Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[karenerwin]

I'd pull now. The BR hen is obviously confused and stressed. Many hens are not sure what to do with staggered hatches and excess foot traffic.

She's done her time and hasn't handled things well due to the stress. Let her stop being broody, keep her outside the nest area if necessary. Sounds like she will break easily anyway.

Take eggs and hatch what you can get. Brood on your own as they will be too little to put in with the first batch and the other hen.

And yes, next time mark eggs, set at the same time, isolate hen. You'll have much better results in your situation.

LofMc

I pulled all the eggs last night and candled them as I put them in the incubator. I pulled 3 clears and put 8 in the incubator. This morning something still smelled stinky so I decided to do the water float test. 1 of the eggs was chirping when I picked it up, so I put it back in the bator without water testing it. 2 other eggs I could see movement and early development in last night so I left those 2 in the bator also. I water float tested the remaining 5 eggs. 2 sank, 1 floated about half out of the water and 2 floated about 15% out of the water. I put the 2 15% back in the bator. Then I took the 6 eggs (3 from last night & 3 from today) outside to eggtopsy them. 1 was very rotten & stinky! 3 were clear. 1 was starting to rot but not stinky and the last one had a living chick in it

It was fully formed, but hadn't absorbed the egg yolk and I'm not sure if the feathers had finished developing or not. It isn't going to make it & I feel bad, but I can't undo what was done. Now to see if the 1 that was chirping ends up hatching or not. I think the chick that I killed was from 1 of the 2 eggs that sunk. I thought I saw slight movement in it, but discounted it because it had sunk completely. I'm wondering if it would have hatched anyway or not since there wasn't enough of an aircell to make it float. Anybody have any ideas?

 

[lizzy14]

Hi everyone! I've been reading up on this process as I seem to have a broody hen. I am planning to move her to a private area tonight. What I'm wondering is, since I don't have fancy hatching eggs or anything I'm planning to use with her, can I just move her current eggs that she is sitting on, to the new nest? They've all been laid within about a 24-hour period. It depends on what I find when I move her, to be honest, because I'm not sure how many she has under her. I'm just wondering if this is an option.
Thanks for any advice on this!
-Liz

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Hi everyone! I've been reading up on this process as I seem to have a broody hen. I am planning to move her to a private area tonight. What I'm wondering is, since I don't have fancy hatching eggs or anything I'm planning to use with her, can I just move her current eggs that she is sitting on, to the new nest? They've all been laid within about a 24-hour period. It depends on what I find when I move her, to be honest, because I'm not sure how many she has under her. I'm just wondering if this is an option.
Thanks for any advice on this!
-Liz

Yes, you can use the eggs she is sitting on to hatch (assuming of course they are fertile from a rooster)...as you noted, they've all been laid within the last 24 hours so would also be set pretty much at the same time. (Staggered hatches are the worst).

You've got a nice batch of hens with the Rhodebars, Legbars, Welsummers, Andalusians, and Dominiques. Who is the rooster(s)? (With Welsummer and Cream Legbar, you have the makings for olive eggers!)

You don't need fancy hatching eggs. Many of us just raise backyard mixes for eggs and meat.

I only hatch occasionally from special breeder's eggs if I am adding to my flock with specific breeds.

LofMc

 

[lizzy14]

Yes, you can use the eggs she is sitting on to hatch (assuming of course they are fertile from a rooster)...as you noted, they've all been laid within the last 24 hours so would also be set pretty much at the same time. (Staggered hatches are the worst).

You've got a nice batch of hens with the Rhodebars, Legbars, Welsummers, Andalusians, and Dominiques. Who is the rooster(s)? (With Welsummer and Cream Legbar, you have the makings for olive eggers!)

You don't need fancy hatching eggs. Many of us just raise backyard mixes for eggs and meat.

I only hatch occasionally from special breeder's eggs if I am adding to my flock with specific breeds.

LofMc

Thanks! Yeah, I just wondered if a 24 hour possible gap between some of the eggs would result in too-staggered of a hatch. Yes I've got quite a mix (this is an old list and I also have Spitz and Spitz/Merlerault mixes now too) and I'm hoping to hatch the white, green and dark brown eggs. For this hatch, there's a possibility that the hens were covered either by a Spitz or the CL roo. We no longer have the Spitz roo, and I may do another hatch in a few weeks with just the CL covered eggs.

I just was preparing to encourage another hen of our to lay on some eggs and this little hen surprised me by going broody! She has been sitting since early yesterday, I haven't seen her leave the nest box!
-Liz

 

[Faraday40]

Nvm. Just taking her time for her first lay in the new coop... jumped the gun I guess. Lol

Congrats on the new egg. If she's a broody breed, she may lay a lot of eggs for a couple weeks & then boom, she stops & takes over a nest. My little Cookie is like that. She lays great - but only when not broody. Her non-broody time never seems to last very long. Some of my other hens can go broody, but only once a year, usually in summer. For now, just enjoy those cute little eggs.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Thanks! Yeah, I just wondered if a 24 hour possible gap between some of the eggs would result in too-staggered of a hatch. Yes I've got quite a mix (this is an old list and I also have Spitz and Spitz/Merlerault mixes now too) and I'm hoping to hatch the white, green and dark brown eggs. For this hatch, there's a possibility that the hens were covered either by a Spitz or the CL roo. We no longer have the Spitz roo, and I may do another hatch in a few weeks with just the CL covered eggs.

