Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

4 days ago, I posted




Yesterday evening, Nutmeg was sleeping in the nest box. Not wanting to get too excited, I ignored it. Today, she is still there! I gave her some golf balls to sit on till Tuesday, if she is still there she will get 6 LF eggs to hatch. It will be her first clutch but this is her 3rd time broody. She is 9 mos old.

Again lets us know how it goes, we love to see pics of new hatchlings too. Very pretty broody also.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I will try to keep a long story as short as I can. I am a novice with three production chickens that were doing fine. Built them a new 4x6 coop in the summer. On an impulse I added a bantam silver lace wyandotte. Not a great layer. One of the hens decided to start picking on the other two. Was about ready to get rid of the bantam and then she started laying an egg a day for a couple of weeks. Of course I removed them. Then I noticed she was always in the nest box on top of the golf ball. We thought she was her usual unsocialable self. Then my father in law said he was broody, so I ordered 4 fertilized eggs. A few days before they arrived I moved her to a small coop in the garage with a new nest box and her golf ball. It is very cold here in Wisconsin. The eggs came and we placed them under her. She sat on them for three days and then I noticed she was down in the lower part of the coop and the eggs were cold. I moved her back up to the nest and blocked off the small area she is in so she has access to food and water. Any chance the eggs are still okay? Would you expect them to get off the nest so long the eggs get old??

I had a few back in the summer that did that, and found the eggs cold but she did eventually get them hatched, but that was in the summer, if you can candle them wait a few more days then try to candle by then you should see some veining starting if they are viable. Bantams make great broodys and wonderful mothers so don't give up on her .

 

[QUAILHILLFARMS]

We are ready to retire and thought we would try chickens on our acreage. We are brand new at this - haven't even purchased our day old chicks but have decided to buy BO for dual purchase and cochin bantams for broody mothers. We are keeping them in two different locations - BO for free range at the farm and cochins in a large fenced in yard at our home. Question - how many eggs of standard chickens can you put under cochin bantams? This will determine how many day old chicks we will purchase.

We have read every article and every book but we think that experience will be our best teachers.

 

[Miss Lydia]

We are ready to retire and thought we would try chickens on our acreage. We are brand new at this - haven't even purchased our day old chicks but have decided to buy BO for dual purchase and cochin bantams for broody mothers. We are keeping them in two different locations - BO for free range at the farm and cochins in a large fenced in yard at our home. Question - how many eggs of standard chickens can you put under cochin bantams? This will determine how many day old chicks we will purchase.

We have read every article and every book but we think that experience will be our best teachers.

I have cochin bantams and I would3- 4 would be tops. My cbantam sat on 2 brahma eggs and 2 bantam eggs last year and that was a good # for her.

 

[perchie.girl]

We are ready to retire and thought we would try chickens on our acreage. We are brand new at this - haven't even purchased our day old chicks but have decided to buy BO for dual purchase and cochin bantams for broody mothers. We are keeping them in two different locations - BO for free range at the farm and cochins in a large fenced in yard at our home. Question - how many eggs of standard chickens can you put under cochin bantams? This will determine how many day old chicks we will purchase.

We have read every article and every book but we think that experience will be our best teachers.

HEY.....

from San Diego.

 

[stonykill]

We are ready to retire and thought we would try chickens on our acreage. We are brand new at this - haven't even purchased our day old chicks but have decided to buy BO for dual purchase and cochin bantams for broody mothers. We are keeping them in two different locations - BO for free range at the farm and cochins in a large fenced in yard at our home. Question - how many eggs of standard chickens can you put under cochin bantams? This will determine how many day old chicks we will purchase.

We have read every article and every book but we think that experience will be our best teachers.

welcome! Pic looks like the mid west. Beautiful pic. Reading helps. But like you said experience is the only true way to learn. This site is full of helpful people to answer any of your questions.

 

[QUAILHILLFARMS]

Yes we are from Missouri, North of the Missouri River and in the middle of the state. That is our german shorthaired pointer that is running through the field. She will not like our new endeavor as she will want to hunt them wjhich is not acceptable.

Has anyone had any experience with keeping chickens on a different property than where you live? The BO's will have electronet around them and we are at the farm about 3-4 days a week. We live 60 miles away and the cochins will be at our house. Can't have roosters in the city.

We decided on cochin bantams after reading your blog and others. We have ordered our BO's but not the cochins. Any other suggestions before we make the final choice?

We are such newbys.

 

[perchie.girl]

I can speak to this one. I live sixty miles from my property I have one horse four goats one cat and seven Guineas out there. I go up every three to five days. I have the Poultry feeders filled to capacity with enough food to last them till I come back. Also I have automatic waterers for all the animals set on gravity feed so that the water trickles in slowly to the dishes. My large animals have 100 and 60 gallon waterers so that the water stays cool under the surface during my summers. Here I get 105 - 110 days occasoinally. For the poultry I have the waterers in the shade in the coop. With their own shaded reservior of water in the form of a 55 gallon drum. Because the waterers for the poultry cant handle the pressure from the 3000 gallon reservoir tank.

So the feed is set up to last five days incase I cant get up there for some reason or another. The water is constant. I have a neighbor that checks on every one on a regular basis. The only thing I havent figured out is how to collect eggs. Once I get my Welsummers up there. Possibly roll out nest boxes with large capacity trays? Hopefully I will be able to do as you soon though ..... Live there part of the time.

Yes we are from Missouri, North of the Missouri River and in the middle of the state. That is our german shorthaired pointer that is running through the field. She will not like our new endeavor as she will want to hunt them wjhich is not acceptable.

Has anyone had any experience with keeping chickens on a different property than where you live? The BO's will have electronet around them and we are at the farm about 3-4 days a week. We live 60 miles away and the cochins will be at our house. Can't have roosters in the city.

We decided on cochin bantams after reading your blog and others. We have ordered our BO's but not the cochins. Any other suggestions before we make the final choice?

We are such newbys.

 

[QUAILHILLFARMS]

We are really inerested in your poultry waterer. Is it run on electricity? We don't have electricity where the chickens are located on the free range. (We will for the winter house.) Is it gravity feed? How much water does about 18 chickens need for 4 days? All questions we can't seem to get answered in our searchings. Everything we look at is electric or the owner lives by the chickens. We are going to shade our waterers as last year we had over 100 degrees for 2 months. We are also building shade shelters for these poor birds. Normally we don't get that heat but we had heat and drought at the same time.

Thanks so much for all of your encouragement. We wll post some pictures when we get them. Day old BO's are coming March 20th. Cochins in June.

 

[QUAILHILLFARMS]

Love to have a picture of your poultry waterer.