Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

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JP have you already removed the chick from mama Millie? if you are worried for it's safety I would, and if you think mama Miesha will accept it then by all means give it to her but I would confine her or she might leave egg to take the chick outside. just keep a close eye in case Miesha decideds to reject the chick. Hopefully she won't. let us know how it goes.

Thanks miss lydia- We removed megan the chick because Millie wouldnt stop. we took miesha inside and set her up with her nest in a cage... when we tried to put them together she rejected the chick (as if it were a threat to her egg). we might try again with miesha tonight but for now we have megan setup beside mieshas cage... Im not sure when mieshas egg is due but now i wish it would hurry up lol. when megan peeps i can see miesha looking at her side and underneath her so maybe the second time will be more successful. (she also has a history of "2nd times a charm" when sneaking days old chicks under her)
The room there in is not air conditioned (i live in FL) so during the day the room stays around 95... i am really hoping miesha will accept her tonight because i dont want to have to setup a the heat lamp

How old is Megan? and if you have to have a heat lamp you can always use a heating pad. that way the heat would only be for the chick. I hope Miesha will accept it tonight. especially since she is hearing it. let us know

 

[heatherkh]

Well, we decided to stop fighting our brooch Austrolorp and let her set on some eggs. We're going to keep her in the main coop, but keep a good eye on things as they progress and if we have to separate her and any chicks (or any aggressive hens) we can do so. I'd just rather have any chicks grow up within the flock than do the introduction thing later. Our neighbor is a long time chicken keeper, quite a salty dog, so he'll be helping us rookies out. I'm making sure Weezy has food/water accessible, and will switch the layer food out when the chicks arrive. We have to peeper proof the coop/run before they come as well.

We don't want a huge brood - ideally we'd like four viable chicks. How many eggs should she be sitting on? This weekends egg count has been low because of the heat, but right now she's on six. Thanks guys!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

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If you have a young viral roo then you could have 6 fertile eggs, let her have a few more then in 7 to 10 days candle and toss those that aren't viable. I'll find a good post on candleing if you don't know how.. maybe this will help if not, then google egg candleing and you'll find alot of info.. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261876 good luck and let us know how it goes..

 

[Jloeffler]

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I'm not sure if you need to take her out to eat/drink, but that's what I did for my broody. I was just so worried about her since it was my first one

I went out every afternoon about the same time and picked her up and set her outside where she could take a dust bath, eat & drink. I stayed with her and gave her about 20 to 30 min and put her back in. She still lost a lot of weight though, even doing that! And her legs were wobbly for the first minute or so every day too. So, I figured she really needed the food and the exercise each day.

Here's a photo of my broody Myrtle:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/82974_img_1143.jpg

Myrtle's beautiful! Very pretty coloring!
Thanks for the tip! This is my first broody too, so yeah, worried is a great description! I'm jealous yours let you pick her up! I had to use my kids large plastic beach shovel to gently lift her backend up and the nudge her forward out of the nesting box! When I tried to just pick her up shevtried to take outset of my hand! Normally she is super shy...darn hormones!

She gets off a bit easier for me now, but I think that's just because one of the times I nudged her put she came back to find 12 eggs waiting for her. I think she expects new eggs every time he gets up! Greedy broody!

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Well I removed NeeNee's babies...she sat them well all day but the last time I went to check they were huddled up in the food dish cheeping and she was blissfully unawares as she "brooded" her empty nest... at least she didn't attack them...I gave her the eggs back...

And my broody andalusian is still fighting me...she has been in the nest box all afternoon sitting on air, so after dark I removed her and left her on the floor of the coop: figured she maybe wouldn't get back in the nest in the dark...

 

[lampshadeee69]

I have 3 of my 6 hens brooding. (One is in quarentine with a nasty respiratory infection, though.) My flock looks like a raccoon came hahaha.

 

[heatherkh]

Thanks for the reply and link, Miss Lydia!

 

[JP101010]

Megan is about 5 days old ...Miesha's firm with her hatred for this new chick. 2nd time was not a charm... so out came the heat lamp... I have got her at 92 degrees , she seems to be happy , eating and drinking...
I guess i will just have to wait to see if this other egg hatches so that megan can have a huddle buddy

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I don't know why some mamas reject their own, we had the same thing happen with one of our broody chickens who killed both of her chicks when they hatched, I am pretty sure something was wrong with both, but then our only broody duck tried to kill her first ever hatched duckling, so something in them has got to be wired wrong. But it happens in humans too,thank goodness it doesn't happen often in either. Sorry it did for little meagan, but happy she will have a snuggle buddy soon. let us know.

 

[Nigellas]

Well, today was day 24 with nothing happening so I removed the eggs from my broody.

When she got back into her box she kept looking down going back and forth like she was looking for them.

Poor thing. I wish I could find her some day olds to adopt but I don't think anyone around here has any this late on. She was sitting for a good month before I gave her these eggs, so she looks like crap and I don't want her sitting for another 21 days to try again.