Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[fisherlady]

anybody else have broodies that play musical nests?

Oh, my... That is a favorite game around here! We have 4 broodies with older chicks, 5 with 1 week olds and 4 sitting... swapping nests follows through to sharing chicks. Once you have a broody minded flock they sort of take over and prefer humans just get out of the way, lol.
We often start eggs now in our home made incubator and give them to hens on day 19 or 20. Unless a hen is in a private nest or there are only a couple of active broodies, then we just let her alone and candle on day 10 to remove duds.

 

[1cock2hens]

I have a chirp! // three little ones so far!

 

[1cock2hens]

6 little ones so far, I counted toes and they all have 5 so I think it's safe to say my salmon faverolle is the father and not the buff orpington.

 

[1cock2hens]

well 7 hatched, one just didnt make it. another hen took over the nest. I'm going to candle tonight to see if she is waisting her time or not, i'm sure a couple got put in her clutch late by the other hens.

 

[1cock2hens]

 

[1cock2hens]

 

[jwyles]

My lavender Ameraucana, and first time broody, hatched one little chick for me night before last. I've really enjoyed the process of watching her incubate her eggs and now mother her chick. It may be my favorite part of keeping chickens. She did break one egg with a fully formed chick in it and the chick ended up dying but I think it was just due to her inexperience. Anyway I'm loving this and cannot wait to do it again!

 

[1cock2hens]

just as i suspected, 2 eggs in her clutch are still developing. I just checked the eggs under one of my gamehens, 5 of the 7 i checked were fertile and developing

 

[jwyles]

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.

At what age did your salmon faverolle start laying? I have one that I thought was doing a broody thing when she was young like that but she had barely started laying so I thought no way. I contacted her breeder and she told me her salmons almost all tended to "play mommy" more or less in the nest box when they were first figuring things out. It's like they go into a slightly less committed brood.

 

[1cock2hens]

I'm honestly not positive,she wasnt laying long, hardly 4 months old. She was playing musical nests for a couple days but has finally plopped down on her own clutch, I candled them, left her two eggs and she seems to be content