Update on Broody hen Babies are hatching!!! Pics on Pg.2

[bossynbella]

We finally had a silky acting broody so last night I brought her inside and put her into a storage container with her box. This morning she was still in there and pecked at me when I went to put the eggs in so Sounds good so far. We put 3 duck eggs under her and are planning on putting 4-6 silky eggs under her this evening. Wanted to give her time to settle down again.

Wrote the date on the callender and now I have nothing to do but wait

I hate waiting!!!

 

[silkiechicken]

YAY! A broody!

Sadily.. I have two sitting on the same empty nest now...

 

[airmom1c05]

SilkieChicken, it sounds like you need some fertile eggs! It's frustrating when you have the eggs and no broody hen, and I suppose it's just as bad or worse having a broody with no fertile eggs. Some days you just can't win for losing!

 

[silkiechicken]

Well... I'm lucky

I have a standard layer flock that I'll be collecting fertile eggs from... just gotta meet customer egg orders before I start putting them under the hens! If tomorrow is a good day, I should be able to get almost a dozen eggs, so will have a few extras to put under the girls.

Hope that big boy is doing his job!!!

Edit: Funniest thing is... the two girls that are broody are like 8 months old.. been laying about a month, and are glued to the nest.. however, their mom has not a single broody feather about her whole body. She's two years old now....

 

[ma kettle]

Argh, am I the only one who is irritated with my broody silkie? She will not budge off the nest, sits on everyone else's eggs, and she has stopped laying entirely. I have to reach under her big booty to get the eggs every morning, and she squeals and pecks at me. Evicted her to the yard and she spent an hour frantically circling the hen house, throwing herself at the chicken wire, trying to get in. I finally let her back in, afraid she'd collapse in exhaustion and die. From what I can tell, she isn't eating. The guy at the feed and grain said she will probably do that all summer. No eggs all summer???! I am thinking of putting her in the stew pot! Just kidding, only because I truly do not know how to do that. (Although I have students who know how, and have offered to come and do a demo.... ummm... no thank you!) Any tips on how to get Mrs. Broody Booty to start laying again? I don't really want to hatch out duck eggs (they pollute my pond!). What else can she hatch for me that I could keep in the coop? (Pheasants? Quail?)

Gracias!

 

[bossynbella]

What is really annoying is that our duck had been laying everyday since the beginning of February and now that we have the silky setting she hasnt layed in three days!!! So that is why I had to add some silkie eggs in there. Hopefully they are fertile. I broke one a week or so ago and it was but yesterday I opened one and it wasn't. AWWWWWWW Chickens are so confusing.

And to add insult to injury dh cares for chickens during the week I do on the weekend and mondays well last week he was getting 4 silky eggs 4-6 barred rock and sexlink eggs and 2-4 bantie eggs. Yesterday I got 3 eggs total and today. Just one. GRRRR. They are suppose to lay for me I love them!!!

Silkiechicken hope you get some eggs for yourself. Hatching our own eggs last year was the coolest thing ever and I can't wait for these to hatch. I am still hoping for one more duck egg when I go out this afternoon. with only 3 under there I don't see the odds as very good.

 

[silkiechicken]

My crazy and cruel idea hit me again... I get my order of cornish x's in about 2 weeks... wouldn't that be awful If I gave the broody a pair of cornish x babies to care for. LOL

Imagine her trying to keep a bunch of 4 week old Cornish x's under her wings that will be larger than she is by then! lol!!! That would be cruel and unusual. She'd probably be sad and upset her chicks don't want to follow her around and forage.

Why can't my big fat sexlink go broody again, she makes a very good mother and it would be a crueler joke to give her meat chicks since she knows how all her other kids acted...

Luckily I set four eggs this morning! We should have a hatch date within a few days together in three weeks!!! They sure are confusing. I wanted to hatch silkie eggs in my own bator... why did they have to go broody?!?!?! I want EGGS!!! Just put the new silkie roo in with them too after his full month of quarantine in the breeder coop.

 

[countryboy]

Quote:
your broodys might help when processing time comes.

 

[bossynbella]

Well I candled them Saturday night and didn't see anything. Then this morning the smell was absolutly awful. She hadn't been staying on as long as they usually did, I think that one cracked and went bad. I should of checked them more often but she was being iffy about sitting on them and I didn't want to bother her more then I had to. Well when I went to take her out she pecked at me and did her growly noise so I know she is very broody now.
I changed the nesting material and tried to clean off the eggs with a paper towel, since they where covered in poo and egg yolk and her feathers. I cracked open two of the dirtiest ones and there was nothing I put the others back.
Then an hour later I decided to just crack them all open unless I found something. Nothing seemed to be growing in any of the 5 silkie or 4 duck eggs, though I could see the bullseye in alot of them. So I am starting over. I put a fresh duck egg and two silky eggs under her and will add whatever I get today from the chickens.

So now another 21 days for chicks and 28 for ducklings!
GRRRRRRR
Hopefully it goes better this time

 

[bossynbella]

Well we candled the eggs last week and removed the duck egg and one silky egg that were deff not developing I cracked them open and both were fertile but neither had developed so that left us with 11 eggs under her.

Last night we candled again She had broken an egg and there was yoke everywhere Boy what a mess We cleaned it up and put fresh litter in the box. When we candled them we found two more that deff had nothing and one iffy one I left the iffy one and took out the other two. Cracked them open they stunk EWWWW.

So now we are left with 8 eggs 7 with something and one that might have something!
Only one more week!
The waiting is soooo hard!