Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Faraday40]

Help I think I'm loosing the eggs, my little bantam and another chicken (I'm not sure of the breed) has hatched 15 guys and I still have 5 eggs left. 2 are from one of my hens that just got killed, so I'm really hoping they hatch. it's been 21 day for at least one of them. They feel cold and at least one of the hens does not seem interested in sitting on them. I did relocate them to a different container because it got really cold outside. Is it possible for them to still make it even if they had a chill spell and have been moved maybe a little too much.

Yes. It's definitely worth a try. The unhatched embryos can go into a sort-of stasis, so if you don't have an incubator, try the methods mentioned above.

 

[Kikomommy]

Yes, they can make it. To finish them yourself without an incubator, a heat lamp will work. Use a thermometer to get the right temperature.
If you don’t have that either, do it the farmer’s wife way. In the oven! Put them on a towel with the door cracked open, and use your noggin to keep from cooking them. Chicken nuggets are good, but let them hatch first.

Unfortunately my my oven is broken but I just realized that my older Instapot has a temperature setting and control from an iPhone app. I have it set at 100 now but I may have cooked one egg when I didn't realize it would get so warm on a " keep warm setting". This gadget is actually pretty awesome since it lets you configure a program script for how you want the think to cook. I have it set on 25%, for 24 hr, at 100 with one cup of water on the bottom. Fingers crossed. Now I just have to fix my oven. You gave me hope, thank you.

 

[Faraday40]

Unfortunately my my oven is broken but I just realized that my older Instapot has a temperature setting and control from an iPhone app. I have it set at 100 now but I may have cooked one egg when I didn't realize it would get so warm on a " keep warm setting". This gadget is actually pretty awesome since it lets you configure a program script for how you want the think to cook. I have it set on 25%, for 24 hr, at 100 with one cup of water on the bottom. Fingers crossed. Now I just have to fix my oven. You gave me hope, thank you. View attachment 1932964 View attachment 1932965

That's interesting what technology can do.

The water at the bottom is not touching the egg, right? (You want the egg out of the water & not wet, but the extra air humidity is a good thing.)

A towel & heating pad is another method. Yet, I have to admit that I'm very curious to see how the computer-programmed pot works out.

 

[4and20blackbrds]

I have a hen sitting on 3 eggs. I know that there’s a gap of 3-4 days between the oldest and newest egg, development wise. Will she keep sitting until the youngest hatches? Or will I need to finish the youngest myself? I wasn’t sure egg #2 was developing so I added #3 and now they’re all developing. Egg #1 is expected to hatch October 23rd.

This is our first time, obviously lol.

 

[BullChick]

She will likely stay. She can feel and hear inside the eggs, and will respond accordingly. To help her, have a chick waterer and crumble near her.

 

[4and20blackbrds]

She will likely stay. She can feel and hear inside the eggs, and will respond accordingly. To help her, have a chick waterer and crumble near her.

Thank you. She’s in the corner of our coop, opposite of our real nest boxes, I got a pet carrier yesterday to move her into so I can put food and water in with her/babies where the rest of the birds can’t get at it. Their food and water is otherwise outside of the coop.

 

[aliciaplus3]

Went to gather eggs and look who was practicing

mama had the babies on the top roost!

 

[fisherlady]

Brooding still going strong here right through winter. We had 4 hens hatch in early December, and as soon as they heard the chicks running around we had another 5 hens 'park' with broody hormones running amok in the coop. 2 hens are young first timers, the other 3 are older and have had many, many broods before. We set some of our own eggs for them to share. Hatch was over the weekend and we now have 5 hens sharing 11 chicks. One hen by herself and the others each paired off to co-brood, which is normal for our flock. We have a senior hen paired with each 1st timer which helps my peace of mind for winter hatches. Mindy has been a happy camper having all of the baby activity to supervise! Only got a few pictures so far...

 

[fisherlady]

And it looks like the chick activity has convinced a couple of our SPR hens it is time to raise their own chicks.... they are only on their 2nd day of being parked, and I am gathering eggs for them, so if they decide to stick it out we will be repeating this weekends activities in another 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[Molpet]

Unfortunately my my oven is broken but I just realized that my older Instapot has a temperature setting and control from an iPhone app. I have it set at 100 now but I may have cooked one egg when I didn't realize it would get so warm on a " keep warm setting". This gadget is actually pretty awesome since it lets you configure a program script for how you want the think to cook. I have it set on 25%, for 24 hr, at 100 with one cup of water on the bottom. Fingers crossed. Now I just have to fix my oven. You gave me hope, thank you. View attachment 1932964 View attachment 1932965

So how did this work out?