Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:

You are going to have the Sumatras coming out your ears stony, Congrats !!!! everyday i see more roos, up to 6 now

Thanks! They seem to be all hers and 1 Black Sumatra's. 2 days in a row I see the same Black Sumatra hen yelling at Mama to get offthe nest. So I think they were both laying there, and Mama decided it was time to raise more little fuzzy butts

 

[bburn]

Quote:
If you can lift an egg to your ear you might just hear peeping. It is so cool to hear!! let us know when you see the first pip

Will do. I cannot even go out there. Had surgery on my foot and am still non weight bearing. My DH is supposed to get the golf cart to the front of the house for me so I can drive out to the chicken yard once the hatching starts. So strange after hatching in an incubator!

But....the hen has been facing the same directon for two days. The eggs have not been adjusted that we can tell for the last two days. My SIL says that she is on the eggs but wings are spread out further and she is not flat as a pancake anymore. Keep thinking that maybe there are chicks and she has not seen them! She takes the camera out and takes pictures for me.
This is pretty exciting really.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
If you can lift an egg to your ear you might just hear peeping. It is so cool to hear!! let us know when you see the first pip

Will do. I cannot even go out there. Had surgery on my foot and am still non weight bearing. My DH is supposed to get the golf cart to the front of the house for me so I can drive out to the chicken yard once the hatching starts. So strange after hatching in an incubator!

But....the hen has been facing the same directon for two days. The eggs have not been adjusted that we can tell for the last two days. My SIL says that she is on the eggs but wings are spread out further and she is not flat as a pancake anymore. Keep thinking that maybe there are chicks and she has not seen them! She takes the camera out and takes pictures for me.
This is pretty exciting really.

Sounds like your getting close, You'll hear peeing if there are any.

 

[hallerlake]

Put eggs under a couple of my broody hens earlier this afternoon. One is already broken. It's a good thing i have some in my incubator, too.

 

[SCallahan]

One of our Columbian Wyandottes has been sitting on eggs for the last few weeks, and today, the eggs are starting to hatch. We hadn't planned for this, and we didn't really do much different during the time she was broody. She decided to sit on some eggs that were just in one of the nest boxes we use for our hens, though it is one that is by itself somewhat out of the way. We pretty much just let her sit on them and put some food and water near her. Now that they've hatched, what should I do? Should I let her take care of this by herself? Should I put chick starter out there?

My biggest concern with all this is that the nest box area they are currently in is in a 3'x6' sort of nest box high rise that sits about 4ft off the ground, and I have no idea how the chickies are ever going to get down from there... I want to move them or modify the structure somehow but she's still sitting on other eggs, should I wait until I'm sure they won't hatch?

These chicks are fathered by our BLRW rooster who died suddenly the day this hen decided to go broody. Its very likely that the eggs that the chicks hatched from were layed by other hens, which would mean that they are half BLRW and half either RIR, Dominique, Columbian Wyandotte, White Wyandotte, or BLRW. Should be interesting trying to figure out which it is.

Thanks

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I'd move the hen and chicks as soon as they hatch to ground level. It will be fine for the mama and chicks to be in the coop with everyone else, just put chick feed in there and mama will take care of everything else. water too. As soon as mama takes them out you can remove the food and water. or leave it, I had to take it out because my LF brahmas hens were making a mess of it. I used a platic crate to put food and water under for the chicks right outside of the coop[turned the crate upside down so only the chicks could go in and get food]. I had to feed everyone starter food for a couple of weeks including my ducks it was like candy to them. Now that we've had so many chicks they can take it or leave it. My youngest chicks are 5 weeks and I feed Purina Flock Raiser crumbles to everyone. much easier than trying to give the chicks one feed and adults another. How many have hatched? Congrats!!!

 

[stonykill]

Quote:
I'd move the hen and chicks as soon as they hatch to ground level. It will be fine for the mama and chicks to be in the coop with everyone else, just put chick feed in there and mama will take care of everything else. water too. As soon as mama takes them out you can remove the food and water. or leave it, I had to take it out because my LF brahmas hens were making a mess of it. I used a platic crate to put food and water under for the chicks right outside of the coop[turned the crate upside down so only the chicks could go in and get food]. I had to feed everyone starter food for a couple of weeks including my ducks it was like candy to them. Now that we've had so many chicks they can take it or leave it. My youngest chicks are 5 weeks and I feed Purina Flock Raiser crumbles to everyone. much easier than trying to give the chicks one feed and adults another. How many have hatched? Congrats!!!

good advise! I couldn't think of a thing to add.....

 

[stonykill]

and we have liftoff!!!!!!!!!!!

BROODY #10!!!!!! Another Black Sumatra went broody..... or maybe a repeat..... who knows, all the black ones look SO SIMILAR....

She is only on todays eggs. There are usually 3 in that nest daily.......

 

[SCallahan]

Thanks Miss Lydia for the great advice.

I'll try to get them over to the main coop asap. I'm a bit reluctant to do that yet just because the mama is still sitting on some eggs and I don't know if they're going to hatch or not. She seems to be handling the chicks and the sitting pretty well for the time being.. I'm considering moving the mama, chicks and eggs into a temporary pen area with chick starter and water that the rest of the hens can't get to. We've got 2 particularly feisty hens that I'm worried won't be too welcoming to the new additions quite yet..

So far we have 2 hatched. They're super cute.

 

[welasharon]

Just make sure they can't drown in water. Someone had that happen recently so it is fresh on my mind.