Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Lady of McCamley]

Update on my new Queen Mum and her hatchling OE and the 2 California Grey fosters (second try)....

Well the little fosters apparently heard me and took me seriously that they either bond with momma hen and her loving warmth or they die unassisted as they immediately grafted to her and are acting like proper little chicks. The Mum is very dutiful with her 3 little darlings. I've kept them in the partial hutch and haven't let them into the run yet...weather has been colder and I wanted the fosters to adapt a bit more in the shelter of the hutch before being in open air. I would be letting them out today, but instead I've come down with the flu so not up to crawling around and double checking for chick escape holes in the run.

One had pasty butt a few days ago which I addressed by gently pulling away the poo, but as I've been sick, I haven 't followed up like I would normally. I felt well enough for a quick trip out to the coops this morning. That chick has a bit of swollen vent going on today, which I washed, dried, spritzed with Chlorhexiderm (love that stuff) and treated with some tetracyline dropper fed...I still feel crummy so instead of doing that several times today, I merely put the treated water out for all of them. A couple of days antibiotic for all won't hurt anyone and should help this little one....and I can go back and lay down and sleep until I have to work later this afternoon (miss the days of sick paid time off).

Good news though...day 4 and I've still got 2 little fosters who seem fit, other than the one's little vent infection. Hopefully that won't go nasty on that chick, but the tetracyline regiment should set it right unless it is anatomical hernia of some sort. A few days and some growth will tell.

Photos to follow in a few days.

LofMc

 

[vpatt]

Update on my new Queen Mum and her hatchling OE and the 2 California Grey fosters (second try)....

Well the little fosters apparently heard me and took me seriously that they either bond with momma hen and her loving warmth or they die unassisted as they immediately grafted to her and are acting like proper little chicks. The Mum is very dutiful with her 3 little darlings. I've kept them in the partial hutch and haven't let them into the run yet...weather has been colder and I wanted the fosters to adapt a bit more in the shelter of the hutch before being in open air. I would be letting them out today, but instead I've come down with the flu so not up to crawling around and double checking for chick escape holes in the run.

One had pasty butt a few days ago which I addressed by gently pulling away the poo, but as I've been sick,  I haven 't followed up like I would normally. I felt well enough for a quick trip out to the coops this morning. That chick has a bit of swollen vent going on today, which I washed, dried, spritzed with Chlorhexiderm (love that stuff) and treated with some tetracyline dropper fed...I still feel crummy so instead of doing that several times today, I merely put the treated water out for all of them. A couple of days antibiotic for all won't hurt anyone and should help this little one....and I can go back and lay down and sleep until I have to work later this afternoon (miss the days of sick paid time off).

Good news though...day 4  and I've still got 2 little fosters who seem fit, other than the one's little vent infection. Hopefully that won't go nasty on that chick, but the tetracyline regiment should set it right unless it is anatomical hernia of some sort. A few days and some growth will tell.

Photos to follow in a few days.

LofMc

So sorry you are sick...I hope you recover quickly! And sounds like your chicks are well on their way!

 

[hmbrown05]

I have a bantam conchin x white leghorn that is approximately 7 months old and just found her broody (hooray!!). I am not exactly sure how long she has been on the nest though I would guess not more than a few days. She is fairly small, probably around 4-5#. I want to put different eggs under her and have a few questions. Will she set longer than the usual 3 weeks if she has been there longer than I thought? How many eggs can she accomodate? Am I correct in assuming to do all of this at night for best results (acceptance of the new eggs and not getting pecked to death, lol)?

 

[hmbrown05]

Oh and we have had quite a bit of cooler weather here lately. How cold can the eggs get, prior to being put under said hen, before they suffer? They have been in the hen house but could easily have gotten below 40 in there this morning.

 

[bumpercarr]

I have a bantam conchin x white leghorn that is approximately 7 months old and just found her broody (hooray!!). I am not exactly sure how long she has been on the nest though I would guess not more than a few days. She is fairly small, probably around 4-5#. I want to put different eggs under her and have a few questions. Will she set longer than the usual 3 weeks if she has been there longer than I thought? How many eggs can she accomodate? Am I correct in assuming to do all of this at night for best results (acceptance of the new eggs and not getting pecked to death, lol)?

Oh and we have had quite a bit of cooler weather here lately. How cold can the eggs get, prior to being put under said hen, before they suffer? They have been in the hen house but could easily have gotten below 40 in there this morning.

She will usually set as long as it takes to get chicks, but sometimes first time broodies are not that reliable. I always have an incubator standing by. I would only give her 3-5 eggs, both because of her size and because it is her first time. My experience with giving a broody eggs is that I do it in full daylight, I put the egg in front of her (hopefully without being pecked) and as soon as she sees it she will probably tuck it right under her. I have had to hold a piece of cardboard between my hand and the broody before, just to keep them from drawing blood. When I have to do that, I hold the cardboard in front of her, put the egg in front of her, remove the cardboard and she tucks the egg under, then I repeat until all of the eggs are under her.

