Our First Broody Hen So Excited! UPDATED with some PICS

My lady is cracking me up. Every day we have to get all of the eggs out from under her. She had 5 extra today stuffed under there lol. They are laying them beside her and she just shovels them under with the others. But marking them made this so much easier!! I am going to try candling this weekend too. Any tips on that?
 
So today is day 7 and I am going to try candling the eggs tonight. I can't wait. I need to read up on it I think!
 
My first broody started on her 4 eggs Thursday (2 days ago). I let her keep the 1 egg of her own she was sitting on & gave her 3 BYM that were in an order I received on Wednesday. I had noticed she had skipped a couple days of laying recently & had been hanging out in the coop more. When I went to collect the eggs (I only have 2 hens laying so far, both banties) she started to puff up at me & wouldn't move out of the box like she usually does. So I decided to let her give it a try. I marked her egg & gave it back to her & then gave her the other 3 that were already marked. I had to kind of scoot them under her but once I got them part way she pushed them on under. She was out Friday morning eating around 8-9am for a few minutes & went back in before I came back in the house. Her eggs were still warm, so I know she hadn't been out long. My daughter said she saw her out eating this morning too, so no worries there. She's just so darn cute all stuffed down in the straw in her nest. She's so tiny anyway. That's why I only gave her 4 eggs too. I wasn't sure how many she could cover. Her egg is the tiniest little thing. The other 3 bantie eggs I gave her are almost twice as big. She appears to be a BCM/OEG Banty mix. My roo that is with her also appears to be a BCM?OEG banty mix & even has the leg feathering. Only thing is, she lays a white egg. I've been debating on trying to get some FBCM & breeding them with these 2 to make a Banty project out of them & see if I can get the egg color back.

Anyway, Sarah (my tiny broody) doesn't have too much of a problem with me checking her out & retrieving Lily"s egg from under her each day. She puffs a bit & lets it go once I let her sit back down. She even lowers her feathers when I pet her & tell her to calm down...LOL HOWEVER, let 1 of my kids try to even pet her & she pecks the crap out of them...LOL

Oh, and as for her abandoning the eggs...no problem there. My bator is already up & running with eggs in it.
 
Last edited:
That is awesome! We had a banty that laid white eggs too but I can't remember what her breed was now. We lost her last year. We didn't get to candle tonight as we had some storms so I wasn't going to stand in the lightning and rain lol. She is doing well too still. I open the door and she just kind of purr/growls. She doesn't peck us though I am sure she would my son if he tried. He is 4 though and has ants in his pants all the time haha. Hopefully I will get to candle the eggs tomorrow though. I am excited about it. Tomorrow is day 8 for us.
 
I wanted to join in this conversation. We have our first broody hen as well. She is about 10 months old. She started sitting on the eggs last Saturday. We bought her 7 French Black Copper Maran eggs and gave her a few of the Easter Eggs as well so she has a total of 12 eggs. She started sitting on the hatching eggs last Sunday so we are just a day or two behind the original poster:) Fun! Our hen is a cochin so she is Big and fluffy! She looks so cute in the nest box. She is stealing eggs from the other nesting boxes so we go out there every evening and lift her up and take the extra eggs out (we marked them). I sure hope she can hatch out some chicks. Does anyone know what the rate of hatching usually is for broody hens? I know all the eggs should be fertile and since I got them locally, they should not be damaged.

Exciting Exciting Exciting!

Michiele
 
Thank you for joining in!! The more the merrier I say! Our broody is a New Hampshire Red and she is a big girl. She is fluffed out really well now that she is sitting too lol. I am curious about the hatch rate too. This is the first time we have had this going on here. We don't have an incubator though so if she comes off then she just does. But we won't be losing anything except eggs if she does because they are our ladies' eggs. Just thought we would let her do what she wanted and if we can replace our own layers for free then yay for us. Ours are just mixes.
 
Know what ya mean bout little boys with ants in their pants. My youngest is 5 and HE is the reason the kids get pecked...lol He thinks my chickens can fly (wings are clipped) and is constantly tossing birds into the air to watch them do that frantic flap to break their fall. I keep telling him the chickens are going to bite him but he doesn't care. He's a monster!!!!

As for the question I saw about hatch rate: You could get all, you could get none...or anywhere in between. It all really just depends on your eggs (quality & number), your hen, & weather conditions where you are. If it's extremely hot (above 102 during most of the hatch) it will be very low as your eggs will get overheated. If it's extremely cold your hatch rate may be low as she may have trouble keeping the eggs warm. If she has too many eggs under her she may have trouble sitting on all of them at once (why I only gave my broody 4 to start with & see how she does). Also, it all depends on how well your hen sits. If she is constantly up running around the eggs aren't going to stay warm enuf & won't incubate. If she snuggles down in & only gets up for a few minutes a couple times a day her chances of higher hatch rate are much better.
 
Oh goodness, went to the coop today and we have another broody that laid right beside this one. She took 3 eggs under her. SO we took her out and got the eggs. Also went in the house and got a box to put our first broody and her nest in so hopefully the other one won't be able to join her again lol. They won't use the darn nesting boxes, they lay in the corner on the bottom of the coop under the shelf we built for the nest boxes. Weirdos. We took 2 cinder blocks already and separated the first broody from the others so that they would hopefully lay on the other side but they just come up and lay them right in front of her which is why we have to get them out from under her every day haha. These birds crack me up. I didn't make it to candling today either, too much going on.
 
I think once one hen is broody, the others want to copy. I have one who is also trying to sit on the eggs along with the broody hen. For the last 2 days, the 2nd hen has sat on the eggs while the 1st hen takes a break. (isn't that sweet!) However, when mama came back, hen #2 didn't get up - she just kept sitting on the eggs. I finally picked her up and put her outside the coop. She then went about her merry business and the mama sat on the eggs. I don't know if hen #2 is really going broody or if she is just helping out:) Either way, I am just going to keep kicking her out for the next 2 weeks:) When the chicks hatch, I will move mama and the chicks to another place. I probably should have done that at first, but I was afraid she would stop sitting on the eggs so I just left her.

Michiele
 
My broody is right in the coop with everyone else. I have nowhere to put her right now. Sarah sits on her eggs & Lily joins her in the nice big nesting box once a day to leave her egg. I just go out & fish Lily's egg out from under Sarah each day. These are the only 2 laying so far, so not a big deal. I keep catching my roos "guarding" Sarah tho. They peck the crap outta my kids when they stick their heads in there...LOL None of the roos or even Sarah have tried to peck me yet (except the 1 time I reached under her in the dark & she didn't realize it was me). The roos move out of my way & Sarah puffs up a bit but lets me look under her.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom