Fluster Cluck Acres
Crowing
My experience with broodies has been limited to two different experiences with 1 terrible broody who hatched eggs but wouldn’t raise babies.
Two of my young hens just went broody. The younger hen, Garrison, is daughter of the above terrible broody. I’m a little leery about how good of a broody she’ll be if genetics are involved. She’s 7 months old and a mix of mostly Wyandotte and orpington. She’s been threatening broodiness for a few months now- but only just committed when the other hen went broody.
My other hen, Goose, is a 13 month old Wyandotte. She just up and went broody one day and it immediately stuck. She’s the one I have more faith in to raise chicks.
Initially, it didn’t seem Garrison’s broodiness would stick. So I planned to just give Goose some eggs. I gave her 4 on Monday, which is also the day Garrison decided she was in fact definitely going to be broody. So now I’m trying to make some decisions about how I want to move forward. I’d prefer for the hens to break their broodiness naturally as opposed to using a broody breaker.
So… if I don’t give Garri eggs. will her broodiness break when Goose’s chicks hatch? Which she try to take Goose’s chicks?
Or should I give Garri some eggs of her own? If I give her eggs, then I feel like they should hatch at the same time. This would mean moving Goose’s eggs to the incubator and giving each hen a few new eggs.
I’ve read lots of posts and blogs where people show hens raising chicks together. Is this what usually happens with dual broodies? Or is it more often that they fight over chicks and that just doesn’t get shown on the internet as much?
Two of my young hens just went broody. The younger hen, Garrison, is daughter of the above terrible broody. I’m a little leery about how good of a broody she’ll be if genetics are involved. She’s 7 months old and a mix of mostly Wyandotte and orpington. She’s been threatening broodiness for a few months now- but only just committed when the other hen went broody.
My other hen, Goose, is a 13 month old Wyandotte. She just up and went broody one day and it immediately stuck. She’s the one I have more faith in to raise chicks.
Initially, it didn’t seem Garrison’s broodiness would stick. So I planned to just give Goose some eggs. I gave her 4 on Monday, which is also the day Garrison decided she was in fact definitely going to be broody. So now I’m trying to make some decisions about how I want to move forward. I’d prefer for the hens to break their broodiness naturally as opposed to using a broody breaker.
So… if I don’t give Garri eggs. will her broodiness break when Goose’s chicks hatch? Which she try to take Goose’s chicks?
Or should I give Garri some eggs of her own? If I give her eggs, then I feel like they should hatch at the same time. This would mean moving Goose’s eggs to the incubator and giving each hen a few new eggs.
I’ve read lots of posts and blogs where people show hens raising chicks together. Is this what usually happens with dual broodies? Or is it more often that they fight over chicks and that just doesn’t get shown on the internet as much?