Set eggs 3/5. Looking for others to hatch with! - Page 75

Quote:

Originally Posted by B J Hopkins 

It is just soooo cool to see this big fluffed up hen with chicks peeking out all over her body! Every time I try to get a good pic. of that the chicks pull back in.

Yes, you're right!  This morning I checked to see if Buffy had hatched all her chicks and while she pushed another empty eggshell out I saw a cute wittle chick!

She is either being very private or super protective because she managed to push it back under her feathers. real quick.   The positive thing is, she is determined and willing to hatch more of the eggs.  I hope she is a good momma hen because I really don't want to set up another brooder.

By the way, my son said,  ..."if her chicks die, they were probably smothered with a mother's love."!  I think he's so cute...I should go smother him with kisses!  (I could get away with that 10 years ago when he was 1.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by wholewheatchicken 

Congragulations on Buffy's success......give her a scrambled egg from me    

 

I have a pip on a black mottled d'uccle egg!!!!!

I'm not giving her treats until she lets me see her babies.

  Yeah, on the pip!  Keep us posted.

Seems my last Blue Cochin didn't do so good in the hatching of eggs. She hatched 2 eggs yesterday, and had 2 pipped by evening. This morning I was dissapointed to not find 2 more babies. The 2 from yesterday were wandering around on top of the bale of straw, so I lifted the hen up & found a dead Blue Cochin chick. It was dry so had hatched probably sometime during the night. But for what ever reason didn't make it through the day. One egg was well pipped but within the next couple hours Blue left the nest with the 2 chicks from yesterday. I tried introducing some of the MFA chicks I bought Monday - she was having nothing to do w/that! Nor does she want Mi'a's chicks near hers. I brought the partially hatched chick in and put in incubator. It's still alive but has made no further progress. The other egg in the nest had no sound in it, no pecking, no peeping. Wish I'd have put it in the incubator also. Had a live chick but it still needed several more days in the egg!

We got to see 2 of Buffy's babies.  I rewarded her with some mealworms, BOSS and food.   She is still sitting on her nest so hopefully all 5 eggs will hatch. 

Buffy and one baby posed for a picture:

My son is babysitting the Welsummer pullet until we can safely give her to Buffy:

I seem to have handled my first case of "shrink wrap" chick. It's the chick Blue left in the nest to care for the active hatched chicks. By the time I saw she had left the nest w/the 2, the drying out process was well in progress for the Left Behind chick. Cold, so cold. I don't see how the chick survived. I brought it in and put into the incubator. It dropped the temp of the incubator by about 6 degrees. I kept dropping water on it as the membrane was dry and tight. Poor thing was soo thirsty. It's moving around and chirping quite loudly this morning. Still has dried membrane & shell here n there on it's body but appears to be vigorous. Well see how the day progresses.