more chicken Qs

choille

Eggs do retain their heat for quite a remarkable time ( a few hours if the circumstances are right) & the wood shavings will have helped.

It's best to go with your gut, as you say - you'd always wonder.

I moved an outside broody into a house just as she started sitting them the other day & she's abandoned them, but she was a late hatch from last Nov, so a youngster really - teenage Mums Eh?

I have another whose been grabbing everyone else's eggs & hatch date is due the next few days, but I wonder about those..................
And just got our first lamb today & it's poorly - the weather is disgusting here - gales, hail aghhhhhhhhhhhh.

tryingtobegreen

choille thats really sad news. fingers crossed the lamb gets better and give that young hen a good talking to, u never no. lol

twiglet98

I just got 6 eggs from eBay last Saturday to go under a broody hen as I don't think my cockerel is doing the job properly - I left three of our own eggs under her too, just in case - but this evening one of the eBay eggs was broken in the nest, and three other eggs had dropped out of the nest box into the coop. I suspect one of the other hens tried to lay in the same nestbox and there was a bit of a rumpus. I've put all the intact eggs back under her but as I don't (yet) have a separate broody coop, tomorrow I wondered about putting her, with the eggs, in a covered dog crate in the stable. Alternatively, would it be better to shut the pophole when the other birds have come out in the morning, so none of them can get back in to try and share the nestbox? Hopefully it would only be for tomorrow and I'll separate her at the weekend. She's another young mum, hatched last June, and it's her first brood!

choille

Thanks Trying to be green - Just have to watch the lamb.

Twiglet - sometimes a hen will chuck eggs out - reject them, as if they sense it's duff, or they feel they have enough to cover - keep warm under them - depends on size of hen - although my little very rare breed Scot's Greys have sat on 17 eggs.
If the broody hen was sitting all the eggs should have been covered - possibly....But as you say could have been a bit of a squabble as broodys get very protective & can be quite nasty if they are disturbed.

If you shut them out - the you'll probably be safer, but the ostrasied hens will lay somewhere in the garden?

If you could rig up a seperate house for the others....But that's difficult - I know.

I have successfully had hens in a shared coop hatch their chicks.

I just haven't had a great deal of success moving broodies, but that could just be my cantankerous hens! The one I moved was only about 6 months old. I couldn't leave her out as she'd have been eaten by a pine marten or fox & she was so squashed up against a wall that I could'nt get a frame over her.

It's when you get these situations that don't fit in the usual tick box scenarios - you just have to take a descision & go with it. It may work, it may not. If you leave things be - it may work, it may not.
All the best
Fingers crossed.

Spirit_2

Three of my 9 hens are broody and sitting on eggs in the nest boxes. It is chaos in the hen house at the moment. They get up to eat/drink and then go back and sit on different eggs, my bantam (who had a collection of 10 eggs) has been pushed off her nest and sitting on a clutch of only two.

Usually I move broodys to a broody coop but I do not have enough seperate them at the moment and will try to find a solution this weekend. I have moved broodys before.

The original clutch of 10 are due to hatch 18th May, the two other nests a week later.

My questions:

Should I move my bantam back to her original clutch?

Can broodys share a coop?

Thanks
Spirit

twiglet98

Thanks choille, I'll see how they are tomorrow but probably take a chance on moving her. The house they are in has nestboxes each end, but none of the girls will use the one on the end near the pophole. The boxes are slightly higher than the floor of the house, only a few inches but if she did hatch chicks in there, they wouldn't be able to get up and down.

Cold, wet and blustery here too, I do hope your lamb improves.

tryingtobegreen

morning all.
just want to say the advise in this thread is FANTASTIC.
congrats all with broodys, please keep us all updated with successes and failures. us newbies might just learn a thing or 2.
I did not realise hens would share a coop!

choille

Hi Spirit - I had two Balck Rock broodies shared a coop with intoduced eggs - didn't have a cockeral then. They successfully raised a good sized hatch each.

I think - I've found that when one hen goes broody, it can spread like a virus, more get the notion.
Funny that your hens are snaffling each others eggs - or not funny really. It's up to you whether you switch them back - re bantam, but they may fight & might be a pecking order thing?
I've had so many hens disappear & lay a nest & then bring them out of a secret place when hatched & they've been okay, but here too many predators to do that. So I think generally they prefer solitary confinements - also they are vulnerable.
When you seperate hens & then re-introduce them later they attack the newly introduced one often for a while - re-establish pecking orders & don't seem to remember the hen that's been seperated, but it usually works out in the end - just seems a bit awful at first.

Weather horrid still & lamb still with us. I have someone come today to maybe splint it's legs - they were all curled at the front & couldn't stand properly to feed, so been taking milk from Mum & hand feeding.
We bound it's legs yesterday, but needs something firmer - oh - sometimes it's so upsetting.

tryingtobegreen

Hi All
firstly i hope everybodys doing well, hows that lamb?

secondly, my 1st broody still sat. the 18th wil be here soon. fingers still crossed the wind did not kill the eggs

i now have a 2nd broody. ive ordered some eggs from ebay.

WHEN they hatch they stay with mum, outside.
Q1 when do i take mum away
Q2 its going to be june/july/aug when chicks leave mum (i think) so will they be warm enough outside in seperate coop with no heat?
Q3 or should i just put mum and babies in with the other hens. after introductions of course for a few wk

choille

The lambs doing well - he's feisty even though one foot is still pretty twisted, he's managing really well - feeding fine, his Mother stands remarkably still for him - she's brilliant. And he's gamboling about with the other lambs.

Hen Mum will look after the chicks & keep them in line near her. Give them mashed up boiled egg for a while & saps (milk & bread - sometimes with a smear of mayonnaise on it). Make sure the water feeder won't trap their tiny heads & drown them - I use a shallow dish with a stone in it for weight. You get special chick feed - chick crumbs that has all the minerals & stuff in it for their development. Mixed grain is too large for them until they are bigger.

I've found that when Mum goes back on the lay - that's when she may leave them & will often go back in the main house on her own accord.

The chicks will be fine without her then & will have grown at quite a shocking rate - it still amazes me how fast they grow.

Then you'll have to decide what do with all the cockerals - usually a brood gives 50:50 males & females! Plenty of dinners!
All the best.