Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Ursuline Chick]

Good to hear from you too. My latest babies.
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OMG. Do you have a maternity hospital for animals at your house?

 

[nchls school]

OMG. Do you have a maternity hospital for animals at your house?

Yup.

 

[nchls school]

As some of you know, I "lost" a bantam hen over a month ago. A couple of weeks ago in the middle of the night, I heard peeps. I went outside in my nightgown with a flashlight and baseball cap (in case I found chicks. Sure enough there was my bantam hen (we had checked under the house numerous times when she first disappeared). I crawled under the house only to find the missing hen, 15 live chicks and 1 dud egg.
So now I have gone from 10 chickens to 25 chickens. Good luck to everyone else with their hatches. By the way, this is what I refer to as chicken math. 1 hen + 1 rooster = 25 chickens.

Always nice to hear of a disappearance not caused by predators.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Always nice to hear of a disappearance not caused by predators.

Thank you, we had given up on her. She just had a great place to hide her nest, under our pirogue.

 

[nchls school]

Thank you, we had given up on her. She just had a great place to hide her nest, under our pirogue.

They are good at hiding their nests. Found a nest under a tarp draped on the back wall of the pigeon loft. I left the eggs in the hopes the huge hen will brood-looks to be an orpington, but not positive-a new flock member..

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Bar has empty blue shells pushed away tonight. I won't peek until tomorrow night.

Food and water set up for chicks.

LofMc

 

[nchls school]

Bar has empty blue shells pushed away tonight. I won't peek until tomorrow night.

Food and water set up for chicks.

LofMc

The best of luck to you! I should be having more call ducklings hatching soon; best of luck to me too.

 

[fisherlady]

Bar has empty blue shells pushed away tonight. I won't peek until tomorrow night.

Food and water set up for chicks.

LofMc

No roos! no roos! no roos!

 

[nchls school]

Candling this morning shows the small clutch of call eggs to be internally pipped. Most of the clutch was lost to severe weather, but four eggs survived.

 

[McChooky]

Wow, it's been awhile since anyone has posted on this thread.

Okay...I'll get something going. I've got 3...count them 3....ladies brooding. I didn't set much last year (except for a sneak clutch that hatched during a heatwave...I've no idea how the hen did it as we were 108degrees...she kept them all alive).

Barred Broody, Bar (don't laugh, I've had too many chickens over the years and not enough names anymore, and can't tell birds apart in my identical mothers/daughters LOL): Due tomorrow April 18, 10 eggs...8 of which are my aging 5 year old Cream Legbar (Creme, pronounced like the french creme), bred back to her grandson to get 3/4 to 7/8 Cream Legbars to keep my tourquoise egg line going since her daughters got taken by hawks/coons this winter. Bar also has 3 of my dark brown eggs...taken from....

Brownie, from my Barnevelder line, who started the brown eggs, but quit, so I moved them to Bar. But..then Brownie got serious about setting, so she has another 4 of darker brown eggs (think clay pot), due in a week.

Then my Cochin-Barnie mix, Cochine, went broody, and what the heck, I set 1 more blue, 1 more brown, and 6 olive eggs, due in two weeks.

So that's 18?

I have 16 chickens....I have room for another 6 to 8 hens after several aged hens passed and predator loss. So here's the math, 18 eggs with 75% hatch rate (pretty average as some not fertile...but I must admit I get closer to 80 to 90%)...so 12 hatch....50% hens....I should get those 6 to 8 hens right?

Hubby is laughing telling me I'll get 18 roosters. Could with the Creme....she's given me solid roosters from her hatches the last 3...count them...3 times.

Keeping my fingers crossed for Cream Legbar and Barnie hens. I need more tourquoise and clay pot eggs.

LofMc

Creme needs a set of golf balls if all she gives you are cockerels!