sitting on eggs

[my10rugrats]

i have one of my 6 mo old buff opringtons sitting on some eggs. is this to young to be wanting to sit. she was the first one to lay

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

All chickens are different and some develop and mature faster than others even of the same breed. If you don't mind having chicks I would let her sit and see how she gets on. I would just make sure you see her coming off the nest for water food poop etc. Wishing you the very best of luck

 

[my10rugrats]

thank you. thats what we are going to do. even though its a little late in the year. if she hatches some babies we will be giving them to our our daughters since we are at our limit here where we live to have more.

 

[AmericanMom]

i have one of my 6 mo old buff opringtons sitting on some eggs. is this to young to be wanting to sit. she was the first one to lay

I had a 6 month old Cuckoo Maran that wanted to sit, I allowed her and she did great up until day 18, I walked out to feed the flock and found an egg outside of the nest, she had pecked it open and killed the chick.. I took the remaining 5 eggs from her and hatched them in the incubator, broke her of her broodiness, tagged her leg so I know which one she is (I have 3) and will give her one more chance should she decide to next year.. If she exhibited the same behavior she will be culled. Until I know how she will do I will not hatch any of her eggs, If she has a murderous instinct I don't want to pass that on to her chicks.

about 3 weeks later I had a 6.5 month old Jersey Giant that went broody, she hatched out 5 chicks and today they are a week old and she is doing great, the only issue I had with her is she hatched in the main coop (she refused to leave) and once the chicks hatched hens kept getting in with her and laying eggs, she wouldn't hardly leave the nest as she didn't transform from sitting to caring for the chicks. I moved her and her five chicks to the separated chick run and let her get used to being a momma, after 5 days allowed her back into the main coop with no problem.

I would certainly give it a shot... A good broody is worth her weight in gold and you wont know how good she will be until she is allowed to try.

 

[my10rugrats]

thank you. the only thing is we will have to watch our rooster if she does hatch any . she just started doing this sunday. we also have 3 barred rocks that we have in a separate pen next to the buffs to get them acclimated to being together in a couple of weeks

 

[AmericanMom]

thank you. the only thing is we will have to watch our rooster if she does hatch any . she just started doing this sunday. we also have 3 barred rocks that we have in a separate pen next to the buffs to get them acclimated to being together in a couple of weeks

Why do you have to watch your rooster?

A good rooster will help care for the chicks from time to time. I have 50+ birds in my main flock,3 Turkeys, 29 hens, 2 roosters 12 pullets and 5 cockerels plus 5 chicks that just hatched last week and more that should be hatching tomorrow. Neither of our roosters mess with the hens or the chicks, our more dominant rooster will not allowed the other rooster close to the hen and chicks and will even find tidbits here and there for the momma and chicks. A rooster that does not care for his flock, even the bitties wouldn't last long here

 

[my10rugrats]

he is kind of cocky. we cant let any of the grandkids in the pen. he tries to take me when i am near the pen and he has taken hubby. but we also know he is just protecting his flock

 

[AmericanMom]

he is kind of cocky. we cant let any of the grandkids in the pen. he tries to take me when i am near the pen and he has taken hubby. but we also know he is just protecting his flock

Well, Of course its your Roo and people will do as they choose, But an animal that cannot be trusted, that attacks myself or our grandchildren go strait to the stew pot. There are to many roosters available that do their job to protect their flock but are not human aggressive. I wouldn't want to breed that trait into any of my flock.

Our big boy is a Blue Orpington, he weighs in my husband estimates at about 12 + pounds, he could really do some damage if he wanted to, but never has...
I had a beautiful Buff orpington rooster that I wanted to breed but I didn't trust him, his actions twords humans gave me pause and I knew an attack was coming.. He rested in the fridge for 4 days and made some of the best chicken and noodles we have ever had.

 

[Rainier]

Well, Of course its your Roo and people will do as they choose, But an animal that cannot be trusted, that attacks myself or our grandchildren go strait to the stew pot. There are to many roosters available that do their job to protect their flock but are not human aggressive. I wouldn't want to breed that trait into any of my flock.

X2

We had a problem with aggressive cockerels. The two that we kept for our flock protect the hens, call them to food and breed (only Mr. Rooster does this part) the pullets. He also does not allow the top pullet to be mean or nasty to the other hens (not that she has done that) and quickly intervenes if he feels it is out of hand.

Now that I have a good cockerel (and know the difference) I will not keep aggressive boys in my flock. Too many nice boys who do their jobs to tolerate or put up with boys that are not.

 

[my10rugrats]

he isn't mean to our 4 girls. he watches over them really good. i won't get rid of him. hubby and i have gotten to attached to him . raised him from a baby