Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

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since your not keeping the chicks and want people to be able to see them and hold them I think you should probably go ahead and move them now, as long as they will be where they can't get back to original nest site. Are you planning on selling the chicks as soon as they hatch or give them so time to grow out? and I bet the hens know whos eggs belongs to who. But with that much of a time difference I am not sure either one will stay til the 30th.

 

[laughingull]

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Day 22 pm - still nothing, hope dwindling. Do I need to get her chicks from the feed store or will she be ok if nothing pops out of an egg to follow her around?

 

[foxinachickenhouse]

We are planning to start offering the chicks after their first week. I imagine some will be around long enough to grow out a bit, but not sure. Hoping to keep one or two.

Thanks for the advice, I think I will get their area ready in the garage and make the move. Now, I wish I had kept them more separate given the length of time between hatches. Maybe one of them will see unhatched eggs and feel compelled to keep sitting.

It occurred to me to try to put the peeping eggs under the longer sitter on the last day. Is that handling the eggs too much?

 

[stonykill]

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Day 22 pm - still nothing, hope dwindling. Do I need to get her chicks from the feed store or will she be ok if nothing pops out of an egg to follow her around?

I've had eggs hatch on day 23,24,and day 25 as well as day 19, and 20. They aren't on timers. Some take longer, some less time. If it were me, I'd wait.

 

[shellyga]

I bought two Buff Orpington hens.. one being broody when I made the deal - the owner had expected the eggs to hatch on Mother's Day.. but there she was.. still sitting on eggs when I came to pick up my purchases. SO.. out comes the blanket from the truck.. I lift her up (covered of course).. the eggs and nest are moved into a box and away we go.. once home.. she settles into the isolation coop still on the eggs..until the lure of fresh food was too hard to resist. While she was off the nest, I candled really quickly. All but 4 of the 14 eggs were no good.. the 4 others showed veining and various stages of development. DH and I decided that if she was still sitting tomorrow (that being today) we would switch out eggs for her. I had a new nest in an identical box with 12 shipped eggs all ready. She got up to eat, we did the old nest switch-a-roo. When she came back, she gave one glance in the new box - hopped on in and has been happily growling at every other chicken since. Now I am keeping some space in the incubator open just in case she decides enough is enough.. but until then, we are enjoying the free incubating from an unexpected source. Gotta love a bargain!

currently have 4 broody hens

Shelly

 

[laughingull]

Quote:
Day 22 pm - still nothing, hope dwindling. Do I need to get her chicks from the feed store or will she be ok if nothing pops out of an egg to follow her around?

I've had eggs hatch on day 23,24,and day 25 as well as day 19, and 20. They aren't on timers. Some take longer, some less time. If it were me, I'd wait.

Thank you for the encouragement Stony- I'm trying not to be impatient, but if they do pop out I have to build a new coop for momma and the babes, and was hoping to do that over the weekend (the best made plans...). If they don't hatch I don't want to rush a coop building project though. (I am operating under the assumption that it would be a bad plan to add mom and the kids back into the coop with my other 2 as poor mom is the bottom of the pecking order and the coop is not huge (About 10' x 4' or something like that). I have her and her nest in a rabbit hutch right now.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Day 22 pm - still nothing, hope dwindling. Do I need to get her chicks from the feed store or will she be ok if nothing pops out of an egg to follow her around?

if your absolutely sure this is day 22 then for her and you I'd get her a couple chicks tomorrow, if you have room for some, wait till night and go in a take out the eggs and slip the chicks under her. she'll be so happy when she wakes up and hears peeping

sorry didn't see stonys post, if that has happened to them then maybe wait for a couple more days, Ours usually hatch on time.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Well congrats Shelly sounds like you got a deal for sure. keep us updated on how it goes and gotta love them orps, i have 2 Lavender orps. 4 mos old.

 

[stonykill]

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Day 22 pm - still nothing, hope dwindling. Do I need to get her chicks from the feed store or will she be ok if nothing pops out of an egg to follow her around?

sorry didn't see stonys post, if that has happened to them then maybe wait for a couple more days, Ours usually hatch on time.

My Sumatra's usually start to hatch on day 19. But this last time with a broody it started on day 21, late in day 21. With incubated eggs, I've had some hatch on day 19, and at the lastest day 25. It only happened on day 25 once, but I'll say this. I was JUST ABOUT TO THROW THE EGGS OUT! The last one I took out, I noticed a pip. I promptly put them all back, and most of them hatched that day. The rest were dead in shell for whatever reason.
But to shorten this some, I commonly have them hatch between day 19 and day 23.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well I forgot to tell ya'll I now have another broody.

#8... my dh said no more so I accidently put one egg under her since she was sitting on 2 Brahma eggs [probably not fertile] and a duck egg. she was so upset when i took her out of the nest box that i just couldn't help my self. so I'll wait till dh gets back from his 3 day camp and then tell him, I mean gosh it's just 1 egg right? My 2 muscovy hens ate me up this morning when I had to take them off the nest and take their eggs. Broodiness is so contagious it's a good thing I've been spayed..

my muscovies are very gentle unless brooding then they will pinch the day lights out of ya.
my mama hen is still hanging in there. The only thing she will eat is greek yogurt and meal worms. and she has been drinking water with nutridrench in it. I don't think it's Mareks any longer but sure wish i knew what it is. Her chicks are doing great and all the rest of the chickens are doing good. I am baffled.