- Jun 22, 2012
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Hey just found this thread... Haven't been active for a while.. I always hatch my chicks with my flock's girls... We've always done that and never had an incubator... All natiral... And as usual this spring we had many pullets from last season go broody... One of them hatched 9(wich is bad for us lol), the other hatched thirteen(not bad), and the most recent harched 14 and one died, so 13....
I wrote this post thinking i would share the story of my most recent broody. She's a true fighter. First of all i wnat to introduce my lovely hen: Elma. When she was a young girl, she went broody and hatched out some 18 chicks or so (I can't remember that was 8 years ago or so. Yep. I was like 10 or 11)... Anyways she was a great mommy and raised them all to adulthood... And ever since she never went broody again... But never stopped laying her beautiful white rounded eggs... Even through her 8th birthday (wich is this spring)... She is soooo sweet, my favourite of the whole flock... So this season she started laying in the spring as usual(although she used to lay through winter) and then gradually began clucking like broodies do, but still continuing to lay... Until suddenly she went full broody and was very determined to become a mom... We were soo surprised and quite happy for her... But we didn't her to go through the stress of broodyness... So we put her in a wire cage to break her broodiness about tow weeks ago... On the first day all went well but she was still broody, the second and third day the same... On the fourth day one of my family members forgot to move her cage to the shade, and the temperature was about 40 degrees celcius... (A heat storm) so when i went back home there i found her... She was suffering a heat strole... Her body was boiling... She looked like an old man just had a heart attack and a stroke at the same time... She was upside down he leggs very stiff and could barely breath... I quickly took her home and put her in tap water... The water quickly turned hot.... I changed it over and over but her body wasn't cooling quickly enough... So i quickly grabbed an ice water bottle from the fridge and startied washing her with that water... And quickly enough she started shaking from the cold, i was a bit relieved by then...then i grabbed a paper towel and dried her well... She seemed relieved but couldn't express it because she was still looking like hrandpa just had a stroke.... Poor girl... I made her a deep comfortable nest is a box line with towels and put her in for the noght.... She put her head on the edge and closed her eyes and was making a snoring sound... She was in deeeesp sleep... Like when you come back from camping and take a shower and go to sleep... I wasn't sure she was gonna make it .... Oh and i gave her plenty of water directly in the mouth and the tight dose of panamax and some food... The next morning the family let the flock out so i went to the coop thinking that I'm gonna have to barry her... But she was nowhere to be found... Wow did she get better that quick? Did she die and noone told me? I wnet back out and there she was preening herself like nothing ever happened last night... I was like this is a miracle... And guess what... Yes she was still broody!!! That day she didn't seemed broody anymore because she didn't go to her nest but was still clucking... She toon that day off to recover fully( smart girl) the next day arroung noon she was back in her mest box!!?!?! Let me tell you thata traditional way to break a broody 100% percent is to dip her chest area in some cold water well.. And it always works wonders... This girl had a good 15 mins taking a cold baths with ice cold water from had to toe , she's 8 years old... And guess what she still wanted to be a moma! So the next day when she was still determined... I felt so heartbroken for her and grabbed 18 of out eggs(shes a chibby girl) and she readily took them in her nest made especially for her needs... Now she's been sitting for three days... I take her out once daily and give her treats as much as possible throughout the day... And make sure all is going smoothly... She looks at me soo cutely beeing so grateful and so happy... I can tell from her face... Hoping all goes well for her....
By the way... 8 years is not veey old here... In the US maybe... But not here... Our chickens live an average of 12/13 years strong... And laying during the teens is not far from reality... And 18 eggs are not too much on her i promise... She can hold more.... Our chickens are all mutts from the areas old generic pool (except for a few red sex links that we have)... This is just for you to understand the situation more... And we've had chickens like forever... It's part of our lifestyle in the countryside...
I will post pics soon if you guys are interested... Sorry it was so long!
And happy natiral hatching
