Tried to set my broody hen today...

[bobbi-j]

Moved Broody tonight. It went very smoothly - no trauma this time. I'll check tomorrow to see if she's on the eggs and if so, will switch them out tomorrow night with some for hatching. I hope it works.

 

[justtoni44]

Good luckI keep us posted.I would love to have a broody hen but all are uncooperative right now.

 

[bobbi-j]

Broody was still on her nest this morning. I'm going to do the egg switcheroo tonight. I'm thinking 9 or 10? Husband says a dozen, but she is a banty so I don't know how many she can cover. Any thoughts or input? I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Kittymomma]

Are you giving her banty eggs or large fowl eggs? I don't have any banties, but I think most only give them 6 LF eggs.

 

[bobbi-j]

I guess that would have been helpful information, wouldn't it? They'll be standard sized chicken eggs. I'm not sure what breeds I have. Got them from a friend who had a mink move into her coop and she asked me to take them since she'd lost 3 in 4 days. I have 7 red ones, 3 black ones, and two mutts of my own. One that I've probably incorrectly called an araucana (lays blue eggs and I know for sure came from an aracauna hen, but I think the rooster was a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte if I remember right). The other is also of questionable heritage. Doesn't matter to me. I'm not selling or showing them. I just like fresh eggs and DH thinks we'll be getting fresh meat later this summer. We'll have to see about that... I don't know what my rooster is, either. BIG white one with red across his wings and back. Maybe old, too. His spurs are about 1 1/2" long. I don't know how long it takes for them to get spurs like that.

 

[babsbag]

I have a bantie that is sitting on 11 banty eggs and 1 large fowl egg. It is alot for her to cover. I marked the eggs as everyday her nest buddies come and give her another one. Yesterday I came home to find her off the nest and my heart sank. But what I found was another hen on the nest laying an egg, and she had all the eggs covered. A little bit later the mommy came back and took over her duties and the other hen left. Too cute.

I have to figure out a way to move her out of the nest box because it is 3 feet off the ground and no way to block it off. I am thinking that as soon as they hatch I will move them to a dog kennel down on the ground. I don't want any chickies falling out of the upper bunk

I would move her now, but she is pretty attached to that box and took quite a few days to decide she wanted to do this, so I don't want to tempt fate. I have about 12 more days to go.

Good luck with the hatch.

 

[Kittymomma]

I think around 6 eggs then. Like I said, I don't have banties so I'm not positive. Maybe you could give her the 6 to start with and then offer her more one at a time and see how well she can cover them. It's nice to maximize the hatch, but your hatch rate will suffer if she can't keep them all warm so less eggs might actually mean more chicks.

I wish my BR would settle down and start to brood instead of just playing around with it so I could get in on the broody hen fun.

 

[Lollipop]

Don`t get greedy, Bobbi. 6-8 full size eggs is plenty. If she has trouble covering them, some are bound to get cold as she turns them and they get rotated to the outside........Pop

 

[bobbi-j]

Quote:
OK, 7 it is (a compromise between 6-8

) I'm going to set them tonight after dark. I'm just so excited to have a broody hen! Tried an incubator last year (I've always had really good luck with them...) but only got 2 out of 12 to hatch. It's my friend's and she had the same luck as I did. I figure Broody will do a much better job!Now I have to go decide which eggs to put under her. Thanks, everyone, for your help!

 

[bobbi-j]

I just set 7 eggs under Broody. Two blue ones, and 5 in various shades of brown. Let the countdown begin!