Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Tripp16]

"mama" and her daughter out doing their thing 1st thing this morning.

I still don't know where in the shed daughters nest is, just that it is where she goes. They are amazing hiders!

Stony I have quick question for you. How long do you leave a hens eggs for her to decide to go broody? My hen has been sitting on the nest for hours everyday then she just gets up and acts like she was never acting broody. What do you think? She is a Barred rock and has 14 eggs!!

 

[audrey02026]

Whatever eggs you want to give her would be fine - I gave Smokey eggs that were about to hatch (Day 17) and let her hatch them out. Since she's a first timer you should give her ones that you wouldn't mind not having hatch - just in case.


Well Its day 20 until 11pm then it's day 21 so I have 5 chicks and 3 pips in the bator so I checked on my broody and one of her eggs is peeping and has a pip not sure about the other as I didn't want to bother her too much. I'll check again tonight.

 

[stonykill]

Stony I have quick question for you. How long do you leave a hens eggs for her to decide to go broody? My hen has been sitting on the nest for hours everyday then she just gets up and acts like she was never acting broody. What do you think? She is a Barred rock and has 14 eggs!!

my Sumatra's are pretty predictable. Once they start acting the slightest bit broody it is only a matter of 4 or 5 days before they go broody. It doesn't matter if I take their eggs and give them golfballs, or if they have 13 of their own eggs. They just do it.
But Sumatra's haven't been messed with to deter broodiness. Most large foul have been. It sounds to me like your girl may be thinking about it. But hatchery breeds have had the instinct to brood bred out of them. But it still can happen. Broodiness is instinctual. Your girl may, but you are doing all you can do to encourage it.
Of all of my large breeds I've never had a broody. Although a few have toyed with the idea. I currently have a barnyard mix, I think she is a Jersey giant and RIR mix toying with the idea. Yet this year i have already broken 4 broody Sumatra's, had 2 break themselves, and have 4 broody's on eggs.

 

[countrybuffs]

My Buffs are hatchery chickens, out of all of them I have only one. Henny Penny who is an amazing broody hen. She does an excellent job with the chicks and when she goes broody there is no changing her mind, she will sit on an empty nest, I can move her to a different nest, whatever, I buy day old chicks and just stick them under her even in the middle of the day! I love her.

 

[Miss Lydia]

"mama" and her daughter out doing their thing 1st thing this morning.

I still don't know where in the shed daughters nest is, just that it is where she goes. They are amazing hiders!

They are so pretty, can you see into mamas nest to see if any have hatched yet? or is it too risky

 

[Miss Lydia]

My Buffs are hatchery chickens, out of all of them I have only one. Henny Penny who is an amazing broody hen. She does an excellent job with the chicks and when she goes broody there is no changing her mind, she will sit on an empty nest, I can move her to a different nest, whatever, I buy day old chicks and just stick them under her even in the middle of the day! I love her.

Thats so cool!

 

[Tripp16]

my Sumatra's are pretty predictable. Once they start acting the slightest bit broody it is only a matter of 4 or 5 days before they go broody. It doesn't matter if I take their eggs and give them golfballs, or if they have 13 of their own eggs. They just do it.
But Sumatra's haven't been messed with to deter broodiness. Most large foul have been. It sounds to me like your girl may be thinking about it. But hatchery breeds have had the instinct to brood bred out of them. But it still can happen. Broodiness is instinctual. Your girl may, but you are doing all you can do to encourage it.
Of all of my large breeds I've never had a broody. Although a few have toyed with the idea. I currently have a barnyard mix, I think she is a Jersey giant and RIR mix toying with the idea. Yet this year i have already broken 4 broody Sumatra's, had 2 break themselves, and have 4 broody's on eggs.

Well she has been toying with the idea for about 2 weeks! She has just recently really stayed on the nest a while. Like today she was on it at 10 and she is still on it. She was alseep earlier!

 

[Fuffy]

12 French Blue Copper Marans & 6 Blue Laying Silver Dorking

 

[perchie.girl]

Oooh I love your tunnel nest..... I just got my hands on an old plywood toybox going to convert it.... for my Wellies.

deb

12 French Blue Copper Marans & 6 Blue Laying Silver Dorking

 

[stone_family3]

Well today was not a happy day, I had blocked off my nesting box so my bantie could get some privacy. One of the big girls tore it up and killed all her chicks I wanted to cry so much. As soon as I opened the coop she ran to me screaming, then she ran to the first peeping baby with a broken neck. I scooped up all the chicks in an empty treat dish and removed them immediately from her sight. I then grabbed a few live chicks that I had and put them in place of the dead chicks. I brought them back to her sight and showed her they were all okay, she immediately bit me and jumped in the treat dish and sat on them.

Now she is in a cage away from the other girls. I can't believe my big girls did this.

Here she is with the new batch of chicks. I put them in an outside cage first so they could get acquainted and they spent about 45 minutes out there in the fresh air.