When will she kick them out of the nest?

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Update: The 2 BR who are visiting Goliath laid eggs this morning, in the DL on floor of run. So, the "masculine" hen is still laying, and the hen who was toying with being broody is just playing the game for now.

Meanwhile, in the big coop, mayhem reigns this morning. Hens were piled up at the nest boxes, with 3 hens fighting over the box I pulled the "wanna-be" broody out of last night. There were already several eggs in that box. There were 3 hens stomping around, voicing their displeasure that they couldn't find a box to suit their needs. One of them was trying to squish between wall and the broody pen cover. (the broody pen includes the 3 lower boxes, with a 2" x 2" hdw cloth cover which bumps the space out an other 3' x 4') I grabbed her and stuffed her into the now empty elevated broody pen and shut the door. She got busy, madly scritching and scratching around in the bedding, and completely buried herself under the hay, yelling all the whole time.

After feeding all the birds, I came back to let the hen out of the raised broody pen, (no egg) and paused to check on Broody #2. She has at least one peep this morning. Her chicks are not due until at least tomorrow afternoon!

All of this activity in the viscinity of broody #2 this morning makes me wonder if there is some pheromone release that may cause the rest of the hens in a flock to get hormonal when one of their members is in Mommy mode.

A broody hen is definitely contagious, so something going on for sure.

 

[Harmony Fowl]

I've also noticed pseudo-broody tendencies in several hens since my two went broody. It's died down now that all the chicks are hatched and all boxes are available again. The full sister of one broody hen was walking around, pale- and limp-combed, fluffed up, but not sitting. She took an unusual but friendly, motherly interest in the chicks. Another hen was walking around clucking to chicks that didn't exist but continued to lay every day.

I was fortunate: I did not isolate the second broody, who had chosen the favorite nest box to brood in. I moved all the boxes save that one to the other wall and the 14/15 of the remaining hens took the hint. Only the single purebred chicken I have, an Australorp, insisted on using the broody's box still and she did, sitting atop her until she laid. At least now I know of one hen who consistently lays small eggs.

 

[lazy gardener]

BA (broody #2) took her babies off the nest this morning. Of the eggs that made it to lock down, she had 100% hatch (12). (14 set day 1, one more added day 2. She ate one day 3. Two were removed by me after candling day 8. 1 clear, one early quitter.)

It appears that there are 6/8 pullets (black sex link) and possibly 2/4 pullets (squirrel pattern). Time will tell if all of the solid blacks are BSL or perhaps black simply b/c of the BA mama. I was using the egg shaped selection criteria. I consider this to be successful anytime I achieve greater than 40% pullet hatch. Based on the fact that prior to doing egg shaped protocol, my hatches were always 40% pullets.

Just for the record: My roo was covering 24 hens for first set and 19 hens for second set. Fertility of eggs set under CW was 11/12. (91%) Hatch rate was 10/11 (removing 1 clear). (91%) Fertility of eggs set under BA was 13/14. 93%. Hatch rate was 12/13. (removing 1 clear) 92%.

 

[song of joy]

@lazy gardener - It's nice to see that someone else is also keeping meticulous breeding & hatching records. Those are very good fertility and hatch rates, and you're fortunate to have such good broodies.

I'm starting to breed for persistence in laying . . . adding that to the list of vigor, temperament, good foraging ability, etc. I set eggs from two, 3-year old hens who had laid 200+ eggs their first two seasons: a PBR (307 & 224 eggs) and a BA X RIR mix (251 & 221 eggs). They were crossed with a dominique rooster. Of the 12 eggs that were set, 9 hatched and 7 of those are pullets, so hopefully at least some of these girls will be good, persistent layers. The chicks were hatched and raised by a broody dominique hen, whose broodiness seemed to prompt at least two other hens in the flock to go broody.

 

[lazy gardener]

I keep no such records. I'll do well to leg band the BA mama so I'll know which one it was next season. But, I keep no laying records. And, my egg choice for setting does not measure up to my "in my dreams" standards. If I did it like I wanted to do, I'd have put all the hens who would produce BSL chicks in a single coop so I could be assured of the gender with them. I'd have given those eggs to one broody. And I'd have set the blues and greens under the second broody.

As it was, I simply chose the best eggs, keeping in mind the egg shaped gender choice experiments done in the past. Can't wait to see what my gender ratios are with these 2 hatches.

 

[lazy gardener]

Today, broody #2, BA took her babies down to their small private run. At bed time, 9/12 of them made the 3 step leap up to the coop. I expect that they will all make the leap successfully tomorrow.

 

[aart]

Today, broody #2, BA took her babies down to their small private run. At bed time, 9/12 of them made the 3 step leap up to the coop. I expect that they will all make the leap successfully tomorrow.

Did she leave them down there?
How old are they?

 

[lazy gardener]

I was wrapping up my outdoor time, and they were still yelling, so I went and "rescued" them. They were 8 days old. They had a 6" hop up to a 5 gal bucket, then, perhaps an other 8" to the lip of the nest box door. When they can all easily clear that, I'll start integrating them into the rest of the flock.

My biggest concern is the other family unit, 10 babies hatched 6/19, plus a Mama who would just as soon bite my toes off as allow me to feed them! She also chases the flock away from the feed. I don't think she'll take kindly to an other broody encroaching on her space, which at this time consists of the entire coop, (all levels) the space UNDER the coop, the entire run, and the entire open yard run.

So, a bit more fencing might be in order.

 

[lazy gardener]

Today, Broody #1 took her 6 week old babies up to the roost! Big day! I'm hoping that I can let Broody #2 take her babies out into the coop and big run tomorrow. They are 2.5 weeks old, getting past the "prime time" for integrating broody and babies into the flock. But, I didn't want to do so when CW (broody #1) was still sleeping on the floor. I'm hoping the 2 broodies can play nice together.

 

[aart]

Today, Broody #1 took her 6 week old babies up to the roost! Big day! I'm hoping that I can let Broody #2 take her babies out into the coop and big run tomorrow. They are 2.5 weeks old, getting past the "prime time" for integrating broody and babies into the flock. But, I didn't want to do so when CW (broody #1) was still sleeping on the floor. I'm hoping the 2 broodies can play nice together.

That'll be interesting not a situation I will ever see here.....what I love about this forum.