Hatching with 2 broodies

Hello, Team Broody! Are you out there?
Things have gotten a little bit crazy here at the farm. The broodies were knocking the remaining eggs all around this morning while teaching the chicks to scratch. It did not look good for the remaining eggs. I decided to take action. (I started another thread, but it has been quiet, so back to my team!)
Anyway, I candled the eggs and decided 2 were very probably dead - the air cells were huge and the dark areas moved a bit jerkily. Of the other two, one marans I couldn't see anything at all - not even an air cell (might not have been dark enough in the darkest place I could find today), and the other blue actually looked still alive, but hard to tell. So, I now have the two possibly good eggs on a slightly moist heating pad, in a baking dish, lightly covered with a towel. I'm trying very hard to keep the temperature at about 99 degrees. I gave the probable bad eggs back to the broodies. I'm going to give the good eggs back at night, when things have calmed down.
What do you think? Is this crazy? It's surprisingly hard to keep the temperature constant, but there just didn't seem like any way they'd survive the activity back in the nest. It's like the broodies would remember and set on them about 80% of the time, but the remaining 20% was chaos.

Any advice is welcome!!! 7 hours short of 23 days here!

And, finally, here's the happy family as it currently stands (#2 already outgrew #1):

Hello Team Broody! Congratulations on all of the new fuzzy chicks! They are all so cute. I have really enjoyed reading along with the Team Broody thread. I currently have a broody hen sitting on eggs that are around 15-17 days now. I have about 4 or 5 viable eggs under her including my pekin ducks eggs. I have taken my mama hen out of the coop because she had quit eating. She is now happily set up in my spare bunny cage in my bedroom. She had a mite infestation so she got a good bath with a little Avon Skin so Soft in water and was blow dried with dryer. I put a dot of frontline on her and no more mites. Had to treat whole flock too. Put a heat pad on eggs while mama hen was bathed. I have got her sitting in pine shavings with a ball-drip water bottle and bird feeder sat directly in front of her with a mix of chick starter and flock grower. She seems to be doing much better now. If I could just quit chicken stalking I'd be ok. I have a flock of 14 chickens with plymouth barred rocks, orange comets, black laced red wyadondette, Austrolorpe, silkie, and a male and female pekin ducks. 16 total in my coop and run. I have also just made an incubator using an aquarium, cookie pan with cooling rack sat inside it. Filled pan with water and sat eggs I collected today on rack. Put aquarium thermometer in water and attached to tank with suction cup. Put heat lamp directly on screen lid and covered open areas of screen lid with a small hand towel on each side. Temp is perfect. I bet I hatch more off my handmade incubator than my broody mama hen. This is her first time as well as mine. I have a huge coop and run to accomidate. So I should have at least four eggs hatch that I hav candled. Had to throw out several that died early :-( But otherwise I should have a pekin and three chicks over the next few days. Then again in 21-28 days off my fancy incubator. I will post pics as I find a minute. Has been busy tending to 7 cockatiels, also nesting with one egg, a flock of 16, a bunny, two guinea pigs and my dog child. I also have four children that do no help with chores lol. Anyway...I am ao glad to meet you all and I will post a pic shortly of broody mama and my other incubator lol. Hope I have some babies soon too!

The top pic is my aquarium incubator, the second is my sweet broody mama hen, and third is some of my flock including mama hen right before going broody. I can not believe she was originally trying to sit 12 eggs including several pekin duck eggs. She couldn't cover them all so several died early :-( Mama hen was so happy to get a good bath though and all her mites gone! I powdered the coop with DE really good after finding her in such bad shape. None of my other have any though. Maybe it was from her being sitting bait while being broody. Anyways...all is well now I can sit on my hands and wait! Lol. I will candle eggs tomorrow and see how its going. I will watch for more chicks from Team Broody too! Good luck!

lizgarf said:

Hello, Team Broody! Are you out there?
Things have gotten a little bit crazy here at the farm. The broodies were knocking the remaining eggs all around this morning while teaching the chicks to scratch. It did not look good for the remaining eggs. I decided to take action. (I started another thread, but it has been quiet, so back to my team!)
Anyway, I candled the eggs and decided 2 were very probably dead - the air cells were huge and the dark areas moved a bit jerkily. Of the other two, one marans I couldn't see anything at all - not even an air cell (might not have been dark enough in the darkest place I could find today), and the other blue actually looked still alive, but hard to tell. So, I now have the two possibly good eggs on a slightly moist heating pad, in a baking dish, lightly covered with a towel. I'm trying very hard to keep the temperature at about 99 degrees. I gave the probable bad eggs back to the broodies. I'm going to give the good eggs back at night, when things have calmed down.
What do you think? Is this crazy? It's surprisingly hard to keep the temperature constant, but there just didn't seem like any way they'd survive the activity back in the nest. It's like the broodies would remember and set on them about 80% of the time, but the remaining 20% was chaos.

Any advice is welcome!!! 7 hours short of 23 days here!