I'm not sure how cold they can get. I've had mine get down to 40 without any problems, but I would say anything below freezing is definitely not good. All you can do is try and then pull out the non-starters if you candle them later. Usually I have a batch in the incubator and a batch under a broody (when I have a broody) and will replace non starters with some eggs from the incubator if I need to. I much prefer that a broody raises my babies if at all possible.

Hope that helps.

 

[hmbrown05]

The only problem is that I am fairly confident that she is already on some eggs as I haven't seen one from her in a few weeks. Had some suspicion that she was hiding some, though with her mix she wasn't a daily layer. I don't have an incubator (have been toying with the idea, but don't really want chicks out of the rooster I have so hadn't made the jump-though I won't pass up the opportunity for "free" labor

), so if she ends up doing poorly so be it.

 

[Hayduke27]

Here is a very determined broody:

http://abc27.com/2015/03/05/think-spring-eagles-think-spring/

If she can pull that off, my cochin stands a chance!

 

[hmbrown05]

Well sucessfully move hen into box and off her 13(!!) eggs onto the 6 that I had available (okay probably a little ambitious, but what have I got to lose?). Candled the eggs she was on and they weren't developed at all so probably just started-the pig enjoyed them immensely as they were rather poop smeared and probably wouldn't have done well anyways not to mention they are tiny!!

The clock starts now

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Oh and we have had quite a bit of cooler weather here lately. How cold can the eggs get, prior to being put under said hen, before they suffer? They have been in the hen house but could easily have gotten below 40 in there this morning.

The first time I ever set eggs for a broody, I went out to a friend and got eggs that had been gathered earlier and left on the porch for me. It was during a real cold snap (low 30's, upper 20's). I got 3 out of 5 hatched, and the 3 hatchlings did fine in the cold weather.

I just had a very poor hatch recently, 1 of 5,during a real cold snap. I purchased from a breeder, and I wonder if the eggs had been in the cold too long or simply the cold weather affected the hatching (as this breeder is very conscientious). Hard to know. I was using a new broody, so I may simply have overloaded her in the cooler weather. Next time I will set only 4 eggs for her in cooler weather.

I do know really cold weather can affect the fertility as the fertilized blastoderm (egg cell spot that has joined with a sperm cell) has begun some division then goes into stasis until heated by the hen or incubator. Really cold weather can kill those cells or delay the start of the growth giving funky results.

It is best to collect eggs promptly and store them at cooler room temperature, 55-60 degrees (a back bedroom or spare room). Warm the eggs to room temperature (70 degrees) just prior to setting for the best hatchability, and never store longer than 14 days, while many advise 7 days. Be sure to tip the eggs differently several times a day while storing so the yolk doesn't stick to the shell.

But at 40 degrees, that is not really cold and shouldn't affect them too much.
LofMc

 

[bumpercarr]

I'm sure that we all have our various methods for collecting and storing fertile eggs, so I thought I'd share mine since breeding season is upon me and I'm now getting fertile eggs (hopefully).

I have two nesting boxes, one box is for fertile eggs (there is a cockerel in that pen) and one box is for non-fertile eating eggs. I collect all of the eggs twice daily when the weather is not good (cold or hot) and once a day when the weather is perfect (not very often).

I put my fertile eggs in a Styrofoam egg carton, this helps them cool down/heat up to 70* slowly. I start from the right and fill to the left. I usually have to use two cartons for each week. I mark the eggs with a 1-7 so I know which day they were collected. If I'm not setting yet (either under a broody or in the incubator) I remove the #1 eggs after 7 days and put them back with the eating eggs...they are still good to eat, but I only set eggs that are 10 days old or less. By the time I let the #7 eggs cool down/warm up for 24 hours, the oldest eggs are 8 days old. The replacement eggs that are replacing the old #1s are marked with a 1 (since I do this every day, every week the #1 is for the same day each week, in my case Sunday). If I'm shipping eggs, I only ship eggs that are 5 days old or less.

This method of collecting and keeping eggs keeps me with a supply of fertile eggs all of the time. Even when I'm not planning on hatching, I keep the fertile eggs separated so that I have them in case of emergency. I've sort of learned this the hard way......

Anyway, I think hatching success first starts with breeding success and egg selection. It is fun to just let the broody sit on whatever she has collected, but it is also a lot of fun to collect the eggs yourself and determine which ones you want to try to hatch (either naturally or in an incubator). Depending on what you are breeding and what your ultimate goal is, egg selection and collection can be a critical part of your program.

Just wanted to share.