Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[babigyrl22]

I just stuck some eggs under my broody yesterday

...here we goooo.....

 

[featherz]

My mohawk chick from a few weeks ago is still doing great under his broody 'mom' - he's the one that was scalped at birth. We now think he was pulled and injured from my second (now) broody, who was not apparently so at the time of the incident. She (broody #2) is sitting on ONE egg now.

Best part was I have eight viable eggs in a bator to give her that are due in a bit over a week - I figured her one egg would never hatch - she is brooding it in a damp spot of the coop where water got in during the floods and several times the egg was sitting in nasty wet shavings (I cleaned and replaced with dry when she got up). Plus my roos are all young and have way too many ladies to choose from (2 teenaged roos to 45 hens). But I candled her one egg yesterday and omg it's actually moving! LOL. So if it hatches she'll have one little chick and I'll have eight babies a week later to rehome somehow. What fun!

And I think 'mohawk' is a roo. figures.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Glad to hear mohawk is doing good, and roos are good to have too. Good luck on the hatches [1 and then 8]

 

[Miss Lydia]

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looking forward to hearing all about it...

 

[jennifersouza]

Oh goodness. Now one of my hens who was laying where my Dominique is setting is trying to share the nest with her! Any ideas? I removed her twice, but she keeps going back. Now they've been in there together for 2 hours, and there are 4 eggs in another nest alone (noone has even set them.)

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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As soon as I am sure my girl is really sitting, I move her to private quarters (a cage) with a door (within the coop), so that she doesn't have to defend the nest and the eggs are not disturbed, and so that eggs are not added to the clutch. If I had two broodies, I'd be doing the same thing for both.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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As soon as I am sure my girl is really sitting, I move her to private quarters (a cage) with a door (within the coop), so that she doesn't have to defend the nest and the eggs are not disturbed, and so that eggs are not added to the clutch. If I had two broodies, I'd be doing the same thing for both.

X2!

 

[jennifersouza]

That is good for future reference....we are free-range, no coop, and on our farm sometimes we don't even know where they are laying. But right now, at our house, what should I do? Let them share?

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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Do you have a dog kennel you could move them into? Or could you quickly fashion some sort of enclosure for them? Failing that and given that yours sounds like a very free situation, you may have to just go with "what will be, will be" and let them sort it out.

 

[jennifersouza]

Hmmmm.....when my husband gets home maybe we can figure things out. We don't have any animal carriers or anything. It's probably going to have to be "Que sera, sera!"