Our First Broody Hen So Excited! UPDATED with some PICS

Mommy2Blaze

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I am so excited! We are doing something here on our little wanna be farm that we haven't done before. We have our first broody hen. She has been pretty serious about it for a few weeks now. She rarely ever comes out of the coop and when she does she doesn't stay out more than 10 or so minutes at a time. Whenever eggs are collected she has to be lifted up before you can get them and she was putting all of the eggs under her too lol. So Chris had to clean the coop and change the bedding yesterday and I thought well heck why not? So I got a dozen eggs for her to lay on. I picked a mix of all the different eggs so she is laying on hers and the other hen's eggs too.

While we don't have a rooster ourselves, we are lucky enough that our neighbor's roo loves to hang with our ladies all the time. He makes sure to get the job done daily too. He is an Easter Egger roo and our ladies are 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 1 Golden Comet, and 4 New Hampshire Reds. They will be mixed breeds but 50% of the females born should have the blue egg gene right? That will be awesome since we lost Smurfette soon after she started laying. But if we can replace our own layers with their offspring, hatched and raised by them, that saves us a lot of money on buying chicks, brooder set ups, and all the work of keeping chicks in brooders.

The hatch day should be either June 2nd or 3rd. I am hoping she is as good a mom as I think she will be. Today is day 3 and she is still sitting strong!! I also hope the majority of the eggs hold out and hatch well. We figure if we get too many roos them we will just have to grow them out and learn to process them for the freezer ourselves. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
 
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Thank you so much for the article! I read it all and it was very good and helpful. If she does leave the nest then the eggs are just a waste as I do not have an incubator. That is ok though as this is just a try and see and not a necessity for us. I thought I would just let her do what she has been wanting to do. She hasn't left the nest at all today and she is sitting tight so far. She has seemed to have a broody drive for quite a while but just been so set on it the past few weeks. We have been making her get off daily till now and the plan is to take her off at least once every other day and make sure she gets back on the nest too. The other hens are giving her her space and they don't dare interrupt her. They also changed where they lay as she will not let them in "her' nest at all haha. She means business but we are able to check her and move her if needed. She has food and water right in front of her and room to get off the nest and relieve herself. We aren't separating her from the rest of the flock as we just can't but we have a small and very docile flock. They have also free ranged alongside my neighbors hens and chicks with no issues. I am crossing my fingers that it works though!!
 
I just checked on her and she is still there and doing fine. She has the nest all comfy and fixed how she wants it now and she fluffed up at me when I went to pet her but she didn't peck me just made a little growl sound lol.
 
HOw exciting...my first broody, went so 21 days ago...today, 2 of the 5 eggs she had under her, are cheeping and starting to crack through! I am sooo excited....

We did the same thing, I put eggs under her, some EE and a couple others, one broke, early on...but the other 5 are still there...hopefully tomorrow a couple more start to hatch...

then we also have another hen (both my Austrlorp girls) in another coop, our "broody coop" with 7 eggs under her...she isn't due to hatch them out for at least another 10 days...

keep posting, want to see pics too! I will do the same....
 
That is wonderful!!! I will definitely get some pics to post tomorrow! She is still on tonight and I am so giddy lol. Put pics of yours in this thread too so I can see!!
 
Oh my goodness. Today when I went out to check on my lady instead of the 12 eggs we put under her there were 17!! One was broken so I removed it and 3 around it that were covered in egg goo. Then I thought I better mark them with numbers now so I know which ones are which lol. I should have done that to begin with huh?? Oh well. So we will see what happens on hatch day I guess. She is doing well though. She came out this morning for about 5 minutes and took a dust bath and then went right back in the coop. The food and water is right in front of her so that isn't far to go. She ate and drank while I had her off and marked the eggs too so that is good. Now I need to understand candling I guess. What can any of you tell me about that?
 
Wow! I really hope you have a great hatch! My mom and I were thinking of doing the same thing. Our New Hampshire hen just started sitting in her box for long periods for the first time. I've only seen her out once in the last week. We wanted to put some hatching eggs under her, and bid on some wheaten ameraucana hatching eggs so she NEEDS to stay there! I mean she doesnt need to, we could get more if she gives up midway, but at $30 a batch of 6 eggs..... SHE NEEDS TO! :P We were thinking of separating her because I've caught her switching between two boxes and I didn't want her to do that with the real thing. How do you know if they will stay there till the end? Were there things you checked for before you put eggs under her? We have a neighbor who would take some off our hands but we don't want to hatch too many so we can't really experiment with a bunch of eggs in case she hatches all of them. I've read that article but it seems like something you just have to experience through trial and error. Any tips before beginning? We don't have an incubator and just thought we'd give it a try since we want more and she seems like she wants some too :) Good Luck on your batch!
 
Also, for your question it seems like candling is pretty easy. The article that was posted has a section on it. Basically, around day 9? you get a bright flashlight, go out at night and hold the eggs individually to the light and look for a little masses surrounded by a web of red veins, if they don't have it (make sure to check good) you discard them. Definitely check out the article and youtube has some good videos as well.
 
Oh goodness, I don't really have any advice. I am flying by the seat of my pants as this is our first time too. We also do not have an incubator. But if we lose ours it is no big deal because they are laid by our girls and they are mixes too so we wouldn't be losing any money. I read somewhere that New Hampshire Reds can be good broody hens and moms so I am hoping that holds out for sure. She seems to be doing well so I am hopeful!! I hope you can hatch some out too. But I would hate to lose $30 worth of eggs lol. Maybe put some fake eggs under her and see if she will stay on them for a few more days then try the real thing if she does. Let me know what you do and we can keep up on this thread. Today is day 4 here.
 

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