THEY ARE HATCHING!! (edited title from Is she broody w/out eggs?)

[galanie]

My broody is not mean but not sweet either. She objects to being put outside but doesn't try to peck me, even when I look under her. Once the chicks hatch though, it's a different story! She'll peck me if I try to pick one up. But she's a very good momma and keeps them all safe. She raised a couple early this year and is now broody again. This is one Orp that thinks she's a silkie, I believe

 

[elevan]

We decided to get some fertile eggs from a friend. So Cinnamon is now setting on 8 chicken eggs and 4 duck eggs.

After I put the eggs under her, she rearranged them and then got a little bit of an attitude when I reached in the nest box to pet her...so I guess that was what she was waiting for lol!

 

[speckledhen]

Cool! Now, the duck eggs won't hatch till a week after the chicken eggs, though, so those may not make it. When the chicks hatch, she'll leave the duck eggs to start teaching her chicks.

 

[elevan]

Quote:
My friend pulled the duck eggs out of her incubator...and told me that they should hatch at the same time as the chicken eggs. She had a ton of muscovy eggs so we decided to give it a shot.

 

[Laurajean]

This is interesting. I have a Bantam Cochin that just got through doing the same thing. Acted broody, staying in the nest box for several days, but very sweet and allowed me to check under her, etc., even though there were no eggs. Now, several days later, she's out of it and back to normal.

What I find more interesting is the talk of the upset of broody hens. None of mine get upset. I have a bunch of Silkies, a Cochin and a D'Uccle that all have gone broody, but all are as sweet as can be about letting me check under them or check them out. I can tell they want to be left alone, but there's no squawking or objecting, they're very calm. And my Silkies are normally SPAZZES, that run from me and freak out the rest of the time. So my best quality time is when they go broody, I get to pet them and they make sweet little cooing sounds. I don't think I even realized that broody hens got so grumpy!

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
My friend pulled the duck eggs out of her incubator...and told me that they should hatch at the same time as the chicken eggs. She had a ton of muscovy eggs so we decided to give it a shot.

That's good! Had me worried that you were setting yourself up for disappointment, LOL!

 

[elevan]

Quote:
My friend pulled the duck eggs out of her incubator...and told me that they should hatch at the same time as the chicken eggs. She had a ton of muscovy eggs so we decided to give it a shot.

That's good! Had me worried that you were setting yourself up for disappointment, LOL!

We're hoping the duck eggs do hatch...they were originally under her broody duck who got "stolen" off the nest and disappeared. She moved them to the incubator the morning she discovered the duck missing and now 4 of them are under my hen.

Cinnamon is still sweet but talks a good bit when we check on her

I'm really excited for her!

 

[speckledhen]

Keep us posted! It's always exciting having a broody....until you have way too many and they just keep coming, LOL!

 

[elevan]

Here she is:

 

[Ridgerunner]

You might want to post that photo under the stink-eye thread, wherever it is.