Polish hen on eggs

[dragonlair]

Has anyone ever had a Polish Hen raise her own chicks? I have a pen with 2 bantam Polish hens and 2 Frizzle Cochin Bantams, a hen and a roo. They all share a nest (their idea) so all the eggs are in 1 nest. Yesterday I noticed the Polish is sitting on the nest. When I got home from work last night I saw that the Polish hen was not roosting with her buddy, so I checked the nest. She was on the eggs, wings all spread and doing a nice job keeping them warm. The Frizzle was perched on the edge of the nest box sleeping.

I have been told that Polish hens will:

not brood their eggs

Brood for a week or so and then abandon them or

brood and then kill the chicks

Is this true? I don't have an incubator and I hate for the eggs to start to delevope and then die, or have them hatch and have mom kill them.

 

[dragonlair]

Another question- what are Polish/Frizzle crosses called, Pizzles?

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Any breed can go broody, and be successful mothers. I have a broody Leghorn, and a broody barred rock right now. We'll see what kind of mothers they will be.

You may want to relocate her and her nest away from the others if you intend to let her hatch eggs.

There are frizzled Polish, but I don't think a frizzle cochin/ polish cross gets a special name. Should a fun looking bird though!

 

[dragonlair]

I don't have any place to put her! I sure wasn't expecting her to go broody, since I was told they don't! I got both of these as adults and they are flaky as all git out. I think if I moved her she'd freak and leave the eggs.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

She may be alright where she is. I would worry about a Polish being able to defend her chicks against the other birds as she probably has limited vision in the first place. Maybe consider giving her a substantial haircut if you let her brood where she is.

Also consider marking "her" eggs, since other eggs will show up under her, and will also start to develop given the chance.

Or, put her in a wire bottomed cage for a few days until she's done acting broody, get rid of the eggs, and go back to life as usual.

 

[dragonlair]

Now, to add another chapter to this saga, the Frizzle and the Polish are sharing the nest.

They could each have their own nest, but will they? Nooooo, they want to share. Isn't that just so sweet.

 

[dragonlair]

Oh, and fortunately, the broody Polish doesn't have a huge amount of feathers over her eyes, you can actually see her beady little biddy eyes and her eye sight is really good. I don't think I have to trim her "bangs". The other one would have to have a "hair cut" if she had gone broody, because she has an ginormous puffy hat.

 

[operator16]

Quote:

 

[dragonlair]

Well, update on this saga.

I ended up with 2 Polish hens and the frizzle Cochin setting on the one nest, crammed together in a milk crate. On 09-18, while thankfully on vacation, I heard some pees coming from the dog house where their nest is. 19 chicks hatched out (!) out of 21 eggs. Woohoo! Some are fuzzy black, one is fuzzy brown, and the others are fuzzy yellow with black spots. No puffy heads like a Polish would have. All 3 pullets are wonderful moms, even the 2 Polish that are supposed to be horrible moms.

The chicks are now starting to feather. Some have frizzled wing feathers, and some just regular feathers. Some have feathered feet and legs. Some are black, some are white and some are splash. All are cute as cute can be. It will be interesting to see what they look like when they are fully feathered!

So, I guess that answers my question about Polish hens hatching their eggs. yes, they can and do!

 

[Illia]

It is indeed told a lot that Polish won't go broody, yadayada . . . I have a VERY broody Silver Laced Polish who's tried 3 times now to set some eggs, but each time she's found them not worthy due to problems like an egg getting crushed by an intruding hen, and spilling its insides on all the other eggs. . . She's a neat freak I guess.

Which of course, with this is why I've got her in a new place now, where no other hen can bother her, so she can naturally hatch some of my more "special" colored Polish eggs.