# Our broody hen...



## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Mike's chicken crossing thread made me want to share our broody hen. As chicken dramas go, I thought it would be exciting to see what hatches and what the babies look like. I'm hoping to avoid the tragic ending of some of Mike's henoines, I mean heroines...happy endings only, but it's starting off pretty hairy.

She decided to lay her eggs in a very precarious place and I'm concerned that when (if) the babies hatch they will get themselves into trouble. I need to go in when she's off the nest and try to close up the areas I'm worried about. She basically is behind a pile of scrap lumber, fencing and wire. If those babies get under that pile it would be hard to get them out without hurting them. To make it worse, our soil is very sandy and she has made her nest on a sandy ledge. One egg had already rolled under the fencing.
This is her. I mentioned her in another post. She is such an ugly hen. Her eggs should begin to hatch on Friday Saturday, so I need to figure out how to seal up some areas and make an easy path for her to lead them out. Oh, and she's on 18 eggs as of last count. I believe they're all her eggs. 










Oh, this is dad, Theodore. He is a Welsummer, Gold laced Wyandotte cross. I LOVE his comb.









I do worry his comb could be bad for future roosters though. We had two of his male offspring early this year and his comb mixed with his mother's very large floppy comb, similar to the one of the current broody hen, lead to a "comb over" on his son.
This is his son, Kraken. You can see how his big comb flops right over and hinders his vision. I should say "hinderED" his vision. Kraken decided he didn't like my grandson and we decided we were in the mood for Kraken stew.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Wow. That comb sure did hinder his vision. Can you just move all the stuff away from the nest? Good luck with the hatch!


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Oo! Exciting! Hope you get a good hatch!


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## Boer Mama (10 mo ago)

That’s a lot of eggs for a chicken to sit on 😂
Hope she has a good success rate of hatch!
I’d probably try to do some rearranging of the stuff.
You could try to move her and her nest if you have somewhere set up, but that’s a lot of eggs and it would be sad if she got so upset at being relocated at this point that she stopped sitting.
I like the coloring on Kracken- too bad he ended up being a little jerk 😂


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Good luck.


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

She popped off the nest today and I went in to rearrange. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought. She just picked a really unaccessible spot (for people). I took some pics while she was off the nest. I moved the wire and made sure the ground was sured up. I found out where my sunflowers from last year went...apparently something drug them into that corner and ate them. So...17 eggs now. If you look, you can see one is cracked. I didn't notice that while I was looking at them.









I also took a better picture of her. I wish I knew what she was. I got her from a situation where the guy had too many chickens in very crowded pens. He claimed to have some chickens from Greenfire Farms (very rare and expensive chickens). I know that one hen is a Dorking mix and one is a Ayam Ceremi mix, but this one I'm not sure off anything that's in her. I really should name her...







I


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Boer Mama said:


> That’s a lot of eggs for a chicken to sit on 😂
> Hope she has a good success rate of hatch!
> I’d probably try to do some rearranging of the stuff.
> You could try to move her and her nest if you have somewhere set up, but that’s a lot of eggs and it would be sad if she got so upset at being relocated at this point that she stopped sitting.
> I like the coloring on Kracken- too bad he ended up being a little jerk 😂


We considered moving her right from the beginning but were worried she wouldn't stick with the nest if we did. I'll be shocked if she can hatch even half that many. She's not that big a chicken to cover that much space.


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Chanceosunshine said:


> I really should name her...


Snowflake ?


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Why do you think they are all hers? My chickens all stop laying eggs after a couple of days of being broody. Other chickens keep laying in the broody's nest though.
With that many eggs, laid over a long period of time, she will probably get off the nest before they all hatch so you may want to have an incubator ready to finish hatching some abandoned eggs.
Hope all goes well.


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Mike at Capra Vista said:


> Snowflake ?


Snowflake. It's perfect!


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Mike at Capra Vista said:


> Why do you think they are all hers? My chickens all stop laying eggs after a couple of days of being broody. Other chickens keep laying in the broody's nest though.
> With that many eggs, laid over a long period of time, she will probably get off the nest before they all hatch so you may want to have an incubator ready to finish hatching some abandoned eggs.
> Hope all goes well.


Every morning she would pace in front of the barn waiting for me to open it. She looked like she was "holding it". Then she would run in and relieve herself and cackle her guts out. I knew she was laying in there but I was just too busy to make it a priority to find the eggs. Everyone's eggs are pretty different as well and only she and one of her sisters lays an egg like her's and I was still getting an egg that looked like her's in the nest box. 
I haven't had more than one of one kind of layer up until now and those are just babies. I get green, dark brown, tan, cream and pink(ish) eggs. 
It's possible that her sister snuck in and laid some but from the look of the eggs it's clear that no one else participated.
All that being said, I was shocked to see 18 eggs! I hadn't actually let her in but maybe 5 or 6 times and it didn't even seem that consistent.
Good reminder of the incubator. Dumb question, but will she not want to raise her chicks in that spot? Meaning, will it be clear that she's abandoned it? 
Now you have me thinking of where I'm going to put her and the babies after the fact.


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## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

If she's a good mother, she'll wait until all the babies hatch before she leaves the nest. She might have chicks hatched for a few days before she leaves. Once she has babies out and about for a majority of the day, she's done sitting on the nest.


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Thank you @Rancho Draco


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Chanceosunshine said:


> All that being said, I was shocked to see 18 eggs! I hadn't actually let her in but maybe 5 or 6 times and it didn't even seem that consistent.


Does this mean she is not actually broody? Or am I misunderstanding?


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Hens take a break occasionally when she knows the eggs are at the right temp, weather wise. 
She won’t be off for long and will go right back to sitting.


That is a lot of eggs for that hen. 
Some eggs may not make it if she is not able to cover them all.


