Winter Broody, currently cold out

[cabincrazyone]

I keep telling myself, the chickens were doing this before there was electricity.

 

[PamB]

Great point! I did just go out to let the chickens out and the baby was out from under mom eating! It is FREEZING outside but that little one seems to be doing just fine. He/she went back under mom to warm up after.

 

[Judy]

Just to reassure, what Ridgerunner does is essentially what I do. Mama keeps them warm and protects them from any others that might attack them. Mine were out running around the coop at one week in 20/40 weather. Broodies are sooo much easier to raise, mama does it all!

 

[7L Farm]

I hatched 4 biddies 3 weeks ago & its been cold in their brooder. I have a heat lamb but its still around 57 to 60 degrees & they snuggle alot but seem fine. I would love to have one of my girls go broody about now. It would be alot easier to have a real mom for my next hatch.

 

[Michigan Transplant]

I am a fairly newbie to this chicken raising thing. I have 24 RIR females and the rooster, as well as three Silver Campines. I know two of the SC are females but the other one is an iffy. I think it tried to crow the other day. The SC are almost a year old where the RIR won't be a year old til mid April. I am getting 19-20 brown eggs a day and one white egg from the SC. I do have a heated water container (Bought from the feed store) and I do use heat lamps. I don't like being cold so don't want them to be either.
My question is, I have a few female RIR that sit on all the eggs in the box. How do you figure out which one to let sit on eggs and how many eggs can she sit on comfortable and hatch. I have all the chickens in one large pen inside and they have access to the outside from two different doors. Should I isolate one female and some eggs in another area and if so, how do I move the eggs without to much effort so that I don't damage them?
This will be my first attempt at letting one of the girls hatch some eggs so want to make sure I don't do anything wrong. All answers will be appreciated. THANK YOU.

 

[Michigan Transplant]

One more question.
I have all those females so will that be a problem making sure the eggs are fertilized?

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Quote:
You may want to post your own topic thread, but...
I didn't decide that my broody was going to lay on eggs. She decided. I just let her do it. I figured she'd quit about halfway through and just save both of us the headache of breaking her (and I'd only be out a few eggs). She obviously didn't stop. If you're going to let her sit though make sure you mark the eggs she currently has (with a date if you're forgetful so you'll have an idea how long she's been setting) so you know which ones are the eggs that should hatch (and if you have any sneaky hens that continue to deposit eggs into her nest you can remove them).
At the time I had 33 hens to one rooster - he's a busy guy. I saw that my eating eggs were fertile (do a search at the top right so you know what the bullseye looks like on the yolk) and I've had good hatch rates from their eggs with that ratio, although not 100%.
If you're going to isolate and move the hen, do it at night. She's more likely to accept the new nest when it's done at night. However, you don't HAVE to move them, unless they're sitting in a spot that's dangerous to them (ie exposed to predators or the weather).