Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[kilby]

I have a hen that has decided she wants to sit on eggs today. I got 2 eggs from under her because I want to wait a few days until I let her sit. My question is: She has been on these 2 eggs today, not sure exactly how long but I collect in the evenings. Have these eggs already started developing? Will they be okay to put under her next week?

I heard the eggs are vital for a max of 3 weeks but after the first week you will have more failures.
this byc thread addresses it very well. The Broody Magician has a surprise for you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ile-eggs-viable-before-they-start-to-incubate

It depends how they are stored. 65 F and 60% humidity is what he says I think it was.

 

[Johnn]

Bella and Little duck

 

[kilby]

Bella and Little duck

The two of them are mighty cute. So she/he will be white. Any guess as what gender? The two of them should go in the calendar.

 

[poodlechicks]

The two of them are mighty cute. So she/he will be white. Any guess as what gender? The two of them should go in the calendar.

I agree. What a nice pic for the 2016 calendar!

 

[Johnn]

The two of them are mighty cute. So she/he will be white. Any guess as what gender? The two of them should go in the calendar.

I agree. What a nice pic for the 2016 calendar!

Thanks both. I was thinking it was a girl, but today it ran after some of the hens to get them when they wern't looking so I'm starting to think a boy. It didn't go too well for it once it got to the hens as it chose the bully girls haha

 

[Faraday40]

Well, our "Bantam Menace" is living up to her nick-name again.... This morning, I heard squawking & flapping as the flock quickly ran out from under their fav tree. The source of the commotion: Little Cookie! The bantam orp had the treat bowl all to herself. I'm guessing she bullied one of the roos which made him cry out & caused the panic.

Cookie already went broody 3x this year. About 2 weeks ago, she left her last brood & started laying eggs. Just a few min ago while collecting the eggs, I found Cookie making her broody noise again. Of course this would explain why the rest of the flock ran away from her this morning. She's turning into the "Cookie Monster" again.

Is it normal for broodies to be THIS broody? How many broods can one hen have in a year? For now, I'm hoping she was just laying & grumpy. I'm still trying to get our numbers down &just finished rehoming her last chicks.

 

[chicksurreal]

Well, our "Bantam Menace" is living up to her nick-name again.... This morning, I heard squawking & flapping as the flock quickly ran out from under their fav tree. The source of the commotion: Little Cookie! The bantam orp had the treat bowl all to herself. I'm guessing she bullied one of the roos which made him cry out & caused the panic.

Cookie already went broody 3x this year. About 2 weeks ago, she left her last brood & started laying eggs. Just a few min ago while collecting the eggs, I found Cookie making her broody noise again. Of course this would explain why the rest of the flock ran away from her this morning. She's turning into the "Cookie Monster" again.

Is it normal for broodies to be THIS broody? How many broods can one hen have in a year? For now, I'm hoping she was just laying & grumpy. I'm still trying to get our numbers down &just finished rehoming her last chicks.

We have a Dark Cornish pullet that is on her fourth brood since March. I'm not letting her have eggs again this year, I just keep taking her out of the nest box and try to distract her until she gets over it. Poor girl. A couple of our DC's have been broody twice this year, but four times is just craziness. I don't think that's normal. Lol!

 

[fisherlady]

Well, our "Bantam Menace" is living up to her nick-name again....  This morning, I heard squawking & flapping as the flock quickly ran out from under their fav tree.  The source of the commotion: Little Cookie!  The bantam orp had the treat bowl all to herself.  I'm guessing she bullied one of the roos which made him cry out & caused the panic.  

Cookie  already went broody 3x this year.  About 2 weeks ago, she left her last brood & started laying eggs.  Just a few min ago while collecting the eggs, I found Cookie making her broody noise again.  Of course this would explain why the rest of the flock ran away from her this morning.  She's turning into the "Cookie Monster" again.

Is it normal for broodies to be THIS broody?  How many broods can one hen have in a year?  For now, I'm hoping she was just laying & grumpy.  I'm still trying to get our numbers down &just finished rehoming her last chicks.

We have a silkie type (possible mix , adopted as an adult) who broods 4 times a year and is still going strong. A few of our other (large fowl) hens are at least 3x a year and one was 4 times last year and this year both.

 

[sssharon]

I started out incubating and one week after I did that actually about five days after I started,my broody decided that she wanted to be broody again. So I made sure that she actually was wanting to hatch eggs again and at seven days I put my eggs under her. I have very good faith in her. She has always been a good mom so I thought I would try it out. I have had a lot of trouble with hatching eggs the last couple of times so I thought what the heck. Anyway I put nine eggs under her and she hatched six.I had candle them and I actually thought that it looked like a couple wouldn't go anywhere but I left them in anyway. It was so funny because the last week one of the other chickens decided that she wanted to get in on the act too. So she ended up actually hatching eggs on the day that they were due, and now those chicks have two moms and oh my gosh those hens are so protective of those chicks.
I don't think I will ever incubate eggs again. It is so much easier to let a broody hatch eggs and they do it so well at least mine does and obviously I have two of them that do. The first mom that started out is an EE and the other is an OE. It's such a pain with an incubator having to mess with that humidity the temperatures weren't bad for me they always ran good but I constantly had to watch the humidity in the incubator. Don't have to do that with the Broodies. Love my broody hens. The only part I really like about incubating is that you could set and watch the chicks break out of the shells and that was always exciting to me. That is one thing I would miss.how was see if I can try and post pictures of the two moms and the babies.

 

[sssharon]

These are my baby mamas, how funny is that? It's hard to get pictures of these guys, the mamas are really possessive.