Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[BigIslandChicks]

or ok so using this new uploader thingy is gonna take me a min so here is a pic of my DD holding our lovely lil broody a few weeks ago and here is a pic of the ol' boy.... or at least i think so?!? ...

 

[bobbieschicks]

Eek! She ate one of her eggs! Why would she do that and is there anything I can do to lessen the chance of it repeating? Today is day 5. My dd caught her in the act. I immediately brought her out, and she proceeded to take a dust bath while I cleaned it up. I cleaned up some poop (ew) and refilled her food. Then wiped the yolk off the other eggs with a wet wash cloth so it wouldn't be tempting. She went back in and is sitting again, gave me a nice reassuring growl when I went to check on her. I also learned that straw as bedding kinda sucks. Its hard to clean poop out of it and I'm worried about spilled water collecting under it and chilling the eggs. So I picked up some pine shavings. Will it upset her if I fully clean out her pen and give her a completely new material to nest in? Is the best time to do that at night when she's disoriented or during the day while she's out taking a break? I want to make sure she still recognizes it as "hers"

I kinda worry about whether stress could impact her behavior. The other day a couple other hens were checking her out and she seemed pretty irritated with them. I chased them off. There's also kids playing in the yard. They don't taunt her or anything, but they're big, loud creatures who run around unpredictably! 

When it comes to broodies, all you can do is try. If it works great, if it doesn't, try something else.

As far as changing the bedding, yes. My Smokey and Topsy changed their own bedding. I put straw down on pine shavings and both of them moved their nests off the straw and onto just shavings.

You can check on your broody as often as you like. Most won't freak out and quit. However some will. My EE and Silky complained but kept sitting.

Egg eating while broody is something some have reported. I haven't had that personally happen. But possibly she's trying to get protein and eliminating nonhatching eggs.

Hang in there! Let her do as much as possible, but if she's not getting up at all you will want to force her to. I put my girls at the waterer once a day until around day 18, then I leave them alone. I only peek to see if there are babies or candle the eggs by day 25.

 

[bobbieschicks]

Thanks everyone.  I'm trying to calm down.  I fear that Henrietta will decide to get up and take care of her first 6 leaving the 2 cheeping eggs to die, and I don't have an incubator. 

Here are a couple of pix, although I don't have one of everyone together.

Mama Henrietta and baby chick.  She is feeding it from her own mouth.



Here they are again.


Here is Henrietta and June, born first thing this June 1st morning. See the mother-love-light in her little henny eyes?



And here she is with two more.  Henrietta is a bantam EE, and my best broody.  From how panicked I was you wouldn't have guessed we did this before, I'll bet.

Still worried but not poking any holes.
Thanks again.

Adorable!

 

[bobbieschicks]

I already have moved her nest. She created one of her own in an inaccessible-to-humans location. We don't have a rooster and I couldn't reach there to remove all the eggs and put hatching ones in instead. So, I had to catch her while she was out for a break. And by "catch" I mean, walk over to her and pick her up. My hens are very tame I first tried a separate pen by the coop (coop is too small to have her nest be in there) and she was just beside herself, desperate to get out. She DID actually escape. I decided to try a big dog kennel, made a nest in there, pointed it so that the door faced her old nest and got it as close as I could. She actually accepted that reasonably quick. I've left her in there since, but moved it to a better location in the yard (after dark, just dragged it). Its in a lower traffic area, and I faced the door towards some bushes. Definitely no other hen in there.. the door's been shut. She does have space to stand up all the way, stretch her wings, walk  around, eat, drink, poop. I'm thinking maybe I should force her to get outside once a day. I would really like to change out her straw for some pine. I didn't foresee how difficult it would be to clean poop out of straw :/ I picked up what I could, but some of it is just mushed in. And she spilled water making it damp. I'm really itchy to do at least some minor cleaning! Fresh pine shavings, that in the future I can just scoop out the gross bits and replace with fresh, would go a long way in there. But not if it will upset her. Which is why I wondered if I did it while its dark, and do it QUICKLY.. I could probably carton the eggs, dump out the straw, put in the pine, replace the eggs, and put her back in within a minute. 

I move the nests and broodies at night during the dark and make changes as needed/clean up poo during the day while she's off the nest. I put her at the waterer and get busy. She is fine with any changes when she returns.

They will poop in the nest sometimes and you may have to clean off eggs. Be careful and try not to wash away the bloom using water. Topsy pooped in her nest on a silky egg. I cleaned it by wiping with a tissue and got it off. That baby hatched just fine.

 

[bobbieschicks]

  or ok  so  using this new uploader thingy is gonna take me a min so here is a pic of my DD holding our lovely lil broody a few weeks ago and here is a pic of the ol' boy.... or at least i think so?!? ...

I'm sure those chicks will be quite beautiful as is your daughter.

Keep us posted!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks everyone. I'm trying to calm down. I fear that Henrietta will decide to get up and take care of her first 6 leaving the 2 cheeping eggs to die, and I don't have an incubator.

Here are a couple of pix, although I don't have one of everyone together.

Mama Henrietta and baby chick. She is feeding it from her own mouth.



Here they are again.


Here is Henrietta and June, born first thing this June 1st morning. See the mother-love-light in her little henny eyes?



And here she is with two more. Henrietta is a bantam EE, and my best broody. From how panicked I was you wouldn't have guessed we did this before, I'll bet.

Still worried but not poking any holes.
Thanks again.

It never gets easy, but I think as long as she hears them peeping she'll stay put.

 

[Glasshen]

I think you should not completely change her bedding. I have changed broody with chicks bedding, and had the hen pointedly nest with her chicks outside the nest box I had cleaned for her. I wonder if you could take out some of the grossest mess and add a little bit of shavings, and then tomorrow do a little more. My theory is that they need to have their scent. Could be totally wrong, but Ive had a bunch of dogs, scent certainly is important to them.

 

[echip]

Update on Henrietta and her peeping eggs: one is peeping more loudly than ever this morning and the "weaker" egg has pipped! Henrietta is sitting tight and has tucked all 6 fluffy babies under her wings.

Thank you for your support and advice! I'm glad I didn't poke a hole in them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Update on Henrietta and her peeping eggs: one is peeping more loudly than ever this morning and the "weaker" egg has pipped! Henrietta is sitting tight and has tucked all 6 fluffy babies under her wings.

Thank you for your support and advice! I'm glad I didn't poke a hole in them.

Okay we'll be waiting for pics when you get a chance!!!

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Bigislandk--that is a pretty roo! Hope you get a chick. He does look like a a game boy to me just one thought, he may not have been dubbed intentionally, I had a roo the had his comb torn off by a coyote, poor guy, he lived but sure looked funny with that bald head. He sure made some pretty babies though..good luck with hatching some chicks.
Oops,so many copies I didn't get the right name at first. To the op with the messy broody-see, there you go! Sage advise from an oldtimer - clean the nest when she's on her break! Good thinking, I knew there's a reason I follow this thread! I had to move one of my broodies in from the woods (I just knew she'd be predator bait) so I kept her locked in her new spot ( about 2x2x4) for three days, then opened it so she could come and go at will...I sure kept my fingers crossed as she is a favorite, she hatched twelve of fifteen eggs and has four mini me's. Yea! Now brooody fever has me and I'm saving eggs and marking them and hoping someone will go broody again! So, naturally no one is....sigh. I suppose they will once I stop watching for them...it would prob be best if they wait till I add on to the coop anyway!