Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Hello all! I'm back with my bantam Langshan going broody again! She last hatched out a couple chicks on Christmas Day. Funny, before that, I thought it was such a nuisance to have a broody. But it is so much fun to see her raise the peeps! Thankfully, a friend from the forum gave me 8 Wellsummer eggs to put under her. And volunteers to take them back since I don't have the room. . He said some of the eggs are a week or so old, so it will be interesting to see what hatches! e

Good luck with the eggs ...i hope they hatch for you. I dont know enough to advise you.

I am trying to figure out how i am getting 7 eggs from 6 girls. Unless Jessica is laying....her chicks are only 1.5 weeks old. None of the other three girls is the culprit because none of the eggs is green or banty sized. ???

Sounds like she is back in business. I was shocked when my broody started to lay again pretty quickly! I wonder if Jessica started laying quicker because of the warm temps; she knows she doesn't have to sit in the chicks and keep them too warm perhaps.

I am hatching eggs with my broody for the second time now. I moved her today after she had been sitting on dummy eggs for a few days into my dog crate brooder with the same amount of real eggs. Last time she settled in easily to being moved but she was in another area of my coop which is totally segregated from the main coop and at the time had a small run attached. This time that scenario had changed and she had to be moved to the crate. She seems to not be settling as easily and she is almost scattering the eggs as she walks around which is very unusual for her. Will she settle in or would it be best to put her back in her main area? My concern with her hatching in the main coop is that there are larger hens that also use her nest box and I do not want them hurting the chicks accidentally or on purpose. Also this time we have a rooster in play which wasn't there last time. Would he hurt them? Is it better to try to let her hatch them in the main box then move them after they hatch? How long should I wait to see if she settles back onto the eggs? What are my best options? Thanks guys!!

It's probably not too late for the eggs but you may want to move her back, they can be very determined!

Another of my Dark Cornish pullets has gone broody. She's been sitting in the main nesting box for days now and I've been removing eggs daily. I finally decided to let her sit on some eggs, so I put 4 Silver Spangled Hamburg eggs and 2 Blue Andalusian eggs under her today. The SSH eggs are pure, but the Blue Andalusian eggs are a mix with a Cuckoo Marans roo. So exciting! I've been wanting to have some chicks from my SSH's, but they NEVER go broody for me. So fun to have a breed that really does go broody regularly!   

I agree, it's nice to have volunteers for hatching and raising chicks!

I use a sharpie and draw a line the whole way around the center of the eggs...i have yet to have a chick hatch with a tattoo! LOL

. Thankfully the Wellsummer eggs I got from Dheltzel are so dark there's no confusion from my girls. Have you ever had a broody chase "lower" hens out of the nesting box or coop if they were trying to lay? I think I heard this happening the other day.

Thank you for your response, I went back out and the chick has made a pip into the membrane now so thankfully I don't think I need to do a thing. Membrane doesn't look dried out either whew.

Yay! It's amazing how it al, works, isn't it?

 

[chickchoon1]

Won't hold my breath but expecting hatch activity tomorrow and broody is occasionally eating but I at least check her bowl daily now. She was off nest a bit ago and I got in to see if I could hear any chirps and she promptly did her turkey mimick(all fluffed up!) and slowly got back on eggs making her scolding sounds.She just turned a year old herself. Too anxious, I am!

 

[drteesa]

Wow so many posts in this hatch-a-long! Very encouraging since I was a little nervous doing it the "natural way."

My favorite chicken, my buff orpington "Yellow," went broody last month and I decided to allow her to fulfill that natural urge to be a momma. Being my first time doing this, had a lot of questions (started raising chickens last June). Backyard chickens has been my go to source for all my questions (and for adorable pictures)! So thought I'd share my progress and lessons with others who are newbies to this . Sorry if the post ends up being an essay but it's been such a fun process

I watched Yellow start nesting 4 weeks ago (sitting in her coop and not budging) and after a couple days knew the broodiness was going to stick (having read this on the forums). I called up a local lady with fertile eggs and gave her a heads up that I might be picking some up in the next couple days. She prepared a fresh batch for me and I set them down on day 3 of her broodiness. Yellow was a little intimidating with her feathers all up and growling at me (she is usually our friendliest chicken), so I asked for some advice from the local chicken lady (who was also very helpful) and she said to wear gloves, lift up her bottom and quickly remove the eggs she's setting on and replace them with the fertile ones (ideally at nighttime when she's sleeping). I approached her around sundown, and did get a hard peck on my leather work gloves, but otherwise, this worked fine. I ended placing 13 fertile eggs from different breeds under her (small to med sized eggs).

After about a week her comb started looking pale, despite her going out to forage once a day, so I initially made some nutritious chick food mix at home then later bought some high quality organic chick starter and put it next to her in the coop with some water. Btw, I decided not to move or separate her from my other chickens (a FBCM, and 2 younger pullets (ameraucana and cream legbar), so she remained in a corner of the main coop with all my other chickens. She was intimidating enough that they left her alone, though there were times when I would nervously check them at sundown to make sure the coop was calm. Her comb looked fine after giving easy access to food and water. During the 3 weeks, there were times when some of the eggs would be scattered around the coop. I also have heard "thumps" of eggs being moved around when I closed the coop door. I never tried to candle them or anything being my first time and all, so I would just move them closer to her and leave them be. The next day they would be back underneath her.

I also encountered the problem of my FBCM trying to lay her eggs on Yellow's nest, which I read happens a lot. Just adjacent to Yellow, I had a nesting box (which they have never used btw) which was empty. I placed 3 wooden eggs in it and my FBCM faithfully started laying her eggs there .