I just was preparing to encourage another hen of our to lay on some eggs and this little hen surprised me by going broody! She has been sitting since early yesterday, I haven't seen her leave the nest box!
-Liz

1 day split is not a big deal. More than that, especially more than 2 days apart, then you start getting into problems.

Momma is prepared to sit for a couple of days on eggs while chicks hatch. Even set at the same time, the eggs naturally stagger hatching over 1 to 2 days depending on those eggs that were kept the warmest vs those that might have gotten more time at the fringe of the fluff zone.

The first hatched chicks are usually your biggest and strongest. They have reserves from the absorbed yolk for food for 2 days. After that, they need food and water (although have food and
water ready immediately).

So momma is willing to sit a couple of days as all the chicks catch up. Then she is generally wanting to get up and teach the babes to eat, drink, and scratch.

More than 2 days of staggering creates confusion for the momma with the results many see of staggered hatches...abandoned eggs, abandoned chicks, attacked chicks (as momma tries to protect the hatching ones from the invaders).

LofMc

 

[karenerwin]

The chirping egg has hatched!! It looks to be very healthy.

 

[Curnow]

I also have a dilemma. I purchased 12 different colors of English Orpington eggs for my broody hen. The seller sent 18! WOW! Hoping for the best possible odds for the Orpington eggs to hatch, I purchased an incubator. Well, chicken math got the best of me when I got the incubator home....I added more of my own eggs. We are at day 17 for broody and incubator eggs. Nine are under the hen (all viable at last check) and 19 viable in the incubator. I thought my fertility was low, so I was not planning on that many in the end. Guess I was wrong!

My plan was to move the incubator chicks in with the broody to adopt (hopefully) as they are all due at the same time. So potentially there could be 28 chicks IF they all make it through hatch. Do you think the hen can handle all of them? She is a cross between my Light Brahma hen & Appenzeller Spitzhauben rooster. She is fairly large, but not huge like her Brahma mother.
Our temps overnight have been in 50s - 60s.....she has her own coop/house about 8 x 8 fully enclosed and fairly draft free.

Opinions please....can she handle 20+ chicks?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I also have a dilemma. I purchased 12 different colors of English Orpington eggs for my broody hen. The seller sent 18! WOW! Hoping for the best possible odds for the Orpington eggs to hatch, I purchased an incubator. Well, chicken math got the best of me when I got the incubator home....I added more of my own eggs. We are at day 17 for broody and incubator eggs. Nine are under the hen (all viable at last check) and 19 viable in the incubator. I thought my fertility was low, so I was not planning on that many in the end. Guess I was wrong!

My plan was to move the incubator chicks in with the broody to adopt (hopefully) as they are all due at the same time. So potentially there could be 28 chicks IF they all make it through hatch. Do you think the hen can handle all of them? She is a cross between my Light Brahma hen & Appenzeller Spitzhauben rooster. She is fairly large, but not huge like her Brahma mother.
Our temps overnight have been in 50s - 60s.....she has her own coop/house about 8 x 8 fully enclosed and fairly draft free.

Opinions please....can she handle 20+ chicks?

Is she an experienced momma? If not, then I always error on the side of fewer. (and I generally try not to use a first time momma with purchased eggs).

28 is a lot even for an experienced momma, but full size hens with plenty of fluff have hatched and brooded that many...but it is honestly really pushing the upper bounds.

Normally, with a larger hen, 20 is the upper limit.

If you've purchased eggs, I always put my focus on those and give them the best chance of success. You don't want to risk purchased chicks for barnyard ones, if that makes a difference to you.

Wait and see what hatches, but I'd leave momma with the ones she's hatched and simply brood the ones in the incubator artificially....if those purchased chicks are a special deal.

Unless the purchased chicks are a really big deal. Then I'd take those and put them in artificial brooding and let momma have all of the barnyard ones....unless you've got an experienced momma and a good grow out set up that prevents stupid chick loss and/or loss from predators and/or loss from foot traffic from the flock or squirmishes therein.

LofMc

EDITED TO ADD: incubator chicks don't always graft easily with momma and the hatched chicks, which is another thing to keep in mind. Being underneath a hen, while hatching, with mum clucking encouragement, begins the bonding between chick and momma. The incubator chicks can be seen as an invader if the hen is not the tolerant type. And/or the incubator chicks often don't see the big dark scary hen as warmth and comfort. So grafting fosters can be a bit tricky depending upon chicks and hen.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Day 21.

Rosie is sitting on one egg that had a pip this morning and I hear tweets and peeps this evening.

Hopefully tomorrow morning will show success with 3 Cream Legbars...and I'm rooting for hens! (Though I might consider keeping a CL roo...don't let Barney know yet!)

I'll know tomorrow.

LofMc