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Mike at Capra Vista said:


> Does this mean she is not actually broody? Or am I misunderstanding?


She is broody. I had only purposefully let her into the barn 5 or 6 times and then one day she didn't come home to roost but I knew where to look since I had been letting her into the barn. Still at that point I didn't know how many eggs she was on cause I had never seen the nest until I found her on it. When she got up to go potty is when I seen how many eggs were actually there.
I'm sorry I was confusing. Imagine how my poor husband feels.


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Well, I candled the eggs and I don't think any are viable. They all look like this. I have two theories. One, it was too big a clutch to effectively keep warm, and two, a lot of our ground is sand and she made this nest on a sandy area. I think the sand just stays too cool to allow enough warming. I'll let her finish out the weekend and then try to get her back in the coop.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

That is too bad.


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## Boer Mama (10 mo ago)

She forgot to have a date or two with the rooster first 😅


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Yep ☝


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

She’s sure tore up like they were “dating”. 

I feel bad for her but I didn’t need more chicks!


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Well, I guess I stink at candling. I can hear peeping under the hen!! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll catch a glimpse of them and be able to get pics. I think I heard at least two.


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Way to go, Snowflake!


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Good news!


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Thats awesome! Cant wait for pictures of Snowflakes puffs! 😁


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## Boer Mama (10 mo ago)

I’ve never trusted my candling abilities 😅
Hope she gets a good little brood to take care of and satisfy her mama heart 😊


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

There are at least 3 chicks. I thought the second pic was so cute cause it looks like a big chicken with tiny feet at first glance. We're just letting her do her thing for now. I'll post later if there are more chicks.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

They are SOOOO CUTE!💕💞


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

We're up to 5. My pictures look like my hen is from the ghetto compared to Mike's hen. I promise she has better digs than this!










These chicks are 1/4 Welsummer. Do you think that means that this little chick on the right is a girl??


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## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Congratulations! I thought that egg looked good but I'm honestly so bad at candling myself that I wasn't sure. I don't think that the sexing would work at only 1/4 Welsummer but I might be wrong.


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

In more poultry news...
Chuck is now known as Chuckita! Apparently, she is considered a lavender and when a male khaki duck loves a female cayuga duck VERY MUCH, they will make lavender girl babies and blue boy babies!!! Isn't genetics amazing???










ZsaZsa is now a member of the egg laying society on our farm. She is quite proud but also annoyed with my presence.









And last but not least. They meaties staged a jail break. It didn't take me long to figure out who facilitated the escape and we were able to round them all up rather easily.


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Chanceosunshine said:


> These chicks are 1/4 Welsummer. Do you think that means that this little chick on the right is a girl??


That would be my guess from what I can see.


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

She moved off the nest and we decided to move her from the barn completely. She has EIGHT chicks! Each one a testament to my inability to effectively candle eggs! Thank goodness I didn't trust my judgement. She is such a wild thing and was so freaked out when we took her babies. Anyway, here's her brood and her new home. Took her quite awhile to chill out and she was trying to take my hand off in the process. Looking back it was poor judgement to get her and her mates. We were lucky that all we brought home was worms. I hope there's nothing lurking in them otherwise.


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Chanceosunshine said:


> ZsaZsa is now a member of the egg laying society on our farm. She is quite proud but also annoyed with my presence.


She is one of the cutest chickens I've seen. What breed?


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Yay! Glad you got some chicks!
Check out this candling video. It's one of the best I've seen.


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## Boer Mama (10 mo ago)

I’ve got a black chicken that looks similar to her, who was hatched out of an egg layed by a golden sexlink.
She was the one my mama duck hatched and raised. Lol


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

They are cute.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Awww look at those little fluffs! And she moved out of the ghetto and into Hollywood! Look at her, she is gorgeous! Congrats on candeling wrong. Ive never done it! So thankyou for helping me learn!


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Mike at Capra Vista said:


> She is one of the cutest chickens I've seen. What breed?


She is a frizzled Bantam Cochin, and yes, she is too stinking cute!!! And her egg was yummy.


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Cedarwinds Farm said:


> Yay! Glad you got some chicks!
> Check out this candling video. It's one of the best I've seen.


Thank you for this!!!


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Boer Mama said:


> I’ve got a black chicken that looks similar to her, who was hatched out of an egg layed by a golden sexlink.
> She was the one my mama duck hatched and raised. Lol


Awe, what a good mama duck! Mine did not accomplish that.


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

Moers kiko boars said:


> Awww look at those little fluffs! And she moved out of the ghetto and into Hollywood! Look at her, she is gorgeous! Congrats on candeling wrong. Ive never done it! So thankyou for helping me learn!


Lol. She did! Thanks for learning with me!


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## Chanceosunshine (Nov 29, 2021)

I posted ZsaZsa and her first egg in this thread. There are at least 3 Bantam Cochins laying now, but I wanted to share one of my roosters. He's becoming so handsome. I wish the pictures could show the full extent of how fluffy his legs 
I couldn't get a good front or back picture. And he's not a fan of having pics taken. His name is Elvis because of his jet black hair and his blue suede shoes. He's only 4 months old.
are.


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Chanceosunshine said:


> I posted ZsaZsa and her first egg in this thread. There are at least 3 Bantam Cochins laying now, but I wanted to share one of my roosters. He's becoming so handsome. I wish the pictures could show the full extent of how fluffy his legs
> I couldn't get a good front or back picture. And he's not a fan of having pics taken. His name is Elvis because of his jet black hair and his blue suede shoes. He's only 4 months old.
> are.
> View attachment 236700
> ...


Wow! He's a pretty boy!


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## Boer Mama (10 mo ago)

He’s so fluffy 😂


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

I love that Black/blue shimmer on that Beautiful Elvis! 💞


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)




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