Three Broody HENS at once.

[catfish]

My hens don't bite.
They'll growl and complain a bit when I open the chicken house. They've never been aggressive in any form. Broody or not.

They just set there doing their brooding thing. Just wanting to be left alone for the most part.

I screwed up and didn't mark the eggs, so I have a feeling the two hens that are not brooding are laying on top of the broodys so once I get a hatch I'm going to end up tossing some eggs that will be partially developed.

I don't have have an incubator and really no desire to build one. I'd rather let the hens play momma and babysit the little ones.

 

[IggiMom]

Ok, you can tell a broody hen by how she acts on the nest. If you give her a little shove and she runs off in a hysterical snit, then she isn't broody. If she looks at you with a piercing look, like, "try that again, why don't you, make my day," and sits there making a sort of growling noise and puffs up her feathers, well, that's a broody.

Before I decide, yeah, she's broody, I usually wait a few days and see if she is still sitting there.

And yup, she will peck at you if she is broody, and this is a problem for me because my skin is very thin and tears easily. I can, however, usually reach up underneath them from the non-business end and get eggs out or whatever, that is, if there is any way to GET to that end, without going past the OTHER end that pecks.

When I gave Big Momma her little eggs yesterday, I was SO entertained. As I did my coop chores, I could hear her in there, crooning and singing and talking to them.

I love a broody hen.

Catherine

 

[rizq]

Quote:
I LOVE that description

Too funny. I have one that fits perfectly, only she has to bite first ... and that particular hen bites HARD! Then she runs off squaking to the others about how mean I am and gets the roosters panties in a wad as well. Only time he even thinks about being aggressive ... at least he is generally sweet and easy to discourage from his overly protective thoughts.

I now have 3 broodies as well. I finally got my serama hen to give up on her momma thoughts, but still have a turkey (whose eggs are due this weekend but I do not believe are going to hatch), a BO who is somewhere around day 12 or so, and a light Brahma who just decided she wants to be a mom. She actually tried to take over the turkey's nest and sat on top of the poor turkey for a day after I took the eggs she was sitting on in the nest. I have decided to let her go and will put Hamburgs under her once I have enough and know she is going to stick.

I too love broodies

even though they are mean and evil

 

[cowman910]

//www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

try this site it has some good information. there are 5 parts

 

[jenjscott]

I had three hens all setting in the same nest, but started at different times. I didn't mark the first ones eggs like I should have. When the first 5 had hatched, they all came off the nest. I took the remaining 12 or so eggs and moved them to the incubator. I had several hatch the next day, then one a day, then one every other day for a few days. When no more hatched in a week, I threw out the remaining eggs (after checking to be sure nobody was home).

 

[catfish]

Quote:
Dang, I hate hear that. Lets hope mine don't pull that same stunt.
Maybe I better scrounge up the parts and get an incubator leveled out this week. I think the first ones are going to start hatching this week.

It wasn't on my list of things todo.

Thanks

 

[catfish]

I've never candled eggs before.
Well I went out this eve and candled some of the 30 under under my hens.
Cuckoo Morans lay a Golden Brown egg so they're hard to candle.
I found 3 that was plain cold they was laying out from under the hen.

One was mostly clear, probably layed in the last two days.
Another was 50% dark, rotating the egg over the light showed the dark half rolled around the inside of the egg.

I grabbed several that was 50% dark, and several more that showed no LIGHT at all.

So the odds are real good we're going to have chicks this week. First hatch from chicks I bought last year.

One question,
Should I go out and move the sleeping hens and candle all the eggs and sort them by how dark the candling is so that the ones that hatch this week will all be under one broody?

We don't use a laying box, they chickens are just brooding at one end of the chicken house. The three hens are all nestled one next to each other. Nothing seprating them.

 

[chickenfever]

Here is a cool site that shows the development of the chicken embryo at different stages. It doesn't show real pictures, but it does have drawings as well as a description of what is happening each day.

http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/resources/egg_to_chick/development.html

 

[calibersway]

Quote:
OMG mine are doing this. It started with one, then two they were sharing one box, and i was like 'oh well i'll let them sit' like a dummy i didn't mark them either, and i go to check hardly eggs in other usual laying spots...move the broodys and they go from the 6 eggs to piled up on 14 eggs, all my other chickens had laid eggs in the box with them!!!! so, THEN i weed them out, give the broodys some imitation eggs and a few real fertile apiece all marked, and from day to day go in and pull out the fresh eggs. its ridiculous that all the other hens go over there with these two and lay all their eggs.

well, so the original fertile few i candle at about day 10 and all but 2 dont look to be developing anymore, so i toss (or so i thought) and leave the good 2 under one hen, after seperating them and giving them another chance at motherhood and giving the 2nd one 4 more of her own to try and hatch...well apparently 2nd hen i threw away imitation egg and not fertile egg and so 21 days the 1st hen doesn't have any babies, she even cracked one of the eggs and ate the developing chick X_x but 2nd hen (Silkie/sultan cross- Gizmo ) i pick up to get fresh eggs and *drop* a baby chick falls from under her!!!

so, 2 days after first chick the first hen, who is a sultan, hatched her baby, this time i'm not surprised half to death. AND now my silkie has gone broody.... X_x

So i have 3 broody hens, and i had to fix some more imitation eggs to put under them, and i'm insane but have let the silkie have a few eggs of her own as well. -sigh- i dont need no more babies but i figure if they're going to be broody, they can work for it while they are at it. lol

 

[Lorettawyandotte]

I have 3 on eggs right now...1 on 3 goose eggs, the other 2 have an assortment of Cuckoo Maran, Plymouth Rock, Brown Leghorn and EE eggs...1 has 8 and the other 7...my BA hatched 10 mixed breed chicks a month or so ago...they are some funny looking chicks...some have a SL Polish for a father and are getting some funky looking hair dos...the current eggs are fertilized by Walter...sold to me as a Welsummer roo but I am not so sure about that...all these chicks I do not need...I may have to do something about the rooster...I wont eat him and he is a real dude...don't really want to sell him either...but I don't need chicks...guess I could just take up all eggs in the future...I did have a hen trying her hardest to hatch out some ping pong balls not so long ago...poor girl...