Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Faraday40]

I'm hoping for a broody from this new group of chicks when they grow up. But one will be enough

I guess when it rains it pours...

So far none of my laced orps have gone broody, but it may not happen until their 2nd year anyway. My lav orps have never gone broody. My blue/mauve orps will sometimes go broody.

It's the bantams who want to repopulate the chicken world. My silly Welsummer (not broody) also wants to help. EVERY egg she lays ends up under a broody hen. It's not like we hatch any - those choc eggs are easy to spot and pull out! However, she climbs into the broody's nest & deposits her egg for them to hatch. Lazy chicken!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Funny!

With this group, I also got a few Buff O's hoping one would go broody. In addition, there are some Dominiques and a couple of ee's. We'll see...maybe one of this group will rise to the occasion!

 

[Faraday40]

Jewel is my giant blue orp that can go broody 2-3xs per year. She's a 10 lb hen who can easily fit a doz+ eggs under her spread. Although I never gave her more than a doz, her max capacity is probably 18-24 LF eggs.

Here she was on a recent potty break. Her eggs are due in a couple days.

 

[Mduggar]

I have 6 broody chickens right now. We just got a rooster so we have like 25 eggs under all six of them...

 

[Faraday40]

Our yard is being taken over by broody hens! SIX broody hens!

Smudge- adopted all the May 1st hatches (4 preschools) had 38 chicks..... now down to 2 pullets (laced orp & Leghorn) & 2 lav orp cockerels. I think she's finally about to leave them. (We joke that she'll stay broody until her chicks start laying eggs.)
Her chicks:



Trouble - June 1 hatch = 17 sold or rehomed ......... & 2 chicks remain (I sold the 2 most pullet-looking chicks on Monday. If the remaining 2 are male, we won't be tempted to keep them. LOL) Any guesses on gender? I'm leaning toward 2 females.



Xansie & PR - June 9th hatch = 10 sold or rehomed ........ & 5 chicks remain. I didn't want to give up another nestbox when they both went broody, so I made them "share." They are still sharing the remaining chicks.



Jewel - June 20th hatch= 5 sold..... & 2 chicks + 3 turkeys remain



Cookie - on nest. Chicks due July 1st-3rd.
- Cookie being broody is pretty much her usual state.

 

[aliciaplus3]

This is my German biel and she is broody again..... or is it still????

this crazy bird started sitting the end of april..... so I gave her some eggs and she did really good till day 19 and then she was done..... so I put the eggs in the bator and hatched what I could. A week later she was broody again..... sigh so I tried to break her brooding with no luck. The first part of June I was having trouble with my hatcher so I gave her some eggs that were due 3 days later. Nope that didn't work came back to no egg and no chick. So there she sat on a nest and then my incubator was full but I had ore eggs I wanted to hatch so I let her have 9, if all else fails she might work out as an incubator even if she won't hatch em.

 

[1cock2hens]

the anticipation is killing me, 5 days and the first of my 4 current broodies will be hatching her eggs!

anybody else have broodies that play musical nests? my buff orpington always has the same nest but the 3 other broodies switch. there is a clutch of a dozen eggs, one of 8 and one of 4. when the hen on the 12 gets up to stretch the one on 8 moves to the 12, the one on 4 moves to 8 and the one that was on 12 comes back to sit on 4. this has been going on for over a week, the 3 of them went broody within 36 hours of each other

 

[Faraday40]

anybody else have broodies that play musical nests?

I had a silkie go broody at the same time as my penciled rock. I didn't want to give up 2 nest boxes, so I had them "share." Those chicks have 2 mommies. It's pretty cute watching them walk across the yard together. One hen leads & the other moves the stragglers along.

Of course I have 6 broodies now, so sometimes the chicks will play "musical mommies." One nest was a chick short last night. I found it snuggled up with the co-broodies & chicks who were 1 week older.

 

[Faraday40]

Here's our "super broody"
She hatched a few eggs & I put her into the big brooder with her chicks. I also slipped the incubator chicks under her as they hatched. She was up to 23 chicks in the video. She has 24 now & the last 2 pipped eggs are in the incubator, due today.

 

[1cock2hens]

thats super cute. two of my broodies are just over a year old and have gone broody 4 times each, I am excited to finally have fertile eggs for them. My buff orpington is a year and a half old and a first time broody, shes doing really awesome so far, I thikn she will be a good mama. My other broody is my 5 month old salmon faverolla and i'm not expecting much from her. Its nice to have backups in case someone drops out of the broody race.