Broody Hens...

A broody hen is a chicken who wants to sit on eggs and hatch them, it takes 21 days on average for a clutch of eggs to hatch once she starts sitting on them.  Broody hens can be rather uncooperative, combative and will scream at you and peck you if you get to close.

I have a lot of broody hens right now.  Brown Racer is one of my first hens, she went broody first and it has snowballed since then.  I have been really busy lately and since she went broody, I have had a bunch more get broody and start sitting on eggs.  Brown Racers eggs started hatching a few days ago, I ended up taking her babies away because the other hens were killing them, or she accidentally did it.  I found two dead and took one away thrat died shortly afterward.  I walked into my big coop and found a dead one in there and one standing in the floor screaming with blood all over its head.   I took eggs away and put them in the incubator, seven have hatched so far.  I used the house I originally intended for my ducks and geese, changed our minds and decided to use it for turkeys we hatched...but right now, it is a broody hen house.  I moved 8 broody hens to it...3 quit sitting on their eggs...more eggs went into incubators and I kicked those three out of the house.  Those hens went back to the big coop...I had three left sitting in the big coop...but, now I have even more broody hens!

I am going to attempt to move at least three to the three empty nests in the now dubbed "Broody House"...I think other broody hens will not kill babies...I hope not anyway.   I went out to feed and one of my Blue Splash Marans has a new hatchling...I took her other one away yesterday after finding dead babies in the chicken tractor with Brown Racer.  I DO NOT like finding dead babies!

All of my purchased eggs hatched, the turkeys, the Cream Legbars, Lavender Orpingtons, the Salmon Favorelles...not even one Jubilee Orpington hatched!  Only one Java hatched...I am guessing due to rough handling when the eggs made their way through the postal system.  None of the Jubilee Orpington eggs even developed and I contacted the seller...she may bring me eggs next time she heads up this way, she has family in New Boston...it is about 35 miles away or so.  I purchased some more and we shall see what happens, I need two different lines at least to breed with...possibly more.  In the mean time, I have 13 turkey babies and about 40 or so new chicks so far in my brooder room.  I have Juvenile chickens in my grow out pen, probably about 20 and let my older babies start running with the adults...probably about 25 of those.  No, no exact count yet...but, I still have Lavender Orpingtons, some Dominiques, Easter Eggers and mixed breeds hatching in my house.  I have two almost full incubators with eggs in them still.  I candle the ones I bring in from the nests...a lot of them are not developed and I have a big box of those and will probably add more soon.

I wanted broody hens...I got a whole lot more than I need.  But since I have not been selling very many eggs and when I advertise, people want laying hens when they call...not eggs, I will hatch chicks and sell them...or sell them when they start laying.