Category Archives: Broody Hens

Just another day in paradise

Nothing too exciting going on here right now.  I do have some Silkie eggs in the incubator…mainly because the lady I thought was going to purchase the fertilized eggs didn’t come get them in time so to avoid them being thrown away, I incubated them.

I also have three hens sitting on eggs.  One black Silkie has four eggs and one Partridge Silkie has four.  Then I had a grey mixed colored hen who is broody and I felt sorry for her so I gave her seven Silkie eggs.  It is sad when a hen is broody and I keep taking the eggs from under her.  The grey hen is in a yard with a couple roosters and they would produce mixed breed chicks so I don’t want any of those eggs to be hatched.  They are my eating eggs or selling eggs.  I am going to take the roosters out of there today so the eggs I am selling are not fertilized.   Some people get grossed out by the idea that the egg could have made a baby chick under the right circumstances.  Oh well.

I read on Craigslist that someone wants some chickens … free… of course so I offered some baby chicks that were given to me.  I really don’t have a place for the mixed Rhode Island Red and Buff Orphington chicks once they grow up.  I guess I could put them in the yard with Gail’s chickens since there are a bunch of mixed chickens in there.

You know…I hate to give chickens away because people often do not value something unless they have paid for it.  If you cannot afford to pay 8 bucks for a hen, can you afford feed for the chickens?  Just a thought.

I decided to separate my Silkie roosters from my hens except one white rooster and one Splash rooster.   Too many roosters and the poor girls just can’t catch a break.  I want to see if they will start laying more eggs if they don’t have the roosters in there chasing them and upsetting them.

I was looking at some of my baby chicks yesterday and I believe the chick that I thought was white is actually going to be a Splash.  My first Splash chick.  Yoo hoo  I sure hope it is a hen.  I have two female Splash and one male Splash.  I recently lost a hen and I never could figure out why.  I was outside and I noticed her sitting and I thought she was going to lay an egg and I came back later and she was dead.  It was a really hot day and I wonder if that had something to do with it.  None of them were showing signs of any sickness and still don’t.  I think I will read up on “egg bound” chickens or something  like that.  Maybe that was her problem.

And gosh, how I hate those darn ants.  You just can’t get rid of them in the chicken yards because they are attracted to the feed.  I have been trying to remember to keep ant killer around the outside of the yards where the chickens can’t get to it.  I am so sick of ant bites and I wonder if they bite the chickens, too.

Well, I have rattled on long enough and the sun is finally up so I can go out and check on my chickens and feed and water them.  I really look forward to seeing what they are up to each day.  Occasionally,  I have to put a chicken back into the right yard because they manage to fly over into another yard.  I have a couple of problem chickens.   But, it is a joy to see them all running to the fence line when they see me coming.  They know “momma” has the food.

Good morning to you all.  Hope you have a great day in your “paradise.”

Disappointing hatch

Pex is sitting on her first eggs.  Four eggs.  I went to check on her because it is her hatch day but she only had one egg under her.  I suppose the three eggs were not fertile and she ate them, shell and all.  Darn it.

I have another hen, Lacy, that is sitting on 4 eggs, too.  She is due to hatch her eggs on the 21st.  Hope I have better luck with her.  She has already hatched eggs before and cared for her chicks.  I am trying to get some more buff colored Silkies so I put some eggs under her from my buff hens that are mated with a buff rooster.

I think the problem is it is so darn hot right now and I haven’t really seen the roosters on the hens very often.  Too hot for sex.  lol

Chicks everywhere

My Barred Rock has been sitting on 7 eggs and yesterday she hatched out two and today one.  It is so exciting to see what color they are and see them running to hide under momma hen.  They are Silkies and gosh, they are so small.

I have four other hens that are broody, too.  I just keep taking them off the eggs/nests and throwing them out into the chicken yard.  I had to cage one of them.  If you do that for a couple days, the hen will give up on sitting on eggs.  I need four cages.  lol

All three of these chicks look like they are mixed Silkie.  In other words, multiple colors on the body.  I really like it when they look different so I can tell them apart.  As I said, I name them then and there is no leaving the yard after that is done.

I now have 96 chickens but the majority of them are under 6 months.  My incubator is full also.  I love the chicks so I will probably just enjoy the babies and then sell them as they get about 6 months old.  You get more money for them…15 bucks or so and you get the joy of seeing them grow.   You also get a chance to see if any of them are going to be some great color you want to keep in your flock.

Time for bed…go to bed with the chickens and get up with them…or at least on their time schedule.  My husband is retiring in a few months and we will be doing some serious sleeping-in.  He has worked for 40 years getting up at 5am during the week.  Time to relax and enjoy our life together.  Of course, I have lots of chicken projects for him when he retires.

Hens fighting over chicks

It is very important to keep your sitting hen away from other chickens.   Unfortunately, I learned the hard way.

