Broody nest mates

[verycherry]

Do the Lavender and Black/Lavender splits tend to be broodier than most of the other colors?  I\'d always heard that Ameraucanas aren\'t a very broody breed.

This picture was taken about a week and a half ago.  

Since then, 2 more broodies have joined in, so I now have 4 broody Ameraucanas!  ...4 out of the 6 I have in the breeding pen, so I\'m only getting about three or four eggs a week now.  

Both of the 2 new girls are on the top shelf squashed up next to the other one.  When you walk up to them they puff up so big that it looks like one giant hen with three angry growling heads!  I need to get a new photo to show you, it\'s pretty scary looking!

By the way, these girls aren\'t even a year old yet.  

There are 14 eggs total.  There were 16 but 2 got cracked early on.  The other two girls laid a few more eggs but I took them and put them in the incubator since they were laid several days later.  These should hatch very soon, but I didn\'t record the date because I really didn\'t take these girls seriously, lol!  Do you think they\'ll be good moms?

[Beth C]

they puff up so big that it looks like one giant hen with three angry growling heads!

You have GOT to get a picture of that! Sounds like they\'re off to a good start at being good moms, lol! I had one broody I called \"Henzilla\" - NOTHING came w/i 3 feet of her chicks...

[verycherry]

I\'m pretty sure that if you stare at \"her\" too long you\'ll turn to stone!

[John]

heard that Ameraucanas aren\'t a very broody breed

I guess it depends on what \"very\" means.  The buff bantams and LF fowl seem to be the broodiest, but overall they are a normal \"naturally\" broody chicken.  I had three silver pullets all go broody at the same time this year in the same nest and have been breaking many of the habit over the past few months.

[cedarpondfarm]

My hens tended to be broodier than pullets - and often meaner while setting.  I had a couple hens so old they didn\'t lay anymore but they would steal a nest every spring.  The ones who actually got chicks out of the deal seemed more determined than ever.



:0)

[verycherry]

heard that Ameraucanas aren\'t a very broody breed

I guess it depends on what \"very\" means.  The buff bantams and LF fowl seem to be the broodiest, but overall they are a normal \"naturally\" broody chicken.  I had three silver pullets all go broody at the same time this year in the same nest and have been breaking many of the habit over the past few months.

Thanks for your replies.  A friend of mine that\'s been wanting to get eggs from me since she saw my two Lavender boys, just couldn\'t believe that 4 of the 6 were broody, and said that none of her Ameraucanas have ever been broody.  She almost seemed to doubt me (like maybe I didn\'t want to give her eggs?), so I sent her a photo.  A few other people have said similar things, and I\'d really never heard of one recommended as a broody myself, like I have Silkies and Cochins, so I was surprised, especially at their young age.......but I have 2 baby chicks this morning!!!  A Lavender and a B/L Split so far.  At least that\'s all I\'ve been able to see.  The girls are on guard like the hounds of hell!

[Beth C]

LOVE the feathered Cerberus!!! Hensrus!!!

Edited to add: Congrats on the babies!!! I\'ve always heard Ameraucanas had a tendency to go broody, and mine seem to be following along with that. So far 1 of the 4 wheatens is brooding, and 2 of the 3 blacks are hissing monsters when I collect their eggs (which the wheaten is brooding, since my bw cockerel isn\'t old enough for the breeding pen just yet.)

[verycherry]

Thanks!  I hope you have lots of healthy chicks.  I really have enjoyed watching mine...from a safe distance!  

The Moms on top ended up with 3 Lavender and 3 split chicks from 7 fertile eggs.  The eighth egg got broken a while back.

Two days later one of the 3 Moms moved down to the bottom nest to help the other mom hatch her eggs, and they were joined part of the time by a third mom!  So far 3 eggs have hatched but one got stepped on while hatching and I don\'t think the chick is going to make it.

