Author Topic: Autumn broody?  (Read 2707 times)

ellied

  • Joined Sep 2010
  • Fife
    • Facebook
Autumn broody?
« on: September 01, 2013, 08:16:59 am »
Black bantam has been disappearing for a week, finally found her hidey hole and she's sitting 7 eggs in a patch of nettles I was going to clear yesterday for the n'th time this year..

Quite apart from moving her to more appropriate secure home for any chicks that do hatch (and she's quite ferociously independent at the best of times, she's the one that took to roosting on a 2" wide and 6' high gatepost of the run long before I let them out of it), isn't it too late in the year for her to raise chicks temperature and weather wise? 

She's been dissuaded from sitting once this year, so I'm thinking perhaps I should have let her get on with it back when she might have had a hope in the nice weather, but I can't see the best broody raising them now, especially given how small she is to provide heat if anything hatches..

Barleyfields Smallholding & Kirkcarrion Highland Ponies
https://www.facebook.com/kirkcarrionhighlands/
Ellie Douglas Therapist
https://www.facebook.com/Ellie-Douglas-Therapist-124792904635278/

Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: Autumn broody?
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2013, 09:21:40 am »
Hello ellied, wrote a reply to this, but then it failed to post and disappeared  :(
I'll be interested to see what people think because I have a last hatch due in 2 weeks. I expect to have to put chicks and hen in the garage under a lamp at night and bring them out during the day, to a small run with glass pannels at the sides. They can have half the garage if need be, or they could even have a little house in the porch of the house with a lamp.
Thinking lots of animals can cope with cool weather, its the wet and drafts they struggle with, I'm hoping a roofed arc with part solid sides and windows will provide acceptable growing condidions.


roddycm

  • Joined Jul 2013
Re: Autumn broody?
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2013, 12:39:02 pm »
I would let her hatch them if she can! I have had chicks all year round, even mid winter and they are fine... Maybe they grow a little bit slower but in the end there is no difference with others born in spring/summer. I should say I always put my hens in a run on their own with their chicks so they have shelter and a warm bed :) also its predator proof... They go into these runs whenever they are born! She'll be fine i'm sure

Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: Autumn broody?
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2013, 12:47:13 pm »
roddycm, that's good to hear!

ellied

  • Joined Sep 2010
  • Fife
    • Facebook
Re: Autumn broody?
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2013, 01:35:40 pm »
Thanks, that's reassuring.  I wouldn't take her off again by choice, and if any do hatch they'll be moved into a wee coop/hutch or something for safety, just worried it's turned cold overnight quite suddenly and she's just a wee thing, plenty attitude but not that much shelter to offer under her..

Wonder what a black bantam (lays a blue egg) crossed with a LF cream legbar cockerel would look like - her attitude and his mohican in black or gold would be quite nice but I won't start counting chicks let alone the male:female ratio of any that do survive..   ::)
Barleyfields Smallholding & Kirkcarrion Highland Ponies
https://www.facebook.com/kirkcarrionhighlands/
Ellie Douglas Therapist
https://www.facebook.com/Ellie-Douglas-Therapist-124792904635278/

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Autumn broody?
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2013, 06:40:35 pm »
I had one last winter vanished in the snow and when we found her over 2 weeks later she was under an evergreen bush sitting eggs. She hatched 6 chicks out and once hatched we moved her and her chicks inside. All of them survived
Graham

chrismahon

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Gascony, France
Re: Autumn broody?
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2013, 05:14:31 am »
Hi Ellied. We have a lot of broodies at the moment unusually. What bothers me is the amount of heat the chicks will need. I don't know how hot it is over there at the moment but here it is getting cold in the evenings. In a month it will be very cold and that is going to take a lot out of the hen.


You need to move her to a secure coop and run and be prepared to heat the coop if necessary I think. We would bring ours into a heated shed. Our chicks last year were heated all Winter which was rather expensive and is not an exercise we will repeat.

 

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