Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Ms Ellen]

Love this thread! I had to laugh at the post about the broodies finally taking the babies in the coop for the night. I just spent a week chasing tiny chicks around to get them in the coop until finally the moms (2) took them in at night. Those chicks were fast! It was a funny picture me chasing those little things around in the woods.

I just set 10 eggs I bought from ebay under my broodie. I never did that before so we will see how it goes. Usually I just hatch my eggs from my hens. Hatches have been not so good this summer though. Even the broodies have trouble with high humidity and temperatures at 105 degrees. It seems to have finally cooled down now.

 

[HighNDryFarm]

Quote: Well...when my Polish went broody she continued to let the other girls lay in her nest. By the time I figured that out she had 28! At the same time an EE went broody but she had too many of her own so when another EE went broody with 6 eggs I candled the Polish eggs (out of the 14 I candled ALL were developing) and gave her 6 of the Polish. One of those eggs hatched last night (so much for my skill in candling

). Her other eggs are only at about 10 days so I don't think she'll sit for another week and half.

SOOO, the other EE has not fared well. So far she's had eggs that were early quiters, exploded rotten eggs and then one that I've mentioned before that pipped a little hole but never zipped. Yesterday when I was trying to find the cheeping chick I found another exploded eggs and while I was trying to clean it up found maggots! So I moved her nest over and put fresh pine shavings. When I got home last night she had moved back to the original spot and took some of the eggs with her......unfortunately, the one that had pipped wasn't one of them. It was a hot day so I put it back under her but I checked this morning and I don't think it made it.

I'm now trying to figure a swap out here....give the one Polish chick and the remaining 5 Polish eggs that are under the EE broody that still has another week and a half for her 6 and give them to the EE that is having no success. Or leave the chick and Polish eggs with the one that's hatched and give her 6 eggs to the other EE.

My plan was (before the EE had all the rotten eggs) was to take the remaining eggs from the Polish broody when she leaves them to take care of the chicks and let the new EE broody hatch them.....of course, that was before one of the eggs that I thought had a few more days actually hatched! I'd been checking the other two and not this one because I didn't think they were due yet and to my surprise there's a little WCB Polish in there!

Any suggestions?

 

[bobbieschicks]

I've lost count of the broodies and chicks this year. I was turning over the deep litter and cleaning out the nest boxes and found yet another broody had success.

Wow a surprise hatch how cool!

 

[bobbieschicks]

Love this thread!  I had to laugh at the post about the broodies finally taking the babies in the coop for the night.  I just spent a week chasing tiny chicks around to get them in the coop until finally the moms (2) took them in at night.  Those chicks were fast!  It was a funny picture me chasing those little things around in the woods.  

I just set 10 eggs I bought from ebay under my broodie.  I never did that before so we will see how it goes.  Usually I just hatch my eggs from my hens.  Hatches have been not so good this summer though.  Even the broodies have trouble with high humidity and temperatures at 105 degrees.  It seems to have finally cooled down now.

I know what you mean, my broody girls were hovering over their eggs it was so hot. I hatched shipped eggs this time as well and got 50% hatch rate (2 out of 4). And I included some of our pullet eggs and hatched 2 out of 3.

 

[bobbieschicks]

Well...when my Polish went broody she continued to let the other girls lay in her nest. By the time I figured that out she had 28! At the same time an EE went broody but she had too many of her own so when another EE went broody with 6 eggs I candled the Polish eggs (out of the 14 I candled ALL were developing) and gave her 6 of the Polish. One of those eggs hatched last night (so much for my skill in candling ). Her other eggs are only at about 10 days so I don't think she'll sit for another week and half.

SOOO, the other EE has not fared well. So far she's had eggs that were early quiters, exploded rotten eggs and then one that I've mentioned before that pipped a little hole but never zipped. Yesterday when I was trying to find the cheeping chick I found another exploded eggs and while I was trying to clean it up found maggots! So I moved her nest over and put fresh pine shavings. When I got home last night she had moved back to the original spot and took some of the eggs with her......unfortunately, the one that had pipped wasn't one of them. It was a hot day so I put it back under her but I checked this morning and I don't think it made it.

I'm now trying to figure a swap out here....give the one Polish chick and the remaining 5 Polish eggs that are under the EE broody that still has another week and a half for her 6 and give them to the EE that is having no success. Or leave the chick and Polish eggs with the one that's hatched and give her 6 eggs to the other EE.

My plan was (before the EE had all the rotten eggs) was to take the remaining eggs from the Polish broody when she leaves them to take care of the chicks and let the new EE broody hatch them.....of course, that was before one of the eggs that I thought had a few more days actually hatched! I'd been checking the other two and not this one because I didn't think they were due yet and to my surprise there's a little WCB Polish in there!

Any suggestions?

Broody hens will hatch for a couple of days at least but I've not had one last longer than that. Maybe someone with more broody experience has had longer hatches. You could even take the polish chick away entirely and brood it yourself for a week until the others hatch then slip it back with the young ones under the mom and see if it imprints.

 

[Tanichca]

Good gosh.
Broody 3 is four days away from hatch. And I went out to the coop on Monday, and found the chicken that I am now going to call Broody 5! I think this is a "be careful what you wish for" moment.

 

[MagicMarcy66]

I am so sorry for being off topic, but my hen hatched 2 chicks 3 days ago and the chicks are doing really good, but I am concerned about them wanting to eat her feed. I know the chicks are not supposed to eat the lay mash for grown hens so I have cut back her mash to just a very small portion. The chicks are with my hen that hatched them and want to eat her scratch plus their chick starter and the vitamin water I got from the feed store for newly hatched chicks. Is this going to be a health problem for them?

Lisa

 

[HighNDryFarm]

Deleted because I responded this morning. Didn't want to double post!

 

[heatherscreations1969]

I am so sorry for being off topic, but my hen hatched 2 chicks 3 days ago and the chicks are doing really good, but I am concerned about them wanting to eat her feed. I know the chicks are not supposed to eat the lay mash for grown hens so I have cut back her mash to just a very small portion. The chicks are with my hen that hatched them and want to eat her scratch plus their chick starter and the vitamin water I got from the feed store for newly hatched chicks. Is this going to be a health problem for them?

Lisa

Put mama and chicks on chick crumb....mama doesn't need layers mash because she isn't laying eggs

*hugs* Heather x

 

[bobbieschicks]

I am so sorry for being off topic, but my hen hatched 2 chicks 3 days ago and the chicks are doing really good, but I am concerned about them wanting to eat her feed.  I know the chicks are not supposed to eat the lay mash for grown hens so I have cut back her mash to just a very small portion.  The chicks are with my hen that hatched them and want to eat her scratch plus their chick starter and the vitamin water I got from the feed store for newly hatched chicks.  Is this going to be a health problem for them? 

Lisa

If they eat a small amount of layer feed it won't hurt them, but that and scratch should not be their primary food source. Too much of either of those are bad for the babies.

What I do is put layer feed in a hanger feeder raised enough so babies can't get into it. That way when momma is getting back to wanting to lay (week 4) she can eat an appropriate diet. I also leave oyster shell in a container for anytime access. The babies might try it but they won't consume it until point of lay.

Then I put Mannapro chick starter medicated in ground feeders so that the babies can eat it. The moms usually eat it too for awhile until the babies are scratching up stuff and eating on their own at the feeder (week 2 or so).

You don't need to be overly concerned about different feeds as I have noticed that the chicks will find the appropriate food source. If you want you could also skip the chick starter/layer feed and go right to a grower feed for both the hen and chick.