By the way, one of the babies on the bottom nest had fallen out of the nest and couldn\'t quite jump back in by himself so I put him back.  That\'s when I did I noticed that another chick was missing.  I couldn\'t find it anywhere, but there were 7 babies on top!  I checked their wing feathers and sure enough there was one chick up there thats wing feathers were still unopened.   No one had been in there except the Moms and the rooster.  Hmmm...

 

[eliz]

I don\'t know too much about genetics, but it would stand to reason that in developing the new colors in Ameraucanas, the new birds would take on other traits besides color such as size, # of eggs yearly, length of viable laying, broodiness or not, heritable habits & personality from the donor breeds. eliz

[Guest]

Thanks!  I hope you have lots of healthy chicks.  I really have enjoyed watching mine...from a safe distance!  

The Moms on top ended up with 3 Lavender and 3 split chicks from 7 fertile eggs.  The eighth egg got broken a while back.

Two days later one of the 3 Moms moved down to the bottom nest to help the other mom hatch her eggs, and they were joined part of the time by a third mom!  So far 3 eggs have hatched but one got stepped on while hatching and I don\'t think the chick is going to make it.

By the way, one of the babies on the bottom nest had fallen out of the nest and couldn\'t quite jump back in by himself so I put him back.  That\'s when I did I noticed that another chick was missing.  I couldn\'t find it anywhere, but there were 7 babies on top!  I checked their wing feathers and sure enough there was one chick up there thats wing feathers were still unopened.   No one had been in there except the Moms and the rooster.  Hmmm...

 

Great Pictures...I love the broody team work!

[verycherry]

Bad, bad news.  I came home yesterday to find all the Lavender chicks pecked the death.  Nothing at all wrong with the black splits.  

I watched for awhile and did figure out which hen it was, and moved her out of the pen.  She would get very agitated when the chicks got out of the nest and ran around, and was flarring up at them.  The chicks were running around in a spot where a Cochin hen had hatched 8 chicks recently, but I\'d moved that Cochin hen and her chicks Monday because two of the chicks were killed by one of the Ameraucana hens.  Those 2 chicks were both white cochin bantam chicks with a gray tinted down.  I wonder if my Ameraucana hen got confused yesterday and thought the Lavender Ameraucana chicks were more of the white/gray cochin chicks?  They were very similar in color.  

After I removed the Ameraucana hen, I watched them for at least two hours on and off and everything seems to be ok now.  Even the dad was good with them while they were out running around and was calling them to the food.  A total gentleman.  I\'m keeping a close eye on them today just in case.  Glad I don\'t have to work today.  As you can imagine, I am just sick and disgusted.  They were such big healthy babies.

[Beth C]

Sherry, I am so sorry! Absolutely heartbreaking...

[cedarpondfarm]

Sherry, so sorry about the chicks and the setback in your program.  Wish I had some lavender chicks to send to you.  

[Mike Gilbert]

I never allow group mothering to go on.    Hilary not withstanding, it does not \"take a village.\"  Besides extra chances for broken eggs and squashed newly hatched chicks, there is always the chance that extra hens won\'t recognize certain chicks as being \"theirs.\"    Besides, it is very inefficient.   The extra setting hens could be used to hatch their own clutch of 10 -12 eggs.    My mother hens and their chicks go immediately to a seperate pen where they cannot intermingle with other chickens, or else the chicks go to a brooder with other chicks about their same age.   In the past I even had hens that would peck to death every chick they hatched - needless to say those hens are gone.

[Anne Foley]

Verycherry, don\'t feel like you are the only one.  I also went through a similar situation a few years ago.  Believe it or not, chickens are \"racist\".  I had several (8, if I remember correctly!) broody Buff Brahma bantams in one shed and I decided to put them to work.  I put Buff Brahma bantam eggs under some and Black Ameraucana large fowl eggs under others.  Guess which chicks were killed right after hatch and which chicks were just fine.  In my case, I was able to determine that it wasn\'t just one \"bad\" hen but several of them.  It was a lesson learned the hard way.  In a barnyard situation with mixed breeds, I suppose there is more tolerance for different colored chicks.  Good Luck!