Broodies EVERYWHERE!

[woodsie]

Well the mothering love bug has struck my coop....soon after I discovered we would be adding another human squirt to the mix (#4 for us) it seems the chickens thought they should be mommies too! I had one banty easter egger disappear to emerge a couple days ago with 4 little peeps, all different but all adorable. In my gentle side of the coop, it seems everyone (2 americaunas, 2 silkies and a cochin are all sitting on eggs) some even sitting on nests together or trading nests! That means everyone wants to be a mommy in that coop, the only one not sitting is some adolesents and one cochin who is still raising a chick from spring. Oh, plus I have my regular black star broody that is also sitting on eggs in with the cows.

The eggs are always covered but I have no idea how many eggs are actually being incubated or the dates...it is a total free for all! Earlier in spring my two cochins went broody and I locked them in rabbit cages to prevent others from laying under them but that hatch was a disaster because the nests go way too dirty, so this time I just let them do it their way and see how it turns out. I figure if the egg hatch dates are too spread out, I'll just snatch the remaining eggs and stuff it under the ones who went broody later. Anyone tried this strategy? Did it work?

So exciting, we should be getting close to the first peeps emerging!

 

[ragdollcatlady]

One way to do the many days hatching thing, is to just do a chick hunt every morning and take the babies inside or give to a cooperative mama while the broodies finish hatching the rest. That works fine for my silkies since they are pretty steady sitters. Even more fun than searching for eggs everyday, is finding a bunch of different chicks one at a time under different hens!

 

[treeclimber233]

I like the idea of taking the newly hatched babies away from the hens and giving them back in a few days. Don't wait too long to return the babies or they may not follow the mother. Don't spend much time with the babies because they will imprint on you and not the mother. They do not need to eat for a while so just concentrate on keeping them warm while they are away from the hen. Put them back under the hen at night so they will get used to her "talking" to them so they will know who their "mother" is. Trying to collect the eggs once the hens leave the nest probably won't work well because if they get cold they could die in the egg before you realize the hen has left the nest.

 

[elevan]

When I have one go broody, I wait until well after dark and go out with a permanent marker and put an X on the eggs she is sitting on. Then I pull out any non-X eggs on a daily basis. eta: I wait until after dark since my broodies tend to be a bit vicious about checking their eggs...they're calmer after dark.

The hen usually sets on the nest for a good day after hatching before she moves her chicks or at least that's been my experience, so grabbing chicks may be a good way to go.

 

[woodsie]

Thanks everyone...I am checking everyone and there are couple chicks popping out but mamas as being good about sticking to their eggs so far....I am hoping that if there are a few late ones I will tuck them under my cochin who is big enough and docile to stick the late ones under. At least I have 6 broodies to work with so I think if a couple get restless I will foster out their eggs to the later nests...and try to stick the early chicks with one mama...it seems the other ameraucana and silkie duo are already sharing parenting duties.

It is a gong show in there though...the cochin, ameraucana and silkie keep trading spots and let me tell you a silkie can definitely not cover the same amount of eggs as a cochin but it is sure funny to see her try...she's flattened out like a pancake.

 

[Cricket]

I've had some problems in the past with my hens being more interested in someone else's new chicks than the eggs they're on. I've lost some chicks in a tug of war--they'd each grab a chick wing and try to stuff the little guy under them. Won't have that problem any time soon--lost 4 hens to fox:/