broodies

We have two - well, had two. Our best broody, excellent mother and stable temperament just got eaten by a hawk. It was a real massacre. Ours too, were sitting on non-fertile eggs so I had just bought a small flock of chicks and put under her. She was raising them just fine. Ozwilla was a real joy. We've lost birds before - but this episode brought us to tears.

She was a blue wyndotte. Her sister (a splash) has never gone broody. In fact, of all the hatchery breeds we've raised (and it this point, we've tried on quite a few), Ozwilla for some reason, is the only that chicken we've raised that went broody.

Last Fall I adopted a couple of bantam cochins. The original owner was annoyed at their broodiness. Sure enough, one is broody. She did not do well with the two chicks i gave her. She was doing okay the first day. Not sure if she abandoned them to hop back on the nest, or if a rat got to them or what. They dissapeared though. She's now sitting atop some fertile eggs. Hopefully going full term with them (hatching them) will create a better mother of her. This is her last chance. She is keen on sitting a nest, but nothing more.

This is our first year and our buff orps won't be a yr old till June.
The first BO, Fluffy started with 8 eggs, and hatched 5. Very good mommy. I have a group of 20 from our first incubator hatch. Fluffy aka SuperMom, adopted them too. Now we have 25 chicks, at 5 weeks old running around in the coop and yard with the big chickens. Fluffy has educated them all, about how to deal with chicks.
Our white rooster was just plain dumb founded the first day when all the kids were let loose. We found him, this morning in the temp wire cage ( for night sleeping ), with the 12 meat chicks sharing breakfast with them.

I have a second BO been sitting for awhile in a separate nest / dog crate with 8 eggs. She is due sometime soon. I have Little Red, a buff orp/banty cross with 7 eggs under her in the nest box in the main coop. I should move her but she is doing well where she is, so may leave her there till the chicks hatch and then move them into a big dog crate for awhile.

I have 2 other incubator groups of chicks that I am hoping to sell sometime soon. If not, they will be moved to the main coop also.

Plan is to keep maybe 5 or 6 girl chicks, out of our oldest group to add to our current flock of 16 hens. Going to be hard choosing them

I hope it doesn't get too much worse......oh my........

A year ago April, we had no chickens. NONE.
Now we have 18 adults. And chickes everywhere, or so it seems.
Hen hatched 5.
First incubater hatch 20.
Second incubater hatch 9.
3rd incubater hatch 21, sold 8 of those so far.

Now these will be our last hatches for this year, unless I get some of the
first few groups sold.
I have one incubater going with 36 eggs.
Litte Red, the orp/banty cross has 7 eggs ( none of her eggs )
Mindy, the BO has 8 eggs.
I actually have a couple more BO's that are acting broody.
Trying not to give in to them. One is acting real persistent though.

And we have 12 meat chicks running around. Kind of hard to turn down a
$1 each chick bargain at the TSC. I call them the fat chicks.

I also have it bad this year.

Australorps, Black Jersey Giants, and Black Sex Links have all gone nuts. Mu usual red game chickens are also doing their thing.

7 game chickens with 4 already hatched out and the rest still setting. Maybe 19 chicks with that bunch. 7 of them are fairly old now.

7 of the black hens with 3 having hatched out. 30 some chicks have hatched out with those hens. I don't have enough space in my 2 coops for all the chicks when they start roosting. Figure that I will loose close to half of the chicks to hawks, snakes, etc. The survivors will most likely end up in my barn. They make such a mess in the barn (already have maybe 10 chickens in there).

Next year I will not leave so many eggs in the nests. I was used to a hatch of 4 to 6 chicks with the game hens. The black hens have bigger bodies to sit on eggs. The one hen has I think 17 chicks and the other has 11 with more eggs hatching out at this time. Yesterday she started popping out chicks so I am expecting more today.

It is no use taking hens off of nests, they just go into a hidey hole and get broody.

I could sell chicks for snake food, but I refuse to do that.

Should have lots of eggs next year. I could not get rid of all my eggs this year before all the hens went crazy.