Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[KirkKoop]

Our last chick finally arrived tonight! Hoping she pulls through after a good dry out.

Here are the 3 chicks we hatched:

#1 Blue Splash Dutch Bantam Roo X Black Jap Hen



#2 Blue Splash Dutch Bantam Roo X Blue Splash Dutch Bantam Hen (broody mom)



#3 Blue Splash Dutch Bantam Roo X Blue Splash Dutch Bantam Hen (broody mom)

JUST HATCHED OUT - a few minutes old!

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I have five buff Ameraucana pullets that I got from Michigan breeder John Blehm last year.

They are still not yet one year old, but to date every one of those little ladies have hatched at least one clutch of baby chicks. One of the little pullets just hatched two more babies just this week -- it is her second successful clutch of babies. Two more pullets are currently sitting on eggs and will hatch them in about 18 days from now.


To date, these five pullets have successfully hatched 18 babies (pretty good success rate, given the fact that I only give them four eggs to sit on at one time.)


Of course, the two setters are sitting on another eight eggs as I write this (for per pullet), while the two little chicks born this week sleep nearby underneath the protective wings of their broody momma.


I am sitting here wondering how many little chicks these five pullets will have given birth to, by the time they celebrate their first birthday on April 12'th?

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I have five buff Ameraucana pullets that I got from Michigan breeder John Blehm last year.

They are still not yet one year old, but to date every one of those little ladies have hatched at least one clutch of baby chicks. One of the little pullets just hatched two more babies just this week -- it is her second successful clutch of babies. Two more pullets are currently sitting on eggs and will hatch them in about 18 days from now.


To date, these five pullets have successfully hatched 18 babies (pretty good success rate, given the fact that I only give them four eggs to sit on at one time.)


Of course, the two setters are sitting on another eight eggs as I write this (for per pullet), while the two little chicks born this week sleep nearby underneath the protective wings of their broody momma.


I am sitting here wondering how many little chicks these five pullets will have given birth to, by the time they celebrate their first birthday on April 12'th?

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I have five buff Ameraucana pullets that I got from Michigan breeder John Blehm last year.

They are still not yet one year old, but to date every one of those little ladies have hatched at least one clutch of baby chicks. One of the little pullets just hatched two more babies just this week -- it is her second successful clutch of babies. Two more pullets are currently sitting on eggs and will hatch them in about 18 days from now.


To date, these five pullets have successfully hatched 18 babies (pretty good success rate, given the fact that I only give them four eggs to sit on at one time.)


Of course, the two setters are sitting on another eight eggs as I write this (for per pullet), while the two little chicks born this week sleep nearby underneath the protective wings of their broody momma.


I am sitting here wondering how many little chicks these five pullets will have given birth to, by the time they celebrate their first birthday on April 12'th?

 

[hennypenny99]

Update on my broody silkie with the infertile eggs. I stole them from her today. She had 12 eggs total and none of them appeared to be fertile. I candled them and they were totally clear and she has been on them for a week. I gave her 7 eggs out of my incubator that are definately fertile and developing. It was so neat! I videod her taking the eggs. I had never seen that before since I am new to having a broody. I'm glad she will be able to have some babies now (hopefully). I'm a little nervous she might not do a good job since it's her first time. She is setting on 2 of my hens eggs which will be 1/2 guinea and the other half chicken (RIR and Black Australorp) and the other 5 eggs are from my father in law and he has a blue cochin rooster a blue cochin hen and a mixed hen I hatched out last year. I really hope he gets some blue cochins and that she hatches out my guinea/chicken mix because I want to see what they turn out like.

If I can figure out how to upload the video I will. It's really cute!

There is an owl after my guineas! This is the second night he/she has came. I am setting up a game camera tomorrow. I don't know what to do about it. They are protected.

