- Mar 13, 2011
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OK...so I believe that my Golden Comet is broody - sleeping in the nestbox and staying in the coop on the nest around 75% of the day as well. The only time she's not on the nest is when I let them out of their run to roam around the backyard in the evenings for about an hour or so. I've only had my hens since February of this year - 3 Golden Comets and last month I added an EE. The GCs are 11 months old, and the EE is 10 months old. The GC that I believe to be broody went through a minor molt in March and only began laying again around the first week of May.
So, I think I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and will probably be ordering some fertilized eggs tomorrow - barring any advice to the contrary here. My questions are:
1 - The temp around here (western NC) has consistantly stayed in high 80s to mid 90s with the heat index reaching 100 for the past 2 weeks. With the temps that high, would it still be "safe" for her to leave the nest for an hour or so in the evenings to free range in the backyard?
2 - How many eggs would be a good number? I'm thinking 6 would be fine (for me) as we're not doing this to get more chickens. Primarily, it's so the hen can hatch out some chicks (since apparently she wants to) and there's also the educational angle for my 4 year old daughter.
3 - Do the eggs a broody is sitting on need to be turned, and does the broody know to do that?
4 - And lastly, given a GC's natural tendancy not to go broody, if she decides not to see this hatching process through (and I was able to catch it in time), could the eggs be put in an incubator for the remaining time and still have a somewhat successful hatch?
So, help me out! Do I go through with it or should I just try to break her of her broodiness?
Thanks all!
- Joe
So, I think I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and will probably be ordering some fertilized eggs tomorrow - barring any advice to the contrary here. My questions are:
1 - The temp around here (western NC) has consistantly stayed in high 80s to mid 90s with the heat index reaching 100 for the past 2 weeks. With the temps that high, would it still be "safe" for her to leave the nest for an hour or so in the evenings to free range in the backyard?
2 - How many eggs would be a good number? I'm thinking 6 would be fine (for me) as we're not doing this to get more chickens. Primarily, it's so the hen can hatch out some chicks (since apparently she wants to) and there's also the educational angle for my 4 year old daughter.
3 - Do the eggs a broody is sitting on need to be turned, and does the broody know to do that?
4 - And lastly, given a GC's natural tendancy not to go broody, if she decides not to see this hatching process through (and I was able to catch it in time), could the eggs be put in an incubator for the remaining time and still have a somewhat successful hatch?
So, help me out! Do I go through with it or should I just try to break her of her broodiness?
Thanks all!
- Joe
