Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

Why a Frozen egg?

deb

 

[farmer boy]

to see if she was broody and she put it under her but i got it when she left the nest .. but any ideas if she is broody .. because i am gonna get some free fertilized eggs but i need to know and my friend just said 30 mins to 1 hour in the summer

 

[perchie.girl]

to see if she was broody and she put it under her but i got it when she left the nest .. but any ideas if she is broody .. because i am gonna get some free fertilized eggs but i need to know and my friend just said 30 mins to 1 hour in the summer

Seems to me a frozen egg would be a good way to break a broody.

deb

 

[farmer boy]

oh really how ?? it wasn't really cold i just put it in for a day but that really sucks ... im kinda new to the whole chick hatching and stuff with the broody hens but that kinda sucks .. that would have been my first broody hen of the year

 

[perchie.girl]

oh really how ?? it wasn't really cold i just put it in for a day but that really sucks ... im kinda new to the whole chick hatching and stuff with the broody hens but that kinda sucks .. that would have been my first broody hen of the year

You said frozen.... I wouldn't want to sit on ice.... Try a room temperature egg. She may just be starting out still deciding. And from what read here you cant assume a hen is broody till they stop laying eggs and sit on their nest for a couple of days.

deb

 

[Johnn]

I was so mad at Melow, i put her and the chick out the nest box and she left the chick and went back to a nest that was not even hers and sat on the eggs in it!, in the end i put her in with the orp, but melow was pecking her but then she settled down and sat next to her and they both had their chicks, i cracked the orps egg open, 2 fully grown chicks 1 deformed and 1 egg had a chick that was nearly fully grown

 

[stonykill]

Wow, never heard of a broody going 5 weeks. How common, or not, is that???
I double checked on Summer, she had blatantly kicked out two of the eggs so I brought them in to the cruddy little bator I bought this morning. It's that little plastic thing with tinfoil and a tiny light bulb. Figure it's a shot for them anyway. I am trying to keep the temp right now. Ended up putting exta foil in the bottom and a piece of foil on top of the dome too. It's sitting right at 100 right now. Glad she didn't ditch three or I wouldn't have room for the thermometer!

I had one broody for 3 months before she hatched two out finally. She just sat again a few days ago

 

[stonykill]

we had a little broody caos yesterday. Well not so much caos as a 1st time mama giving up too soon. Yesterday morning my black Sumatra broody with 2 week old babies kicked them loose. All 4 of them hung out together all day being chickens. I watched closely as night approached to see if their mama would take them to bed. They are just too tiny to be on their own at night. Well she didn't. So my wife and I went out and managed to catch 3 of them. My best broody "Mama" had her 11 little ones in bed already. I gave her the 3 2 week olds (Mama's are 1 week old) and she took them under her. This morning all 14 lil ones are hanging out together. Mama really has her wings full, but she is a great mama and is doing fine.
The other little one I swear is not Sumatra, but road runner. And I mean Wile E Coyote's road runner. I swear it goes Beep Beep and disappears in a cloud of dust. It is just fine this morning. And is trying to hang with Mama RIR and her 4 babies. If miss red doesn't take the lil one in, we will try our best to catch this road runner tonight and bring it to "Mama". She can handle it.

The black broody who gave up early was a 1st time mama. So lets hope if she does the broody thing again, she does better.

"mama" being the crazy girl she is took on the Road Runner chick without my intervention. Mama had her 14 up by the RIR's coop, and #15 AKA Roadrunner was there. They are all together now with Mama. She is an amazing broody. Taking care of her 11 and the 4 orphans. 15 lil ones to keep track of. I don't know how she gets all of them under all 3.5 lbs of her, but she does

 

[farmer boy]

it was cold and she is a bantam she has 3 bantam eggs and 1 standard egg in her nest .. should i leave them there just in case ??

 

[Chicken Frenzie]

I candled 3 of the 10 eggs today! I saw three healthy embreos! It was either the eye... or heart... that was in the middle of all the viens. IT WAS SO COOL! 1 bantam egg, 1 blue egg (that was hard, but I finally saw something!) and a white egg! . Yesterday I candled a bantam egg and it looked like a porous egg, but I'm not 100% sure.