to be sure to get them before they sell out. They are the ones i was thinking of getting for Jessica until I found out they were already 3 weeks old. Which puts them at a month now. Maybe I can get some in another month. I went to the last 4 chicken swaps last year and at least two of them there were RSLs. Hopefully i can find some this spring. My main decision then is how many of each to get......I don't want too many.....but then I need to think of possible predator issues. With those I should be fairly certain to get plenty of eggs and I can try out other breeds for fun. Lol, lets hope it turns out as planned.

I'm waiting to see Chiquita's reaction when she trys to get under the mower building.....or the look on.my face if she does. Also, I may have to borrow your name 'Foo Young'. I love it! Thnx so much.

 

[vpatt]

He is gorgeous! So is your grand niece (I think that's who she is) . What a big handsome boy!
You have the best responses! Won't you be my neighbor? Haha
Yay!! It's amazing to see the broody take care of her chicks.
That is impressively! The first one is gorgeous with the all black head, I have one like that. Malificent is a mix too, with Silke and who know what else.

I'm starting to love them too. I got Malificent, the chicken above, free from Craigslist and she is 2 years old and reliably lays an egg at least every other day. She's is quite feral and I can't hold her, but adjusted quickly to the flock and lays the most golden orange eggs. Don't we all love to brag?!

She is very pretty and I love her name!