Yes, my results have been mixed also. I´ve had sfh for about a year now, so this is the first time I have hens old enough to go broody. The first hatched 5 out of 8 eggs and one chick died; the other 4 are doing great, but Mom suddenly abandoned them when they were about 4 weeks old. They´ve been fending for themselves since then, and even Mom joins in with the others in shying them away from the feed! Nonetheless, they´re thriving, and I´m glad to have them outside, since I have 15 chicks in the brooder from other breeders.
Of my others one lost her chicks to rats, so I can´t really say how she would have done. One hatched 9 for 9, and one chick disappeared and I´m not sure what happened to it, but she´s doing a great job raising the other 8. Definitely going to keep her.
Now my fourth broody is a whole different story. She´s been sitting on her nest for about 8 weeks now. She was in the rat-infested coop, so I think at the beginning that rats got to a few of the eggs and she maybe realized they were something she could eat. Even though the rats are gone, her eggs keep disappearing and I keep finding the empty shells in the nest. Every time the eggs are spent, one of the other girls lays a few eggs in the nest and she decides to keep going broody on those. Those then disappear, and so on and so forth. I´m thinking of putting a few eggs in the bator and giving her a couple of freshly hatched chicks. Maybe that would put an end to this pointless game (on the other hand, I´m worried she might eat those, too).
What do you mean by "yellow speckledy"? Could you post a pic?
