When will she show them to eat?

[dldolan]

Quote:
Wow! Four chicks out of one pink Easter egg! That an AWESOME hatch rate!!

My other Blue Cochin is really, really determined... I keep tossing her out in the yard with the other hens, and she'll do the mama cluck for about 5 minutes, then waddles her way back up the ladder. I finally moved "her" box to the new broody (dog) house I found, and took all the other nesting boxes out of the coop for the night. We'll see...

 

[abhaya]

those plastic eggs hatch great!!!!!

 

[cabincrazyone]

Quote:
Thank you for that info. :^)

 

[magicpigeon]

MY friend had a silkie hen who also would not stop being broody. What he did was sneak a chick from another hens nest - this chick was about 2 weeks old, mind you - and put it with the broody hen. Seems a little weird now that such an old chick still managed to be "accepted", but they bonded great

The chick liked all the "one on one" attention it was receiving and the broody was proud all her energy didn't go to waste.

 

[dldolan]

I would totally be willing to give that a try if anyone around here had young chicks. I understand that once hatched out by a broody mama, the chicks bond to her particular "cluck", so can't swap any of #1 over to #2 at this point. Sigh. And the dog house idea hasn't caught on as I was hoping...
Mama tooks chicks out on a foray around the fenced yard today. I had to keep shooing my RIR lead hen away, as she was way too curious at the point when mama left ME in charge! Bizzare...

 

[magicpigeon]

My other hens do that too! :O The dominant rooster, and dominant hen kept sneaking suspicious glances at my mother hen as
no 1. she got to eat different food
no 2. she had little white blobs running around everywhere, mainly around her and by default their legs
no 3. the little white blobs got all the attention! I think all the other chickens were jealous

I even shredded some stale bread into tiny pieces so the little chicks could eat them...

dldolan- on the dog house idea, I once tried to put a broody in a cardboard box, with practically no light. She was really noisy and upset at first, but after a while settled down to sit on her eggs (I forgot to mention- her eggs were in there too)

This was for a really stubborn hen who laid her eggs under a rabbit hutch. The only thing I did not like about this method is that I had to take them hen out, every morning to feed and drink and then catch her to put back in the box. Oh, and the hen has to be broody for this to work

Maybe if you keep putting your hen back in there with some fake eggs she will catch on....

 

[dldolan]

Hmm, but will the RIR hurt the chicks? Mama Cochin is 3rd or 4th on my 7-rung totem pole...


I gave up and put the nesting boxes (apple picking basket & shoe box...) back as the other [laying] hens were too confused. I think i'll let her (Cohin #2) sit in the apple basket in the main coop until she has been on the fertilized eggs a week or so. Then she probably wouldn't move if I take her entire nest and move it to her new digs. Broodies! Sigh...

On the less frustrating front...My nine-day old babies are eating well! The Fab Four should be called "piglets" not "chicks".

and on a walkabout following mama...