This past week was week 3 and 21 days was 2 days ago. I went to check if any had started hatching around Day 19 and found two small chicken feet and a mess of feathers covered by wood shavings in a far corner of the coop. I'm assuming this one hatched early or broke? I was a little dismayed, but shoveled the little pile of feathers out and didn't look too closely at it :T. Day 21 came along and I caught a glimpse of the eggs while she was out eating and drinking. I counted 11 of 13 original eggs, completely unhatched. I saw the mess of a broken egg on the coop ramp, so it looked like that one hadn't been fertile. I looked on the forums and saw hatch dates up to 25 days but read that most hatch within 1-2 days of their expected due date. I started getting nervous none of them would hatch, so I went to the local feed store and picked up 5 chicks to sneak under her in case none of them hatched.

I picked up 2 larger chicks (easter eggers - love their egg colors) and 3 silkies (bc they are so cute and always wanted some). I read quite a bit about introducing chicks to a broody hen and some of the potentially disastrous outcomes, so I went about it cautiously. It was late afternoon and I was a little nervous keeping the chicks too long without a heat source, so I tried to introduce the largest one to Yellow. I placed her next to the back tip of her left wing and Yellow raised her hackles then tried to give two hard pecks! I screamed P) but luckily the little chick was fast and dodged her pecks. Then, the clever little chick ran around to her other side and quickly burrowed under her bottom. Yellow slowly calmed down and all seemed well. I monitored for a while, left and came back 1/2 hour later and things seemed fine. I saw the chick's little head peeking out from under her right wing/bottom looking pleased with itself. So I tried to introduce another easter egger, and though Yellow raised her hackles again, she did not peck at this one. I also used a gloved hand and placed it on her "shoulders" to help block the chick from her view. This second chick was not so clever and just stood next to her bottom then ran in the opposite direction. I helped it under her wing and Yellow seemed a little unsettled with this one. I left and checked back a little later and things seemed okay, so I snuck in 2 of the silkies and they found a warm spot right away.

I had the tiniest black silkie left and was nervous to put her in because 1 peck would kill her, but so far everything was going fine and the chick was crying, so I went back to Yellow. As I approached the coop, I heard a distressed chick cry coming from under the coop. There stood the not-so-bright 2nd easter egger seemingly banished from the coop. I picked her up and tried placing her on the hen's other side. This time, the chick hurried under her wing and stayed put. Yellow was a little worked up but not doing anything crazy, so I put the little black silkie down and it quickly dove under her bottom. An hour later all seemed well.

This morning there are no dead chickies and I hear lots of contented chirping coming from Yellow's undersides. Very proud of my momma hen . I'm going to check later to see if any of the eggs hatched. If not, I will probably discard them this weekend as it will be Days 23-24. Here are pictures of my orpington Yellow (she looks a little wary) and the setup I have in the coop.

 

[vpatt]

Olivia's Tennessee chicks were on the ground today!

I have three mamas now clucking around the yard with their chicks and one more to go. Will they take a break now, do you think?

 

[Pyxis]

My rescue buff orp hen has gone broody! Her and her six sisters were taken in from someone who wanted to switch to a lighter, more productive breed. They were all two years old and still laying and the alternative was them becoming soup, so I said why not? One of them I was told went broody often and I guess I've discovered which one! She's put up with me moving her nest into a dog crate and is still at it, so I popped some eggs from one of my hens under her that might be fertile. If she's still at it in a couple days, she gets the guinea eggs that are in my incubator due to hatch in three weeks. They and the chicken eggs will have the same hatch date.

 

[Wishapup]

Tomorrow is Day 19. I'm worried she's been shuffling them around too much.

I couldn't figure out why, when she gets off the nest, her legs can't seem to get traction and they slip all over the roost. It's because, in the nest box, she has her leg splayed out horizontally! Odd. I hope she doesn't have any ill effects.

 

[drteesa]

Day 23 and at least 4 of the 11 eggs have hatched! Guess it's true that 21 days is not the end all be all day. Also, all 5 chicks I snuck in yesterday are alive and well )). Will check back tomorrow for last minute hatchers, then clear out the nest of eggs.



Btw, is there a way to tell which chicks came from which eggs? They are mix chicks (roosters: orpingtons, fbcm) (hens: sicilian buttercup, leghorn, andalusian, easter eggers, cream legbar, fbcm, red star). Also, will a mixed cream legbar or mixed red star auto-sex?

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Just took a neat picture. Here are two hens, the one on the left is laying an egg. The one on the right is my broody. The funny thing is, they are sisters and look like twins normally. But here I can clearly tell them apart.

 

[Pyxis]

Day 23 and at least 4 of the 11 eggs have hatched! Guess it's true that 21 days is not the end all be all day. Also, all 5 chicks I snuck in yesterday are alive and well )). Will check back tomorrow for last minute hatchers, then clear out the nest of eggs. Btw, is there a way to tell which chicks came from which eggs? They are mix chicks (roosters: orpingtons, fbcm) (hens: sicilian buttercup, leghorn, andalusian, easter eggers, cream legbar, fbcm, red star). Also, will a mixed cream legbar or mixed red star auto-sex?

Unfortunately really no way to tell for sure which egg each chick came from. But with those roosters, if any hatched from cream legbar eggs, they would be sex linked, with males having a head spot and barred feathers and females not.

 

[Faraday40]

Unfortunately really no way to tell for sure which egg each chick came from. But with those roosters, if any hatched from cream legbar eggs, they would be sex linked, with males having a head spot and barred feathers and females not.

I have a ? on that.

I hatched some CCL (hen) x Lav orp (roo) eggs. All chicks looked like black orp (that part I understood) & almost all had a very tiny 1mm area of white on their heads. One had a larger 7mm spot on the head. Not sure if they were all male or if the ones with only a few light hairs were female. I simply sold them "straight run, " so I will not know the answer. What do you think?