NY chicken lover!!!!

[Gramma Chick]

Pharm - that is hilarious !!!

PHARM -It sounds like you should tie that lady up next time ...How about a towel over her ...wrap her up ...look at the eggs as you wish ...

I have this one hen, she lays an egg, usually next to somebody else's egg, and then she sits on it. When I come in the coop, she starts shrieking and fluffing herself up. She's even pecked at me when I go to retrieve eggs.

So I figured I'd let her sit on some eggs if she wanted, but she never stays long enough. She sits for a couple of hours and then she's off and doing her chicken thing. The eggs end up too cold for her to hatch.

Maybe when its consistently warmer, I'll let her try and hatch. I can't tell if she's broody, or just being witchy.

Sounds like shes just being witchy ...a true broody would not leave the nest for more than a few minutes ..
Just to eat , to drink & to poop ...then back on ..You might not even see her do this ...

 

[marquisella]

I have plenty of roosters in my first hatch. Some are going to be quite handsome, too bad I don't need any of them.

I've been lucky this year, getting a good number of pullets....hope I didn't jinx myself...

I so wish I had gotten geese sooner...instead of the babies running away from you shrieking, they actually come up to you....so nice for a change.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

PHARM -It sounds like you should tie that lady up next time ...How about a towel over her ...wrap her up ...look at the eggs as you wish ...

Sounds like shes just being witchy ...a true broody would not leave the nest for more than a few minutes ..
Just to eat , to drink & to poop ...then back on ..You might not even see her do this ...

Gramma, when they're first laying their clutch, they don't sit on the eggs, do they? Do they lay their egg for the day, go about their chicken business, lay the next day, etc., until they have enough eggs and THEN sit?

Maybe she's just confused. Some of her behavior is uncharacteristic for her, and she only does it when she's sitting in the nest box...the puffing up, screeching at me, etc. And she's NEVER pecked until this started. I hope she's not actually broody...I only have three laying hens and would prefer to not lose her almost daily eggs for the next 5-8 weeks. Course...if it means more babies...well...I could sacrifice...

 

[marquisella]

Quote: They don't sit all the time until they feel there are enough eggs to hatch. She is probably getting ready to sit permanently. I have some hens that will fluff up, growl & peck even if they are just laying at the time. How many eggs are in the nest? Take the eggs away if you don't want her to go broody.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

They don't sit all the time until they feel there are enough eggs to hatch. She is probably getting ready to sit permanently. I have some hens that will fluff up, growl & peck even if they are just laying at the time. How many eggs are in the nest? Take the eggs away if you don't want her to go broody.

Oh, I take her eggs every day. My incubator was full when I set last week, so I thought maybe she might like to sit on the five extra eggs I had. I gave her a test egg to see if she would actually stay on it. I was thinking she was leaving the nest because I was taking her eggs, and that if I left her an egg, she'd stay...she stayed for awhile and then left the egg...when I checked on it that evening, the egg was cold. I ended up sending the five extra eggs over to my neighbor's incubator, which he has running all of the time, lol.

So will they sit for awhile then, and then leave the nest each day, up until they feel as though there are enough eggs to hatch? I hadn't noticed if she was plucking her own feathers, but when I specifically looked into her favorite nest box this morning, I noticed maybe three or four soft feathers...no idea if they're hers or not.

 

[marquisella]

I don't have chickens that pull their feathers out for a nest. Some might I guess. They usually haveit in their head, that they need a certain amount of eggs in the next before they sit. Silkies need less eggs to go broody, sometimes they go broody without eggs at all! But most large fowl will not go broody with a goodly number of eggs laid. Now that I said that, I've had a couple of Marans hens go broody with nothing, so I guess it depends on the hen.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

I don't have chickens that pull their feathers out for a nest. Some might I guess. They usually haveit in their head, that they need a certain amount of eggs in the next before they sit. Silkies need less eggs to go broody, sometimes they go broody without eggs at all! But most large fowl will not go broody with a goodly number of eggs laid. Now that I said that, I've had a couple of Marans hens go broody with nothing, so I guess it depends on the hen.

Thanks! We're coming up on our first year of having chickens so all of this is new to us. Ideally, if she *must* go broody, I'd rather she wait a bit, lol.

 

[elieugene6]

I never thought it would be so hard to find a rooster. Been looking for a barred Rock for a month now and can't find one. I understand the d'uccle and possibly Muscovy being hard to find but really a barred Rock is so common. Then there's the fact that I'm willing to pay for them. You would think someone would jump

 

[Sweetpea3829]

I never thought it would be so hard to find a rooster. Been looking for a barred Rock for a month now and can't find one. I understand the d'uccle and possibly Muscovy being hard to find but really a barred Rock is so common. Then there's the fact that I'm willing to pay for them. You would think someone would jump

LOL, where in Western NY are you? I have a handsome BR roo that, depending on how my hatch goes, I won't need any longer. I was going to add him to my freezer, but...if I get a Marans rooster out of my current clutch, I can sell the BR.

 

[rancher hicks]

Hi folks,
I'm home and glad to be. I'm sorry to skip so many posts but I'm a bit stunned.

It seems that while I was away DW had some test done. I didn't know til I got home today. She didn't tell me. The short version is they found breast cancer. We go tomorrow to talk to the surgeon. Please keep her in prayer.

I do hope everyone else is doing fine.

Thanks in advance,

Rancher