Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

for 2 days now a RIR has been sitting on fake eggs in the favorite nest . I've never had a RIR go broody and I've had reds for 7 years. I wonder.......

Yippie stony, where have you been I have been wondering about Penelope? We had 1 duckling that I know of hatch yesterday, trying to get the nerve up to go peak under Ruthie in a bit. We had a 6'blk snake in our coop again day before yesterday so now I have to really be on alert to keep it away. Thank goodness my nest boxes are in the other coop so i closed the pop door yesterday when I left. Guess I'll have to put food and water in there when I have to go away. I like having blk snakes around just don't like that they will eat anything including baby chicks and ducklings.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Ok I have a similar problem with my broody.

I now have 2 really sick silkies locked up in a big dog crate just outside the coop, I have two silkies that were showing signs in the broody hutch (I had no where else to put them) and my BO was weezing and coughing/sneezing terribly this morning so I put her in a small dog crate she isnt weezing as bad so hopefully the antibiotics is working with her.

Anyways! Henrietta has yet to catch it (THANK goodness!) but should I move mom and chicks outside of the coop? That means I need to find another hutch.

Any help on what I should do with this sickness?! It seems to be spreading like plague! Even though everyone is on Duramycin. At the way its spreading I may not have any chickens after long.

Tripp if you have illness I'd get Heneritta as far as possible away from it. I'd even put a small amt of antibiotic in her drinking water. Do you have oxine ah you can literally spray your flock with it it is awesome stuff. I had to order mine but if you live pretty close to Charlotte you may be able to find it locally. Do you have another dog crate and a back porch away from the rest of the flock? Here is a link to the info: http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/oxine.htm

 

[stonykill]

Yippie stony, where have you been I have been wondering about Penelope? We had 1 duckling that I know of hatch yesterday, trying to get the nerve up to go peak under Ruthie in a bit. We had a 6'blk snake in our coop again day before yesterday so now I have to really be on alert to keep it away. Thank goodness my nest boxes are in the other coop so i closed the pop door yesterday when I left. Guess I'll have to put food and water in there when I have to go away. I like having blk snakes around just don't like that they will eat anything including baby chicks and ducklings.

Penelope is doing great. If I figured correctly her hatch should be a week from yesterday....ish

I am not a fan of snakes

 

[Miss Lydia]

Penelope is doing great. If I figured correctly her hatch should be a week from yesterday....ish

I am not a fan of snakes

You should have seen me I probably looked alot like Steve Erwin bringing that snake out of the house, well all except for the screaming trying to get my dh's attention. By the time i had carried the snake down the drive way he comes out of the house talking on his cell phone like yes you called.

Not the 1st time i have had to pick one up and remove it from the house just don't like to do it when they are longer than me. Dogs trying to bite it's head off and trying to keep it from biting me. Not fun at all.

 

[B J Hopkins]

You should have seen me I probably looked alot like Steve Erwin bringing that snake out of the house, well all except for the screaming trying to get my dh's attention. By the time i had carried the snake down the drive way he comes out of the house talking on his cell phone like yes you called.

Not the 1st time i have had to pick one up and remove it from the house just don't like to do it when they are longer than me. Dogs trying to bite it's head off and trying to keep it from biting me. Not fun at all.

I wasn't so kind to the 6' black snack I found in the brooder w/my day old chicks last year. Lets just say it couldn't get back out of the brooder because of it's belly. Usually I'm of the opinion a black snack is good to have on the property, but not when it eats my precious chicks!!!

 

[3 NH reds]

I have a broody Buff that will love some eggs to hatch, I plan to get a dozen Black Jersey eggs. I have a new coop that I built and plan to start some ranger chicks I ordered. I just wonder if she will sit on the eggs or if she will go nuts wanting to brood the day old chicks. I plan to put broody in the new coop next week and give her some fake eggs to brood I am sure she will do it, she has been on the nest for more than a month and bites me when I try to pull eggs. Am I feeding Broody the medicated food like the chicks, or do I stand a chance of getting her outside of the nest to eat.

Miss Lydia I hope your snake problem is gone. I used to see a small gardner snake in my egg coop but I could never get it before it dove into the hay. Never saw it again so I think someone had a good dinner.

 

[countrygirl5]

I'm so upset...I built popcorn a lean-to section of the coop on Sunday and gave her back her eggs... All was dandy yesterday morning and then I went to work and got home late so couldn't go and check on chickens. Well this morning popcorn was sitting on the egg nugget laid yesterday and her eggs were ice cold.... ICE 2 beautiful darkest of dark Marans eggs (yes I put the best ones under her... idiot...) and the only lavender silkie and one other silkie....(yep double idiot) I'm so sad so so so sad.... There was a Small space in the screen on the side of my structure and I use that term loosely .... And she got out through that....

and as i wasnt home to collect the eggs laid yesterday she found them..... I gave her back the 2 cold silkies and put the Marans in the bator... I'm sure they are all dead ..... So here is my question.... Should I wait and put hatched chicks under her? Or should I put eggs that have pipped under her?? Obviously I can't do anything right with her.... She hadnt moved from her nest in days!! Again..... Ugh

I have a buff orp. that was broody all winter, but I didn't want to put any eggs under her cause of the cold. . so in March, I had a little area sectioned off for her, put 10 eggs under her and moved her in the night. Things seemed to go really well, but after 6 days, she completely gave up, and then went crazy trying to get out of the enclosure. I was very dissapointed, cause when I broke the eggs open, half of them were developing! Luckily I didn't buy them, they were just "mutt" eggs from my chickens. So when my wyandott went broody a month ago, I gave her two eggs, and didn't move her, just checked every day to make sure she only had her two, and about 3 weeks later, she hatched out two beautiful baby chicks. I think that not moving her made all the difference in the world.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

The adoption seems to have worked. Yesterday I gave the hen some more water and she drank well and did not bite me once, the chicks drank also, I sprinkled additional chick starter along the edge of the nest and the hen ate as well,however she did peck at the chicks a few times, they did not scream or act hurt, I think she wanted them to hide from the monster (me) ..this am I could hear happy peeps and cooing that stopped as soon as I looked in with mama glaring at me..still have some clean water and food...OK bye. It seems she has alot to teach these little ones, well, better her than me!

 

[aaggjg]

Well both of you were right... I had a 50-50 success rate

I ran down to check on Popcorn this morning and she was sitting tight as every ... I couldn't hear anything and tried to push her and saw an egg.... so I lifted her a bit and saw the silkie egg I had put under her not hatched. I picked it up and it was dead .... Hole big enough to see the beak as it was when I put it under her last night.....

So I pushed her again to reveal a lovely splash marans chick. I am so sad and feel like I have turned into a chick murderer

..... I am really happy to see that splash so I guess I will add a few more chicks to Popcorn and not risk the pip situation again. I can't figure out what went wrong with that chick.... It did not look to be shrink wrapped so I'm not really sure why it died. Oh well lesson learned ......

 

[hokankai]

I've got a question about broody hatches. My little Violet has a porcelain silkie under her this morning, and the other two have not yet pipped. When I picked up the eggs she had watched the hen lay the porcelain silkie, and I'm guessing she stored the other two somehow. Could the reason the other two are a little behind be because of that? I looked at them at day 18 and they looked like they needed another day or so inside the shell. Today is day 20 now