I miscalculated the hatch date on my white Silkie’s eggs and had another hen and her 4 month old chick in the same yard.   I usually go outside pretty much when it is daylight just to make sure everyone is still there and no one is in a distressed situation.    But, my husband had the day off and we slept-in and then ate breakfast.

When I checked on my sitting hen, she had hatched out three chicks and two of them were about 15 inches from her nest and were dead.  I suspect there was a fight over the chicks.  The same thing happened to my neighbor the very same day.  I was so upset to find the perfectly healthy chicks dead.

Sometimes you make decisions that end up biting you in the butt.  I only have four adult white Silkies so I was trying to keep them in a separate yard to ensure the eggs would be fertilized only by my white rooster.  When the one white Silkie hen became broody, I moved the rooster and the other two hens out into the large Silkie yard after I  moved the other roosters out.

But, the two white hens didn’t seem to adjust well after two days.  They were sleeping in the middle of the yard instead of going into the house with the other hens.  They were also being picked on by the other hens.  The whole pecking order thing, I guess.  So,  I gave in and put them back into the pen with the broody hen thinking there was still a few days before the chicks would hatch.  I was thinking “I will think about it tomorrow” like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind.

So…….be sure and separate your broody hen with her eggs from your other hens.  If they fight over the babies, there is a good chance the babies will get injured or die.   I knew Silkie hens would steal each others eggs and baby chicks because they are excellent mothers but I had no idea they would want them so badly that the chick would end up getting killed.  So sad.

Broody Hens Sitting Again

It is very exciting when summer hits and all the hens decide they want babies.  I have four hens sitting right now.  Two white Silkies, one tricolor Silkie and one Barred Rock.

One of my black Silkies has four two-week old chicks.  I put eggs under her so she ended up with 3 white chicks and one dark one with a little white on it’s head.

I like to separate my sitting hen from the other chickens so no other eggs get deposited with the ones I want hatched.  If you can’t do this, then mark the eggs you want hatched with a X of them and then take the others out daily.  You have to lift the hen to get the eggs but she gets use to that pretty quickly.  I lift by the tail to avoid getting pecked.

The hen only gets off the eggs once or twice a day to eat, drink and poop and it seems the hen would be less likely to get up if there are a bunch of hens that could take over her eggs.  I have actually had two mixed Silkie hens sitting on eggs (on the ground, much to my dismay) and they kept stealing each others eggs.  One hen would wind up with 8 eggs and the other 2.   I have heard they will steal each others chicks, too.  Silkies are excellent mothers so I could see that happening.  That’s why I am enjoying my two maternity ward houses so much.

I always put about six eggs under the Silkies as they are small chickens and 8 or so under the larger hens.  I don’t usually do the candling to ensure the eggs are growing into chicks.  The mom will sometimes push the eggs out that aren’t any good…or so that has been my experience.  If you don’t check the eggs though, you can get some bad smells.

I like to let the hen keep the chicks for about 4 to 8 weeks.  If  I have other chicks that I can group together, then I take all the chicks away from the Moms and put them in a small safe yard or pen.   I never let one chick be alone.  If I don’t have other chicks then I let the Mom keep her one chick until it is pretty much full grown.  So far, that has only happened once.

My neighbor lets her hen and chicks roam around in the yard and though it is more natural, it is far from safe.  She had about four or five chicks hatch out a month or so ago and none of them are left.  If the chicken hawks don’t get them, the owls will.    It breaks my heart.

I have two large dogs that stay outside at night and their yard is very close to the chicken yards.  The dog yard is actually on the side of my two acres that is closest to the woods which is where I imagine most four-legged predators would live.   I am sure their barking has discouraged animals from feasting on my chickens.

I believe I have 86 chicks/chickens now.  I actually sold a few recently and gave away some roosters.  I have 18 Americauans, 14 Barred Rock and Barred Rock mix, and all the rest are Silkies with a few of them being Americauana/Silkie mix.   Some of the prettiest ones are the Am/Silkie mix.  Small and colorful with feathered legs make them special.

Two months ago, I hatched out Barred Rock (brown) eggs in the incubator.  Well, I forgot that I had a couple Americuana roosters running in the yard so I got some mixed looking chickens.  I actually like having the different colored chickens.  It sure makes it easier to tell them apart.   Of course, then I name them.  Named chickens seldom leave my property.  It would be like selling one of your children.

My husband is so good to me and he knows almost every weekend I have some kind of chicken project.  If it’s not fencing, its building houses, or moving something in the yards.   Then there are trips to the feed store, flea market, Swap Meets or just picking up chicks/chickens from Craigslist.  If your kids are grown and you have “Empty Nest Syndrome,” chickens will keep you busy and they start to feel important to you like your dog/cat and so on.

Well, we are going to be building a 4×4 chicken house this weekend.  I will put a note up to remind me to take pictures of the various stages.  It is so easy and it makes quick, inexpensive housing for a few chickens.