WHY am I having such bad luck with Broodies?

[Cyprus]

Could be this
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/avian-encephalomyelitis/overview-of-avian-encephalomyelitis

It's possible your flock is immune enough now that the embryos who hatch aren't infected, but there is still late embryo mortality.

 

[Cyprus]

Oh shoot you mention you're in Canada. Could have different diseases there.

Do you know what the respiratory illness was? Also, what are/have you been feeding?

I know there is the broody behavior to discuss, but I think you may have a larger problem lurking with a possible viral disease in your flock. When hatch rates are that low, something is fishy.

 

[BroodyBea]

@Cyprus
I’ll look it up and get back to you. I keep a record book of all farm related incidents, from vaccines to sickness to odd behaviour and I’m sure I’ll have it marked down in there.

 

[Cyprus]

@Cyprus
I’ll look it up and get back to you. I keep a record book of all farm related incidents, from vaccines to sickness to odd behaviour and I’m sure I’ll have it marked down in there.

That is a very smart idea. I should do that.

 

[BroodyBea]

That is a very smart idea. I should do that.

I literally have calving records from 2010 with little illustrations that show markings and a deworming schedule for one of my horses from 2009 lol! I write down EVERYTHING because I’m the kind of person who forgets when I last fed the dog, let alone remember if there was any hind limb lameness in any of the horses 6 years ago arthritis popped up in my mare a few months ago and my vet asked about any accidents she might have had, I ran inside for the book and we pinpointed exactly what happened and when!

It’s a great memory book too! I have a few horses who have passed on in there, farrier schedules with little notes like “*Prince pooped on the farrier, work on that!” And they make me smile.

 

[RenoHuskerDu]

Which one exactly? The light Sussex was culled, the blue orp is just going to be used as a layer for food eggs now, since she’s a chick killer.

Any hen pecking at eggs or killing chicks. Perhaps I mis-read your initial question.

 

[BroodyBea]

Any hen pecking at eggs or killing chicks. Perhaps I mis-read your initial question.

Oh yes, of course! I usually do cull egg peckers and chick killers, but my blue orp is beautiful so I’m just not letting her sit anymore, I’ll be eating her eggs instead lol thankfully she leaves eggs alone, she’s just a baby murderer

 

[RenoHuskerDu]

We don't have any blue orps. Do you have a picture?

 

[Shadrach]

There is so much to comment on in this story I could ask questions all night. I’m just going to make a few points.

If a hen kills her chicks you don’t let her sit again, no ifs, no buts.

The hen you put in a wire cage to break her broodiness wouldn’t have been laying eggs if she was broody. The egg laying mechanism switches off, usually after 24 hours but occasionally they may lay two more eggs but that will be it. You write you were taking her eggs every day?

Hens to sneak off and make nests outside, but to last a month as you write she would have to have got off the eggs to eat and drink. This is how you find a sneaky broody. You wait near her usual food source and follow her back to her nest.
However, if she had 28 eggs under her then she had either been laying for a month and then sitting for another or she wasn’t broody and had just made a new home away from the rest.
Here the chickens free range and I have never had a hen make a nest out in the open that has been further than 50 metres or so from her usual food source. It does take a bit of commitment to find such secretive nest builders but I haven’t lost one yet for more than 24 hours even if it’s taken me another couple of days to find the nest.
Where did you find her and how far away from where they feed was it?

 

[Shadrach]

I'll add for others who may read this.
Sometimes when a first time broody hatches chicks, the chicks somehow work their way in front of the broody hen away from the heat and protection of her body. The broody hen knows the chick shouldn't be there and may peck the chick in an attempt to drive it back underneath her. Often the chick doesn't have the mobility to get back under the mother and the mother may continue to peck at the chick. The answer is to put the chick back under the rear end of the broody. Some nest sites make it very easy for a chick to end up away from the mother which is one of the reasons the broody hen makes a hollow in the ground. A chick would find it a lot harder to climb the slope of the hollow, particularly if there are other eggs in it.