*Updated* Broody hen and eggs that don't seem to be....

[hepina]

Hello,

one of our hens has decided to go broody. We are happy for her to follow the call of nature and initially set aside 6 eggs for her to sit on.

We have a cockerel present who seems to be keen enough doing his job regarding the hens

What I am not sure about is whether the eggs actually been fertilized? When we used to crack the eggs open for cooking before this hen became broody we never saw a little red (blood) spot inside. I always thought that was the sign of having a cockerel present in a flock.

Can anybody shine some light on this for me, please? Thanks.

 

[Blue]

the blood spot is abit of an urban myth ... it can be there without the hens living with a cockerel.

If you're happy for her to spend 3 weeks brroding, then I'd say leave her to it!
you could always candle the eggs later on, to be sure which are fertile (if you dont mind upsetting the hen!)

good luck

 

[hepina]

Thanks,

yes, as I said - we are happy for her to do whatever she wants. We keep our flock as pets and for a supply of fresh eggs (and as a cheap lawnmower ). One hen not laying for three weeks won't be such a big problem.

We, unfortunately, have to disturb her once a day as she keeps stealing eggs from the other girls who lay in the neighbouring nests. We started initially on 6 eggs but by the time I checked under her just out of curiosity she already had 9 eggs there We didn't know how long she had been sitting on them so I marked 9 eggs very clearly and those she can keep. This means that if the eggs have been fertilised, each of our hens will have 'a baby' :lol: Not that they would know anything about it... :roll:

She comes out every day just around lunch time. She has a quick lunch and a drink followed by a short dust bath and she is normally back in the nest in less than 30minutes. That gives me enough time to check for any more 'stolen' eggs if I am at home and it will hopefully give me enough time later on to check if I can see any embryos inside the eggs.

 

[victorias poultry]

Good luck, do let us all know how you get on

 

[hepina]

Looks like everything is as it should be

We had a look at one of the eggs against a strong light and there was clearly visible shadow formed inside. This was a week from the day we put some eggs under our broody hen.

Our cockerel did his job properly 17 !!!

Trouble is that our other hen is getting broody as well. Is broodiness airborne :roll: ?

I think we will have to refuse this other hen her mothering instincts and will possibly split little chicks after they hatched between them two to look after.

Just a question... Can I expect any eggs when formerly broody hen looks after chicks? If not - how long do I need to wait until she starts laying again?

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

I've founf that it can be 6-8 weeks before the hen starts laying again. This is about the same time that the chicks become independent, and the hen goes back to join the main flock

 

[Anonymous]

It won't be possible to split the chicks I'm afraid as the other hen will not recognise them as her own and may possibly kill them.

 

[Chuck]

Two broodies sat in the same nest is not a good idea as they steal each others eggs some of which may get cold with the result that the hatch is very poor. If you don't want the other hen to sit, take her off broody, see advice in FAQ on doing this.
When the chicks hatch, they really need to be put in seperate penning with their mother or the other birds might attack them. They are best with one mother.
I did see some good advice on here about hatching under broodies but can't find it again.
When the chicks are nicely feathered and the weather is quite warm (they don't have to be fully grown), the hen can be removed at which time she'll come back into lay but may go into a moult first, so reckon on her being out of lay for about three months.

 

[hepina]

Just an up-date...

We managed to candle 4 out of 9 eggs. Our broody is sitting on 5 creamy ones and 4 brown ones but I didn't bother to candle the brown ones as we don't really have a proper strong 'candeling torch'. Out of those 4 we managed to see through, there were three eggs clearly with something developing inside 17 The fourth one we candled was without any shadows inside - just nicely spotty - like a sky with stars.

So, just purely statistically, if we have three eggs out of four with chicks inside - we could end up with about 6 chicks out of 9 eggs she is sitting on? Yeeee!

We have another few days to go - the eggs were put under our broody on Sunday 20th of March.

I am really looking forward to see what colours they are going to be after they grow up a bit. Our hens are not really pure bred ones; only 'the Daddy' seems to be pure bred White Sussex.

I was thinking of putting our broody and her new chicks in a very large rabbit's cage for next few weeks.The cage is just over 110cm long, 50cm wide and just over 50cm tall. I would put shavings down for them. The door on the cage is big enough for broody to get in and out but would be too high for chicks for at least a couple of weeks. I thought keeping them indoors overnight and putting them out on the sun during the day would be a good idea? The cage is large but easy to move around.

I still don't know how long the broody should stay with them and how soon I can start introducing them to the rest of our small flock. We have a large rabbit run in chickens area. I read it somewhere that it might be a good idea to put chickens there first - so that they can see old birds and the old birds can see them - so that especially the old ones will get use to having the youngsters in a close proximity.

Thanks for any advice you may have.

 

[hepina]

After all that uncertainty and doubts of somebody who is not an expert (= me, of course) I am proud to introduce our first three chicks

By the time I write this post we have already had a fourth one hatched and two more eggs are 'on the way'.

 

[Chuck]

Firstly, the rabbit hutch would be a suitable place for them and the broody. I had given some indication of when to take the chicks away in a previous post.

 

[farmerjon1988]

hey congrats

my broody hatched three out of six eggs and the chicks are 7 weeks now our hen is not laying yet but the chicks or getting more independent so i dont think it will be long till she starts again
i was gonna seperate the chicks from the broodie but i was told she wouldnt start laying until 5 - 10 weeks after they hatch anyway so i kept them together
i put the broodie and chicks in a rabbit hutch so the other hens could see the chicks and i let them out after about 3-4 weeks old and ive had no hastle from the other hens picking on the chicks cuz my broodie was very protective and chased them off but now the chicks cuddle up with all the other hens and they are all happy running around and digging together
my chicks were fine in the hutch night and day and they was in there when we had the snow and rain the broodie will keep them warm

hope that helps

 

[hepina]

Thanks

...and thank you for your advice. We tried to go about all that chicks' business as naturally as we could with our broody hen. She decided to go broody and we let her despite having already enough hens to supply our family.

She spent all that time sitting on the eggs next to the other hens. We didn't try to isolate her before and will try to keep it as natural as we can from now on as well.

Our hens are housed in a spacious two storey rabbits hut. Cockerel sleeps downstairs and 4 out of 5 hens sleep normally upstairs (including the broody one). Broody was there all that time next to the rest of them sitting patiently on her eggs and the others tolerated her well. If they needed to lay an egg and downstairs nest was already occupied - they simply sat next to our broody and laid an egg next to her. That is how she managed to steal three more eggs couple of days after I had already put 6 under her :roll:

Our broody and chicks are kept upstairs. During the day 'the staircase' is blocked off so chicks are safe to explore the whole upstairs floor. During the night we remove the barrier so that the other hens can come in to sleep.

What I find amazing is that our broody is still patiently sitting in her nest with 6 little chicks running around somehow knowing that there are more to come. We have one more egg with 'peep' and a little beak sticking through the crack in the shell - two days after the most of them hatched 17 I was going to candle those remaining eggs tonight but there will be just one left (the very last one is definitely 'empty' - I have candled it a week ago).

And regarding the colours... We have one looking like penguin :lol: , two yellow ones with golden brown on their back and three of yellow / greyish mix. God knows what cross they are 19