The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Kier on May 28, 2011, 10:18:21 pm
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Put the birds away this evening and collected the eggs only to find most of them snuggled under a rather broody hen,I picked her up to make a bit of a fuss of her and noticed that the underside of her is very pink and sore looking. She doesnt seem to be injured but am curious as to if this is normal for a broody hen? One of the eggs was squashed and its contents were on her skin,washed it with some water and will check tomorrow. Would really appreciate some advice as I dont want her getting worse and ending up having to be culled.
Cheers
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I think she will have removed some feathers to allow her skin to warm the eggs, i wouldn't worry about the redness when they go broody their bodytemp reaches around 37degreesCentigrade so red skin is to be expected.
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The bald red bit is the brood patch - how they keep the eggs warm. Totally normal and nothing to worry about :-*
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Yep I agree that is typical broody behaviour ;D