Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[SierraSfhFamily]

Thank you! I will try to mark them today if I catch her out of the box. I have read that broody hens will be more aggressive but she is not acting that way. Hopefully she'll say something if another hen tries to get in there!

 

[SierraSfhFamily]

She came out to eat with everyone else so I got in there to mark eggs. There was already a new addition and it looked like an egg had broken and been eaten (not unusual for them). I marked everything in there and we'll see what happens...

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Some of my hens actually were more mellow upon first sitting on eggs... which caused me to violate them checking for egg binding after recently losing my SFH hen. That girl got adoption chicks real soon!

But once those chicks are born, other hens better watch out! My silkies open up a can of crazy mama, and many of my LF hens have bare throats from going rounds with little packs of dynamite. Plus the littler girls will wait for the opportunity and do a sneak attack which always put the unsuspecting on the run regardless of their place in the pecking order. So in my experience, max broody aggression builds during the process. She will say something, but it depends on her place in the pecking order. And sometimes the other hen will get in the nest while mama is out and mama might have to wait when she comes back. Having mama get impatient and go to another nest but not notice the intruder leaving and returning to the correct nest was one of my issues. But since I knew it I checked periodically. Still had a successful hatch despite returning her to a completely cold nest once, though I did candle and see life before returning them to the nest that time.

Sounds like you are in for a great adventure!!

 

[SierraSfhFamily]

Another hen seems to be broody now and they seem to be trading places sitting on the eggs. A couple more have been broken. Not sure how this will turn out!

 

[Life is Good!]

Yeah for her! Sounds like a good Mom there...
Go and mark her eggs! Otherwise, you'll find her on 18 in no short order
Trust me on this one.
I use oil pastel to mark the eggs - seems to stay on better than colored pencil. I don't like sharpie's fumes around such precious things as eggs, so I can't say how that holds up. Using both blue, red and green to mark around the eggs seems to be what works best in my coop. Somehow, the marks get worn off by the skin of Mom....? So one of the colors will remain to show me which eggs are hers, and which ones I can take. (I hold all 3 oil pastels at once and draw a single line - broadly - around each egg).

 

[SierraSfhFamily]

I did mark all of the original eggs (that were laid on the pine shavings bag then moved to a box). Some of them have been broken and I'm not keeping the "new" mamas eggs in with the originals. I'm not sure if they are getting broken bc there were so many and too much activity or what. I will pull new eggs when i can.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I did mark all of the original eggs (that were laid on the pine shavings bag then moved to a box). Some of them have been broken and I'm not keeping the "new" mamas eggs in with the originals. I'm not sure if they are getting broken bc there were so many and too much activity or what. I will pull new eggs when i can.

Yes, I think it's because of too much activity. It's ONE reason why I do like incubating myself and tucking chicks under mama.

 

[SierraSfhFamily]

How long do your broody hens typically stay off of their eggs? I know hen#2 (Ester) sat on the eggs during the night, but as of this morning I haven’t seen Ester or Sissy back in the coop on the eggs yet. It is pretty warm where we are so I’m not sure if that factors into it.
We have a toddler and I am in my third trimester with #2, with a lot of other stuff going on in life, so I haven’t been very into wanting to take care of more little ones. I hope the hens take care of it themselves

 

[EggSighted4Life]

How long do your broody hens typically stay off of their eggs? I know hen#2 (Ester) sat on the eggs during the night, but as of this morning I haven’t seen Ester or Sissy back in the coop on the eggs yet. It is pretty warm where we are so I’m not sure if that factors into it.
We have a toddler and I am in my third trimester with #2, with a lot of other stuff going on in life, so I haven’t been very into wanting to take care of more little ones. I hope the hens take care of it themselves

Congrats on kids! They're a lot of hard work, and so very precious.

To me I think the time can vary that they spend off. And somehow I DO think they consider the weather. When I had a broody and it was cold she wouldn't come out until later in the afternoon. But each experience has been different. Most of the morning would have me concerned that she wasn't returning. But Broody's still are a bit more effort than no chicks at all.

With all her mishaps, we had 3 hatch out of an original 8 eggs. 1 got collected, 1 just disappeared, the cold eggs, and the musical nests were off the hook. Somehow life finds a way!

I think the tolerance the eggs/embryos have is relative to their stage of development. It's entirely possible both your girls broke. But one thing for sure if neither of them heads back to the nest in an amount of time that seems somewhat reasonable... or in other words display ANY sort of lack of commitment, then I boot them. They may be broody hormonal but not truly mature enough yet. Don't ya know, girls just wanna have fun!

It's a lot of fun to have a broody, but the brain power spent thinking about them can be exhausting. And you should be popping that baby out just in time for the cool weather to return!

Come on broody's!

 

[SierraSfhFamily]

Looks like Ester has taken over and Sissy is no longer broody. Ester went back to the eggs last night and was there this morning. I guess the heat of the day did affect her "schedule". It's been about a week now since these eggs were laid so I think we have a couple more to go before potential hatching?