And, finally, here's the happy family as it currently stands (#2 already outgrew #1):

Click to expand...

Hey there Liz; sorry been a bit hectic here also!
You know I am not speaking from experience; but it actually does not sound crazy to me! Pretty good thinking I reckon. You are giving them every chance possible! Great idea to try and keep them at a good temp during the day and then popping them back at night. Sadly, they may be kicking them around because they know they are bad.
This is only a thought, as I said, speaking from one go at this. Can you build up the straw into a nest and pop the good eggs in there to protect them from the family scratching? One of the girls may decide to sit on them. Cilla had a built-up nest the whole time she sat and even now, builds it right up for the chicks, bringing the straw in as close as possible.

Hopefully by the time you get to read this, you will have some good news.
Team Broody have not deserted you and I have everything crossed for a good outcome!
I will post the latest from Cilla & Co at the end of the thread after I have read all the posts.
Teila

psycomamaof4 said:

Hello Team Broody! Congratulations on all of the new fuzzy chicks! They are all so cute. I have really enjoyed reading along with the Team Broody thread. I currently have a broody hen sitting on eggs that are around 15-17 days now. I have about 4 or 5 viable eggs under her including my pekin ducks eggs. I have taken my mama hen out of the coop because she had quit eating. She is now happily set up in my spare bunny cage in my bedroom. She had a mite infestation so she got a good bath with a little Avon Skin so Soft in water and was blow dried with dryer. I put a dot of frontline on her and no more mites. Had to treat whole flock too. Put a heat pad on eggs while mama hen was bathed. I have got her sitting in pine shavings with a ball-drip water bottle and bird feeder sat directly in front of her with a mix of chick starter and flock grower. She seems to be doing much better now. If I could just quit chicken stalking I'd be ok. I have a flock of 14 chickens with plymouth barred rocks, orange comets, black laced red wyadondette, Austrolorpe, silkie, and a male and female pekin ducks. 16 total in my coop and run. I have also just made an incubator using an aquarium, cookie pan with cooling rack sat inside it. Filled pan with water and sat eggs I collected today on rack. Put aquarium thermometer in water and attached to tank with suction cup. Put heat lamp directly on screen lid and covered open areas of screen lid with a small hand towel on each side. Temp is perfect. I bet I hatch more off my handmade incubator than my broody mama hen. This is her first time as well as mine. I have a huge coop and run to accomidate. So I should have at least four eggs hatch that I hav candled. Had to throw out several that died early :-( But otherwise I should have a pekin and three chicks over the next few days. Then again in 21-28 days off my fancy incubator. I will post pics as I find a minute. Has been busy tending to 7 cockatiels, also nesting with one egg, a flock of 16, a bunny, two guinea pigs and my dog child. I also have four children that do no help with chores lol. Anyway...I am ao glad to meet you all and I will post a pic shortly of broody mama and my other incubator lol. Hope I have some babies soon too!

Click to expand...

Howdy psycomamaof4 and welcome to our sometimes crazy, sometimes apprehensive but Always supportive thread .. Go Team Broody!!
Nice to meet you also!
I have a habit of shortening long names but didn't think psyco would be very friendly, so how about mamaof4? lol
'Wow .. after reading all the new posts I missed I was going to give an update of how busy I have been but reading what you have going on makes my news sound like a holiday!
You definitely sound more prepared than I was; I had a broody hen and didn't fancy all the ways to break her of the broodiness and without much thought, decided to give her what she wanted .. fertile eggs! As you know, that turned out really well and I have no regrets!

Team Broody have been my rock and I love that we are able to support each other ... Cheering for you to have some babies soon also!

psycomamaof4 said:

The top pic is my aquarium incubator, the second is my sweet broody mama hen, and third is some of my flock including mama hen right before going broody. I can not believe she was originally trying to sit 12 eggs including several pekin duck eggs. She couldn't cover them all so several died early :-( Mama hen was so happy to get a good bath though and all her mites gone! I powdered the coop with DE really good after finding her in such bad shape. None of my other have any though. Maybe it was from her being sitting bait while being broody. Anyways...all is well now I can sit on my hands and wait! Lol. I will candle eggs tomorrow and see how its going. I will watch for more chicks from Team Broody too! Good luck!

Click to expand...

What a pretty girl she is!!
Yeah, we have never had problems with mites because the girls love their daily dust bath which apparently keeps them under control. Of course, while Cilla was nesting, no dust baths for her and mites moved in. We have a product here in Aus called Pestene which is a mite dust safe for chickens, dogs, cats and stock. Everyone got a dusting and the nesting straw was also done. I kept it off the eggs but they would have been dusted a little with Cilla sitting on them and again, by the results, no side effects. The mite can apparently be spread by wild birds and as I feed the local doves and parrots, they are probably the culprits .. nice way to repay me! lol

Pestene is apparently safe for the chicks also and more as a preventative, I am contemplating a light dusting of their bedding straw this weekend rather than putting it directly on mumma. They should be OK though because the 'ranch' is raised and the straw was new. Cilla had a good dusting a week earlier so as I said, hopefully more of a preventative.