 

[kevlar]

Hello to all you fans of broody hens. I have been keeping chickens since last summer and have definitely caught the chicken bug or addiction lol. We had fourteen chickens total and the first Two birds we got turned out to be roosters. We ate One and decided to keep one just to piss of the neighbors lol. Well recently One of my hens decided to go broody she kinda toyed with it for a few days sitting in the nest all day and squawking at me when I went to check for eggs, but then sleeping on the roost at night. I decided to give this broody thing a try, I gave her a bunch of fake eggs to sit on and four days ago I went out to check on her after dark and she had decided to stay in the nest full time. Great now I need to learn all about broody hens but byc is a great resource for learning and now I can also share my experience so yay byc!!! I built her a broody box out by modifying a dog crate and building a stand for it so I don't loose and square feet of the coop. I moved her in to the box on to her new nest last night and she was still on her nest in the morning! I was in and out of the coop all day and she did get out to stretch her legs and take a massive poop. She is still on her nest and we are well in to night Two in her new nest. Since we have a young stud of a roo in our flock and we only have Eleven hens I'm pretty sure most of my eggs are fertile, I have been saving all the nicest looking Ones for the last Three days and was thinking about setting a clutch tomorrow. I'm not sure how many to set I was thinking somewhere between Ten and Fifteen? My Wife said Three but I'm definitely going to set more than that lol.

here is the set up I built her, I will post pics of her in the coop tomorrow

Oops I thought i had a more complete pic I built a better nest box and lined the bottom with hardware cloth

 

[Zootopia]

Well we found something interesting in the corner nest box this morning. Actually 4 of them, kittens!

Our barn cat had kittens in the corner nest box and no one seemed to care. When I checked on them this afternoon there was an egg in there with them. I'm guessing it was laid while mom was up at the house around lunch time. DH said we should move them so the chickens won't attack them. I seriously doubt mom would let that happen, or maybe it hasn't occured to her. I know they were no worse the experience of sharing with the hen that laid the egg.

That pen is pretty quiet, there are EE's and Welsumers in there who take turns free ranging. We have seen the two barn cats sleeping in the nest boxes before, so I can't say I'm surprised she picked that spot. It is very cute tho.

 

[thailand]

I'd say only way it seems is when you hear the peeping if you can't look. I bet you have chicks today or tomorrow.. and congrats on your 2 new broodys... don't forget pics..

She came off the nest today for maybe 45 minutes and so I took the opportunity to try candling her eggs. I've never candled before, but 3 are sloshy and seem to be full of liquid only, so I removed those ones. Three others I can definately see that about 3/4 of the inside is dark. This is good right? However I gently tapped on these eggs and there is no peeping. The remaining two eggs couldn't see anything dark in them at all. So out of 8 eggs I'm left with 5 possibles. She's on day 21 day - should I definately be hearing cheeping inside the eggs? No sign of any pipping either. I feel a great deal of worry coming on

 

[SnowytheNinja]

Well we found something interesting in the corner nest box this morning. Actually 4 of them, kittens!

Our barn cat had kittens in the corner nest box and no one seemed to care. When I checked on them this afternoon there was an egg in there with them. I'm guessing it was laid while mom was up at the house around lunch time. DH said we should move them so the chickens won't attack them. I seriously doubt mom would let that happen, or maybe it hasn't occured to her. I know they were no worse the experience of sharing with the hen that laid the egg.

That pen is pretty quiet, there are EE's and Welsumers in there who take turns free ranging. We have seen the two barn cats sleeping in the nest boxes before, so I can't say I'm surprised she picked that spot. It is very cute tho.

That's adorable!! Do you have any pictures?!

 

[thailand]

Oh my goodness, I think I must be going crazy with waiting. The 3 'sloshy' eggs that I removed...I check them again about 2 hours later and now I can't see liquid inside! I could swear I saw it moving around before as I gently tipped the egg from side to side. One egg doesn't even sound sloshy now, while the other 2 do a little bit although I think I can see about 3/4 darkness in all three eggs. Arrrrgh!!!! I've put all 3 back under my broody. Does anyone have any photos of what a 21 day fertile egg should look like please? And - does ANY sloshiness at all mean a rotten egg? Might those 2 still be viable (assuming I haven't killed them now!!)?