Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[featherz]

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she has been sitting for a week now, 5 days on real eggs. Only 8 months old now so who knows if she will stay there.

 

[Chicklette 1]

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What kind is she? She is beautiful! Do you know who daddy is?

 

[chickette]

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Yes, when our Mama Rosie comes into the pen for a break you'd think she lost something of extreme importance for all the hurring , running in zig zags and squaking that goes on in 3.5 second

The whole barnyard stops to see her, then waddel back up the chicken ramp, into the coup and on her nest .All done and over as nothing ever happend.

I love it!

 

[Miss Lydia]

yep!

hey ya'll look at this, http://www.raising-chickens.org/chicken-anatomy.html look at the life span of a chicken.

 

[featherz]

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What kind is she? She is beautiful! Do you know who daddy is?

She's a splash BLRW. And poor thing, none of the eggs she is sitting on are hers - she is still a pullet and lays teenyish eggs and I wasn't sure they would hatch. So I gave her my EE eggs that always seem to hatch. So daddy is my cochin/mutt roo and mommy are my two brown EE's.

daddy:

mommy:

And surrogate before going broody:

 

[Chicklette 1]

It will be interesting to see how the chicks turn out. They should be beautiful. I just love all the colors and patterns they come in.

 

[Chicklette 1]

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I wish mine would all get along like that. I think the first thing I need is a communal nest box because the photos below show what is going on. I tried moving the best of the 3 broodies with the eggs to her own place but she wouldn't even look at the new nest so i put her back and said let nature sort this out. The eggs are all from the grey EE but the cochin has claimed them and any others she can get a hold of.What to do, what to do?? The last photo is daddy watching over them.

 

[Miz Mary]

My silkie went boordy ..AGAIN !! Last night I moved her and her 4 eggs to her own little area /nest ........this am , she left her eggs and went back to the old nest ( 2 feet off the ground ) ................. I put her eggs back under her ..... should I try moving her again ,( and make it so she cant get out ) or wait until babies are hatched and then move them ?????

 

[Miss Lydia]

beautiful birds featherz, i'm sure those chicks will be georgeous!! and Chickette 1 aren't they funny, all those empty nest boxes and they all want the same one. and your roos is so handsome. can't wait to see pictures!!

 

[wilmothfarms]

My friend and I have some eggs of ours under her BRLW and they are in the process of hatching today! (we are so egg-cited!) I just went down and checked - 1 chick almost out and before I saw that one I listenedd to an egg and could hear scratching noises which made me check more fully under the hen and saw the other making its way into the world! I have two broody hens on their own clutches now due to hatch on the 8th or 9th. My question is this.
Her hen is in with the entire flock...should we move her and the babies to a separate pen or leave them there and let her take care of them. Move them to an area in the pen that is separate and let her out to be with the flock if she wants but where her babies are protected - there is a roo how will he act towards them? Hens have been doing this for years on their own and they know what to do so the theory is chicks should be ok.

My two hens are in their own brooder coop. I have several hens and they were laying on top of them bugging the crap out of them since they were in the favorite nesting boxes. Once I moved them they were so much more happier. Should I move them back closer to hatching so they can incorporate the chicks to the flock right away, take the chicks and raise as I do bought chicks and introduce later when they are older, let moms raise them alone from the flock. let them out in short periods? This is the first time either of us have hatched our own eggs so we have NO clue what we are doing. And what to feed them, if we keep them with mom, do we feed medicated feed, will it hurt mom, just dont eat her eggs, do they even lay, inoculate? Oh I hate the thought of giving shots to a chick. I'm worried about disease, though my flock is clean and disease free do I need to worry about that at all anyway? We are isolated from other birds at the moment. But I do occasionally bring in some I've bought but I dont plan on any others at this time, but if I find a breed I've been looking for I may but I only plan to buy from reputable breeders if I do or raise my own from now on. I dont know if I have a lot of time if we need to separate the hen whos chicks are hatching now so thats why this post, I dont have the time to read this entire thread.