Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[itstartedwith2]

Mrs. Roo and her 5 babies

 

[beckybsc]

Our first hatch!!!!! 12 full sized eggs under two first time broody bantams 6 EE eggs and 6 golden comets some quitter eggs and 5 EE babies and 1 golden comet I'm so happy and babies and new mommas are doing great !!!

 

[beckybsc]

Mrs. Roo and her 5 babies

. They are so cute and blend right in!!:cd

 

[Faraday40]

Mrs. Roo and her 5 babies

I had to enlarge the pic in order to see the chicks. Great camouflage!

 

[The Raw Mama]

I need help please!!! We have jersey giants and two of them have gone broody on two different clutches of eggs. I had a bad hatch with my incubator last time so I figure I'll let the hens do the work this time. They are both not quite a year and the first time they've gone broody. For the last couple weeks they sit on eggs on and off but not steadily. The last week they both seem committed to staying broody. They switch nesting boxes sometimes after coming down for food/water but neither leave their nest for anymore than 5 minutes. My problem lies here...because they are a heavier breed and this is their first time, they step on the eggs to get comfortable on them but end up breaking them. I've picked out 4 broken ones in the last couple days and have to switch out all the nesting material. Even then, the eggs remaining have squished egg and shell all over them. They are not pecking them or eating them, just accidentally crushing them. Is there anything I can do differently to prevent it? I have pine shaving under straw in the nesting boxes so there is plenty of soft material and the nesting boxes are old dresser drawers so they're plenty big enough. I'm just worried about them crushing some farther into the process and having more developed embryos die. Also, now I'm worried that when they do start hatching, how do I know that they won't crush the baby chicks as well if they aren't conscious of their size. I'm a worried mama!

 

[kpiddy]

Chick #7 pipped and peeping, eight days after the 1st hatched. Chicks 1-6 doing well.

 

[kpiddy]

Chick #7, hatched 9 days after the rest. Chick #1-5 hatched last weekend, #6 hatched Wednesday and we did the float test on the remainder of the eggs and this guy was wiggling around in the water. His egg was white instead of brown like the others and must've been slipped in late by another hen. Making sure he hatched was worrisome but this guy, named Jon Snow, is well worth the effort. He's an example of a very late hatching viable egg!

 

[PD-Riverman]

we did the float test on the remainder of the eggs and this guy was wiggling around in the water. His egg was white instead of brown like the others and must've been slipped in late by another hen. Making sure he hatched was worrisome but this guy, named Jon Snow, is well worth the effort. He's an example of a very late hatching viable egg!

Congratulation on your hatch



Question----you said "He's an example of a very late hatching viable egg" ---Was He actually a Late hatch or just a staggered hatch egg that hatched last? A "late" hatch would be a egg that was due to hatch on day 21----from the day it was added to the nest--- but hatched days after it was due------if his egg was the last one layed in the nest and it hatched 21 days later----then it would not be considered "late"??

 

[kpiddy]

Well, I am not exactly sure. The eggs were under a hen- I have two hens only and neither have ever gone broody. So, when I noticed she was broody there were already 17 eggs under her. I labeled them 1-17. I am not sure how long she'd been sitting on them, a couple days iis my assumption. So, counting from the day I noticed, the eggs would've hatched on June 9th. One hatched June 6th, four hatched June 7th, another surprise egg hatched June 10th. When I brought in the eggs to float test I heard that guy (baby #6, born five days after the others) peeping and put all the eggs back under Mama. The egg that hatched this morning (baby #7, born nine days after the others), June 15th was moving around in the water when I did a float test June 10th and every day after till he pipped yesterday. So, if I count June 7th (when four hatched) as day 21, this egg hatched day 29...

I do know he was slipped in there by our other hen because of egg color, but I'm certain he's been under the hen at least 27 days...

It took some finagling to hatch him. We did move the babies away from Mama hen when most of them were five or six days old for half the day so she'd sit on her other eggs still. We closed her off in the part of the coop where she had been brooding so she'd stay on the eggs. The babies were near her, basically under her in the coop, so they didn't seem to mind much. But if we'd let her off her nest I doubt our last two would have hatched.

So, a staggered hatch, but also he was very late from when I labeled the eggs.

 

[Faraday40]

I need help please!!! We have jersey giants and two of them have gone broody on two different clutches of eggs. I had a bad hatch with my incubator last time so I figure I'll let the hens do the work this time. They are both not quite a year and the first time they've gone broody. For the last couple weeks they sit on eggs on and off but not steadily. The last week they both seem committed to staying broody. They switch nesting boxes sometimes after coming down for food/water but neither leave their nest for anymore than 5 minutes. My problem lies here...because they are a heavier breed and this is their first time, they step on the eggs to get comfortable on them but end up breaking them. I've picked out 4 broken ones in the last couple days and have to switch out all the nesting material. Even then, the eggs remaining have squished egg and shell all over them. They are not pecking them or eating them, just accidentally crushing them. Is there anything I can do differently to prevent it? I have pine shaving under straw in the nesting boxes so there is plenty of soft material and the nesting boxes are old dresser drawers so they're plenty big enough. I'm just worried about them crushing some farther into the process and having more developed embryos die. Also, now I'm worried that when they do start hatching, how do I know that they won't crush the baby chicks as well if they aren't conscious of their size. I'm a worried mama!

I do not know about the size issue. I've read that some bigger breeds do not make good mothers b/c of it. I do know that dirty eggs will hatch. My broody's eggshells were nasty-looking when compared to our incubator's shells. It's better to leave the dried egg goo on the egg.