Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

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I enjoy watching them, now i have a bunch of older chicks running around together, only 3 still with mama. but I still am enjoying watching them all and seeing how they have entergrated into the flock. One more broody still to go due on the 21st.
Congrats on the hatch...

 

[Youneek Farm]

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Have you candelled the eggs? That way you would know if they are duds. We have our first broody hatch(hopefully) in progress. It so amazing to me how diligent this little hen, who is normally running all over the place scrounging whatever food treats she can get, has become. I am fighting the urge to candle her eggs as I am afraid that if I disturb her she might stop sitting on them??

I only candle if the broody is off the nest. Otherwise I NEVER bother the broody. They know how to be chickens better than we know how to be chickens.

Speaking of off the nest, my barred rock left her brood of 8 eggs yesterday (she's only been on them 3+ days) and when I saw her I thought she was one of my other ladies so I put her back in general population. Now that I found her brooding in her old spot, I'm worried. I put her back on her clutch of 8 in her separate dog pen/brooder but she was off of the eggs for about 24 hours. The weather has only been in the 70's. Is that too long for her to be off of them? Do they still stand a chance? I have a long time to wait to find out if they are duds.

Anyone have experience with this? I'm tempted to put her back in her favorite brooding spot but it's too hard to keep the other hens from squeezing in to lay more eggs! HELP!

 

[stonykill]

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I only candle if the broody is off the nest. Otherwise I NEVER bother the broody. They know how to be chickens better than we know how to be chickens.

Speaking of off the nest, my barred rock left her brood of 8 eggs yesterday (she's only been on them 3+ days) and when I saw her I thought she was one of my other ladies so I put her back in general population. Now that I found her brooding in her old spot, I'm worried. I put her back on her clutch of 8 in her separate dog pen/brooder but she was off of the eggs for about 24 hours. The weather has only been in the 70's. Is that too long for her to be off of them? Do they still stand a chance? I have a long time to wait to find out if they are duds.

Anyone have experience with this? I'm tempted to put her back in her favorite brooding spot but it's too hard to keep the other hens from squeezing in to lay more eggs! HELP!

Taking a guess here....but I've heard of people selling hatching eggs, that incubate them for 3 days before shipping them. So I'm thinking you will be ok. Let her sit on them another 5 days then candle them. You should be able to see something on day 8.

 

[Crabella]

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How is your hatch going Julie? Have 3 hatched and one pipped of 6... and about 5 days to go on the 2nd broody.

 

[Firefly]

Hi all. I just finished reading this ENTIRE thread!! It answered so many of my questions and I wanted to thank everyone who participated. So here's my story... had a BO go broody back in March. We made sure she was going to stick with it, and once we were sure we got 4 fertilized eggs from my sister (no roo here) and moved her to a separate coop we use any time some of the birds need isolating. We did everything right-- moved at night etc, but it wound up breaking her of being broody. So disappointing! Well, she went broody again and this time we're just letting her do her thing in the nesting box, as we don't want to risk breaking her again. It's not an ideal situation at all-- the box is large (about 18"wide by 14" high) so she has room, but it's almost 2 feet off the ground and other hens have access to it. I marked her eggs so that we could pick out the unfertilized eggs and that was working well. Then, one of our BRs decided she wanted to sit on the eggs, and was very aggressive about kicking out the BO and not letting her back in. I tried to give her her own eggs to sit on, but she's wasn't really committed to it. So I wound up building a screen that fastens in front of the nest box to keep other birds out of the nest. I leave it open when they're all free ranging and I can be home to check in frequently (which is often, as I'm a homeschooler!) Buttercup (the BO) does get down to eat, drink, and dust occasionally when it's opened up. Then it's back to business.

Anyway, we are really excited. I know it's a small number, but we'll be thrilled even if only one of the four hatch. If all goes well we should be hatching on June 30th!

 

[JulieNKC]

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How is your hatch going Julie? Have 3 hatched and one pipped of 6... and about 5 days to go on the 2nd broody.

I have 8 hatched, 1 pipped, and 2 non pipped. And another hen going broody.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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exciting is the right word, and sounds like your setup is working, when the chicks hatch move mama and chicks to the ground level that way if any fall out of the nest they will be right there where mama is. looking forward to hearing what you get...

 

[NHchicks]

I love seeing all these cute photos. So I'll just add a couple more from today.

I posted a few pages back a photo of our easter egger with her dominique brood of 4 (bought eggs). Here's another one of her:

And then I put up a photo of our other RIR broody who wouldn't let me see the peepers under her. Well, 5 out of 6 of them hatched (bought - barnyard mix) and now that it's day #2, she had them pecking around all day outside:

Broody hens are amazing.

 

[stonykill]

NHChicks....cute pics! I've had my RIR's for 4 years now and never had one go broody. Now my Sumatra's....they are an entirely different story

Your EE is quite a pretty mama

 

[brahmamamamak]

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Just remember when chicks hatch they won't be able to get back into that nest when they fall out, you might want to just move her to the floor on bedding. all the best for a great hatch!

Thats the plan, thank you!