Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

well that is so cool momip, can't hardly wait to see pics. congrats to you stony,


now i have a questions, my game hen who hatched chicks on easter Sunday has been taking great care of her 2 chicks, today i noticed she was a little wobbly, and by afternoon was using her wings to help keep her balance, I put her and her chicks in a separate part of our small coop and put nutri drench in her water along with giving them their own food. Has any body noticed this in one of their hens after hatching? I am wondering if might have an electrolyte inbalance, I am going to town tomorrow and plan to stop by TSC, and will pick up some electrolytes . I watched her for a long time and she was eating and drinking fine and taking care of her chicks she was just a little un balanced. you know we worry about our chickens like we do our kids..

 

[momiphouph]

Quote:
That sounds about right because the first chicks were a few days old, guess she thought she was done. I think we have a few late eggs too... my ds added to the pile and didnt happen to mention it to me. LOL He is just as addicted as I am, if not more! lol Looks like we will be running the bator for a few days...

 

[broodytood]

Quote:
That sounds about right because the first chicks were a few days old, guess she thought she was done. I think we have a few late eggs too... my ds added to the pile and didnt happen to mention it to me. LOL He is just as addicted as I am, if not more! lol Looks like we will be running the bator for a few days...

Your comment about your DS just made me have to quit lurking and pop in to say... That's so cute that he added more! I have 5 that I'm home schooling also( and 1 in college). I don't have a broody as of yet but if we are blessed enough to eventually have one go broody, I am soooo gonna have to watch my kids! They are like me in thinking that you can never have enough babies around.
Anyway, thanks for letting me intrude on ya. I would have before but I'm broodiless!

 

[Miss Lydia]

thats okay broodytood, if you join us it is so contagious you'll probably have one before you know it.

yep usually after a couple of days if the rest of the eggs don't hatch they will leave the nest to take care of the hatched chicks.

 

[Terri O]

Quote:
I am glad you got to her...for me it was too late! My tiny broody hatched 13 chicks and was doing great. We had an unfortunate incident at our farm where a dog got out of the kennel and killed a bunch of chicks from various mamas. Anyhow, she had a few left and went droopy like that and was gone by the morning. The dog didnt hurt her, I think she was just really spent from sitting--she was sooo skinny! Made me sad. Terri O

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks for the reply TerriO, i hope i don't lose her, I am sure it takes alot out of them and these game are so high strung anyway, I will try to give her a few days rest and if I have to take her chicks from her I will. I sure hope i don't have too though. Sorry about your loss..

 

[broodytood]

Quote:
That's one thing I won't mind catching. All the broody pics are so great! Can't wait!

 

[momiphouph]

Quote:
That sounds about right because the first chicks were a few days old, guess she thought she was done. I think we have a few late eggs too... my ds added to the pile and didnt happen to mention it to me. LOL He is just as addicted as I am, if not more! lol Looks like we will be running the bator for a few days...

Your comment about your DS just made me have to quit lurking and pop in to say... That's so cute that he added more! I have 5 that I'm home schooling also( and 1 in college). I don't have a broody as of yet but if we are blessed enough to eventually have one go broody, I am soooo gonna have to watch my kids! They are like me in thinking that you can never have enough babies around.
Anyway, thanks for letting me intrude on ya. I would have before but I'm broodiless!

Im so glad you "intruded"! We are really bad around here, I had just finished telling my ds, no more chicks and the next day I went to TSC and brought home 6 more. LOL Then he neglected to mention that a hen had gone broody for about a week, by then I couldnt exactly collect the eggs. I just figured we would hatch a few. hahaha he added more! Stinker! LOL My oldest is in college too, and my nephew just moved in... so back to schooling 5! haha never boring here! DS built his own bator as a homeschool project last year, he did a great job and hatched 6 chicks in it. It was a great project for him now we are learning (unintentionally) about broody hens. lol Having the chick hatch in his hands was huge to him, something he will always remember. I say if you get a broody... Go for it! You can always sell the chicks but you cant put a price on those memories!

hope you catch a dose of our contagiousness... (is that a word?

)

Hopefully I can get some pictures posted...

Miss Lydia ...Wish I had some advice to give you to help with that mama bird. Hope she is feeling better by morning!

They really are like the kids especially if they get sick... the nice thing is we can leave them locked up in the coop unlike the kids.

 

[momiphouph]

Its dark here... and we are looking at putting the chicks in with the mama... is this still a good idea? Im really nervous about adding them. IF she doesnt accept them, will she kill them? I hate to have done all this work just to have her hurt them. We can just raise them by hand, but if mom is willing to do it... Im okay with that as long as she does the job. Any thoughts on that??? Just hoping to get as much info as possible.
I forgot to mention... another chick hatched!!!

 

[ronikins]

Quote:
I dunno. I'm leary of adding chicks to other broody mamas. One of our broodies hatched an egg and rejected her. So my husband put the rejected baby under a mama that had a baby that was already a week or so old. When he came back to check on her, her eye had been pecked out and the mama had gone outside with her baby. Not to scare you but I just don't like the idea of trying that anymore, sorry

On another note, we had a 4th broody hen hatch 5 out of 6 in her clutch.

She's doing very well now. They're about 6 days old.

I have another problem tho. We have 2 older chicks that are nearly a month old.

Their mama has pretty much deemed them adult enough to survive without her. Now she's left them to roost on their own at night. The chicks are freaked out about it. They try their hardest to crawl under ANY hen that will let them. They try to get under the newst mama with the 5 babies. She pecks at their eyes when they do this! I am so worried that I'm going to end up with another one-eyed chick!! Should I just let things run the course? I have nowhere to keep the older chicks now. Any advice?