Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[BirdGirl2004]

So my chicks ended up all hatching a day early! It was wonderful and my Leghorn hatched 8/9, the last one was rotten. She is such a good first time mama! although I wish she wouldn't try to hide them from me, she gets a little better each day I sit in there with her. Mine are Easter Egger and Leghorn mixes, with what looks like one full EE. I wont know about the yellow chicks until they get older but atleast 3 are mixes and have black spotting

View attachment 561788 .

just realized you have a broody LEGHORN! That's awesome and rare!

 

[ShrekDawg]

So my chicks ended up all hatching a day early! It was wonderful and my Leghorn hatched 8/9, the last one was rotten. She is such a good first time mama! although I wish she wouldn't try to hide them from me, she gets a little better each day I sit in there with her. Mine are Easter Egger and Leghorn mixes, with what looks like one full EE. I wont know about the yellow chicks until they get older but atleast 3 are mixes and have black spotting

View attachment 561788 .

Awwww too cute!!

 

[asheshp]

How funny that we both have Broody Leghorns that hatched chicks at the same time! How did your hatch go?

When I saw this Picture ,My first thought was.How did this picture of my chicken and her chicks get here!

So I know for a fact there were 9 eggs and 1 didn't hatch. I have 9 chicks! no other hens had access to her nest and she was done laying before I moved her so I have no idea what happened but they are super cute.

 

[Faraday40]

Glad to see BYC is running & people are finding their way to to their threads.

I always enjoy seeing all the chicks & broodies here! Congrats to everyone.

@Lady of McCamley
Interesting post you wrote about washing eggs. Our DD just did a similar experiment. She compared hatch rates of:
Backyard - fresh, unwashed, un refrigerated, fertile eggs (Best)
vs.
Farmer market - fresh, washed, refrigerated, & min transport fertile eggs (OK-Good)
vs.
Store - less than 8 days old, washed, refrigerated & shipped eggs (fair/poor, but some hatched)

In one of the 6 trials, the farmers market did better that the backyard eggs. I think we had some fertility issues requiring trims as well as a little help from the seller. (I think she selected the freshly gathered eggs since she knew DD was trying to hatch them.) Otherwise the results were what one would expect.

 

[bald Rooster]

How funny that we both have Broody Leghorns that hatched chicks at the same time! How did your hatch go?


So I know for a fact there were 9 eggs and 1 didn't hatch. I have 9 chicks! no other hens had access to her nest and she was done laying before I moved her so I have no idea what happened but they are super cute.

She went full broody on the 29th so I gave her all 6 eggs layed that day from my older hens. then I gave her 6 more on the 30th 3 were clear 7 hatched 2 late developers didn't make it. She rejected a black chick from my Copper Maran (it is doing fine in a brooder) She is good mother and her chicks are doing good so far.

 

[Faraday40]

Here is our newest mama, Oopsie. She turned out to be another great broody. I gave her a couple eggs from the incubator - which she hatched & seemed OK with. So, I then slipped the rest of the chicks under her as they hatched. All went well. Next I moved her into the large brooder- but I already had a couple older chicks & 2 quail in there. She didn't seem to mind & by the end of the day, I found them snuggling under her as well. About 10 days later when one of my preschool incubation classes was over, I was able to add those to the brooder as well. I have a wide range of ages (& even diff species) and Oopsie loves them all.

She's very calm for me but no longer likes it when visitors come. (They've been buying HER babies. It's pretty much a necessity to keep the group contained in the brooder or inside a fence for grass time. Once we get down to 12 or less, I'll let Oopsie & chicks into the backyard.

Here's a perfect pic for Mother's Day.
I like how the Spitzhauben (about 5 weeks & the oldest) is sticking her head out & there's a Silkie in the corner. At the time of the pic there were 24. Today we're down to 19.

Can you see the little feet?

 

[Faraday40]

Here are some pics from early May when Oopsie's chicks 1st hatched. The "pink" one on her back is a week older. (DD marked it as a favorite, so it doesn't get sold.)

Update:
Here's Cookie with 2 of her chicks. (She has 2 boys & 2 girls) The day after this pic was taken Cookie started laying again, so they're now on their own.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

Hey guys is this a good place to come for broody help. Its my first spring with birds and I'm up to 9 broodies and tons of questions. So far its not going very well....

 

[Faraday40]

Sorry you're having trouble. 9 broodies sounds like a lot! I have 4 hens that have been good broodies multiple times over the last 4 years, but at most only 2 at the same time.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

Sorry you're having trouble. 9 broodies sounds like a lot! I have 4 hens that have been good broodies multiple times over the last 4 years, but at most only 2 at the same time.

I have 3 Muscovy but one pushed all of her eggs out around her and one is hatching right now. Shes on day 40 so I had given up hope but have some internal now. One is in my chicken coop unfortunately and do this weekend. I have to khaki Campbells co brooding and I'm not sure how that goes when the babies hatch. One Peking that just started but still comes off a couple times a day so I don't know if it'll stick but she keeps stealing chicken and duck eggs. And three broody Bantams. One hatched today!! Earlier then I thought and one might be giving up. Shes been broody for a month and her first batch didnt go well. The other has been at it a week.