Broody Hens...Help

[walldanzig]

I had 3 pekins. One non broody and 2 broody. The broodies shared 9 eggs and hatched them all. The fox got one mother and 2 babies one night by chewing the house wall. The other mother brought up the remaining 7. I kept 2 babies and rehomed 5. This year I gave the other mother 9 eggs and she hatched 4 maran bantam chicks. She was a brilliant mother and her story ended sadly when someone forgot to close the door one night when I was away for the weekend. So sad. The baby from the previous hatch now 2 decided to go broody, so the chicks followed the never been remotely broody hen. She looked quite chuffed to have a little retinue. I have rehomed 2 cockerels and one hen and have one left following her "mother". They enjoy each other's company.
All my control regarding hatching chicks has gone to pot with my daughter's influence. We ordered 6 light sussex bantam ,hatching eggs from ebay. Then the broody appeared to lose interest so we quickly ordered an incubator. Then she went back to brooding so we ordered 6 Japanese bantams, so we could have some under the hen and some in the incubator. The problem of how to introduce the babies has to be faced, am a bit nervous.
Can somebody tell me how long to leave the eggs before incubating them after coming through the post? Thank you.

Stand them at room temp for one day(this allows them to settle after their journey) as well as setting the incubator 24 hours before putting them in put an x on one side and a 0 on the other then turn them 3 times a day using the x and 0 I have hatched 24 so far from an home made incubator and had good results. My father in law owns a piece of land and is also the local butcher we are trying to get enough hens to supply the shop with eggs. the first lot we did where silkies and where 4 cocks the butcher wanted to put them in his shop till I told him about the black skin on them

[Lemon]

My father in law owns a piece of land and is also the local butcher we are trying to get enough hens to supply the shop with eggs. the first lot we did where silkies and where 4 cocks the butcher wanted to put them in his shop till I told him about the black skin on them

Silkies are a delicacy in some parts of the world I think the black skinned chicken is believed to have medicinal qualities when cooked in a herbal tonic

[walldanzig]

Well I went to check on them this morning after putting six rhode island red eggs under her. I tried the usual turfing her out so she can get some food and water. However today she is having none of it not aggresive but flat our refusing to budge even when I have got her out she is straight back in so I have left some food and water around her and left her to it

[di]

There's so much differing advice that I came across...some saying to lift her off the eggs twice a day for food & exercise...others saying as long as she got off every third day it was fine.
Also,don't forget,unless you're watching her 24/7,she may be having a little stretch whilst you're not about.
Not that it went particularly well for us(!),although we did end up with five chicks!,I'd pop some food & water fairly close to her nest and unless you're sure she's not budged for a couple of days,then leave her to it.
Hope it goes well!!!

[walldanzig]

I was thinking of putting her in a rabbit hutch which was converted for hens. But this now means moving her and the eggs and I was a little worried she wouldn't sit on them again.

[Nicos]

You can only try...if you want to have a go at moving them, then move the eggs first and hang around to see what happens.
Does she really need moving???
You can always move her when the chicks hatch- she'll not abandon them!!!

[walldanzig]

No not really but I thought it would be easier to do it now. Just want to say thanks to everyone for their advice all appreciated

[RichmondHens]

Let the hen decide when she wants to get off. Unless she develops a tendency to poo in the nest (and some do, so you will then have to lift her off). I would leave her where she is if she is safe, and move her when the chicks have hatched. There is a risk of her abandoning the eggs if she has not been sitting very long.

By the way, Light Sussex bantams go broody ALL THE TIME!!!!! I have quite a few and at the moment over half are broody. So you will get plenty of practice in managing broodies. By the end of the year you will be an old hand!

[di]

*is soooo glad she didn't hatch any Light Sussex Bantams!!!!

Out of interest...is it normal for a chook to still be puffed up & broody looking whilst she's a second mum...have a horrid feeling that the second eggs are in sight Marigold will be sitting again!

[Nicos]

Out of interest...is it normal for a chook to still be puffed up & broody looking whilst she's a second mum...have a horrid feeling that the second eggs are in sight Marigold will be sitting again!

Uurrmm...wouldn't have thought that's normal for a mum- unless she's constantly protecting the babies from the other chooks...are they within site of her ( just thinking that if they've been so nasty to her, then she may be excessivly protective of the babes from the bullies????)

[walldanzig]

the broody twosome

[Nicos]

Brill eh?????

..my Alice has finally decided to 'unpuff' but it took her 3 days being turfed out into the field with nowhere to lay to give up ( one of the other gals dropped an egg on the soil near the gate...bless)

RRaahhhhh.......( chook for 'clear orff')

[walldanzig]

ha ha brilliant. Since they decided to be broody I find eggs in the house in the run on the ramp. Poor Wynadotte she just gives up and drops them

[CoraxAurata]

Moving Broody hen if you wish to do so - I will be tomorrow night myself...

1/ make sure she has had her time off earlier in the day (especially if she is currently sitting on eggs you want to hatch)
2/ at or near bed time take eggs and put them in planned nest (if she isn't sitting on the 'to be hatched eggs' any eggs will do or fake ones - though I have no experience of egg replacements I usually boil and mark a few as dummies) rather than the possibly expensive hatching eggs - if she's already sitting on the good eggs obviously they have to be used..,
3/ Put the hen gently in the nest box on or near the eggs with just enough light to find the eggs but no room to go elsewhere - she will almost certainly grumble a bit but settle down on the eggs pretty quickly.
4/shut her in on the eggs for the night so the most convenient thing to do is sit and stay,
5/ in the morning open the nest box but don't disturb her if you can avoid it, I use a small coop for this stage so my broody can't go back to the old nest or too far from the new one, and I can lift her off the nest without driving her right away (my oldest hens are not particularly tame)...
6/when she seems happy with her new nest and goes back on the nest of her own volition (or if she's obviously a great broody 24hrs later) the dummy eggs replaced with the good ones.

I don't like leaving broody hens in the main nest box as the other girls may lay more eggs under her resulting in staggered hatching, and there are numerous hazards for babies on hatching, there can be problems with eggs being broken with other birds trying to push their way in .... and in my case a randy young junior cockeral/ducks/theiving dog(he's on a diet) but then I have quite a lot of birds now even the christmas chicks are laying fairly regularly small but beautiful dark eggs (I'm maran obsessed) and so smaller flocks may not need the precaution so much....

I have found that moving them is not as risky as you might think - I just play it safe with all my cautious measures, but my hens seem to need lifting off for their exercise etc time for most of the first week before they get the idea - the odd day missed won't kill a broody and they only really need off once a day (when they do one particularly nasty large smelly poo!) but i actually had to shut one hen off the nest for 10 very nervous minutes 'cos even after lifting her off she just kept diving back on the eggs without eating drinking or pooing..(this intervention was after at least two days of never getting off the nest) but at least she was sitting tight <g>

Sorry rambling again :-(

[walldanzig]

I moved her last night the nest box is an old shoe box. She is so broody I just lifted the shoe box hen and all and put it in the old rabbit hutch. She never shifted. I have put some water in there and also some food not sure what else I can do