Again, welcome and thank you for your best wishes; they are returned ten-fold and I look forward to good news from you also!

Update on Cilla & Co!
First up, omg, could they be any cuter!! lol

After lots of research, I have decided that Cilla & Co are going to have a little diet variety. They are confined so apparently anything other than chick-start requires grit which they normally get from the garden, free ranging. Early in the piece I put down some bird cage grit paper to give the little ones some flat areas, away from the straw. They seem to love running on them and scratching and pecking at the grit. I was still a little concerned that this was not enough before adding to the chick-start so when I got home from work, I started to open the ranch door so that Cilla and the bubs could have a little scratch in the garden. My plan was also that this would be a good way for Britney and Dusty to become familiar with them also. Good plan I thought; Cilla? not so much! lol

I will add here that they are just so adorable scratching away with their tiny little feet .. "I all growed up now, I scratching and pecking like Mumma"!

Cilla comes down the ramp, runs around under the ranch looking for her bubs and then promptly runs straight back up the ranch to them! She has done this both times I have opened the door. I am going to persevere and hopefully when I can leave the door open for longer on the weekend, she may let them go outside. It goes without saying that I am going to be stalking them and there is no way I will let any of them out of my sight for a second! Any dramas and they are back to confinement!

So, that didn't solve my wanting to mix up their diet so I have now filled up a cat litter tray with dirt from the garden; actually from Cilla's favourite scratching/pecking spot and popped it in the ranch. Cilla seemed very happy with that idea and the bubs were also in there with her, having a scratch and a peck.

My kitchen bench looks like a production line .. I have a container for Britney and Dusty's breakfast, lettuce, egg and rice (on top of their lay mash); next to that I have a smaller container with Cilla & Co's super chopped lettuce, next to that is a hand chopper into which is going their little bit of egg and rice to be practically pulverised! I have to get up earlier in the mornings now to feed both tribes their individual breakfasts, change water, quick poop clean etc

I got home from work today to find that Cilla had upturned the chick-start I had left for them and it had all fallen through the slightly slatted ranch floor, so no food left and I have no idea for how long. To make matters worse, she had somehow managed to fill up their water with straw so while there was water, it was not very nice looking, looked a bit like soup! Quick search around the shed and I managed to raise their food and water enough that they can still get to it but also enough that Cilla will probably be deterred from scratching it into non-existence.

Every day is a new lesson for me and while life is very hectic at the moment...loving every minute!

Team Broody Rocks! I will check in again early tomorrow when I get to work for hopefully some more good news from the Team (especially Liz!)

Teila- maybe you should start writing a book.

Love hearing how much you are enjoying it all. Forget other peoples perception of right/wrong/rules/don't pick up and steal the chick....these silly hens of ours are all loved and coddled more then some people. LOL. Life is for enjoying not stressing, being unhappy or being mean.

Rock on team broody......

Off to feed and water and see how many eggs I'm getting today.

Tee hee Coops .. I was always the wordy/talkative one as a kid .. Mum used to tell me to write a book!

When I left for work, Cilla was teaching the little ones that 'Grandma makes a pretty good breakfast'! We have thunder storms predicted today so bubs second lesson for today might be about Rain We need it!

So very much looking forward to being able to spend some time with all of my girls this weekend!

Better start work, been here 30 mins already and so far accomplished making a coffee, toast and catching up on posts. Checking back at lunch time for hopefully some news from Liz!



Team Broody .. We Are The Champions!

Thanks for the support, everyone!
Yesterday was pretty stressful. Not much has changed today, but I'm beginning to feel more relaxed about the situation. It has been very hard to keep the temperature constant in my little homemade incubator. I put the eggs back under their moms in the early evening, and they set on them well until late morning today, when the scratching started up again. So, the two hopeful eggs are back in the homemade incubator now. It's hard to say which set-up is less risky for them really, but at least they can keep still. I'll put them back when things settle down for the day, and then let them stay with them tomorrow, come what may. It'll be 24 days tonight, so not much hope beyond tomorrow morning, anyway.
In the meantime, things are going well with the family of four. I keep debating moving them into the larger crate. In the meantime, I've been removing the wire which has been cutting off their nest from the rest of the coop, for several hours a day while the other hens range in the back. I may skip the crate and go straight to integration in the next couple days. Aw, the things we wonder about on the farm.
Sounds like your girls are very well taken care of, Teila!! I'm sure they appreciate all you do for them! Picture updates soon? I just threw some dirt into their nest area after reading your post - hopefully that'll help with any grit they might need!

Oh, I've been enjoying trying to figure out if I was lucky enough to get two girls, by looking at their wing feathers: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Feather_sexing_practice.html
Anyone tried this before? It looks like the boys' feathers are close in length, while the girls have long and short ones. If my overly hopeful, completely novice, eye can be trusted, I might have two girls!!