June 2015 Hatch A Long HAL

[cppeace]

I'm gonna have to break one of my broodies, I think. I've never actually had to before, but she is driving me and the other birds crazy, and is starving herself to death - she is feathers and bone. I yanked her off the nest today to toss her out to get food, and whenever she's off the nest she walks around threatening everyone and starting fights instead of eating, and then she decided that instead of eating she was going to hang out next to the crate that Green has her chicks in. I thought maybe she just wanted a chick, and that if she had one she'd quit being crazy and eat. Nope, the second I showed her a chick she immediately did her best to kill it. She's feathers and bone, has only been sitting for a week and a half, AND keeps switching nests so she's nowhere near hatching anything, so it's time to get out the wire bottom cage before she kills herself.

yep and possibly and icy bath or two

 

[MesMama]

Well yesterday just kept getting more and more interesting and I got a big ol' dose of what it's like to have chickens and the hard things that have to be done sometimes

Everything was going really well and then bam, one of the broodies that was due to hatch next Friday, decided she lost her hormonal mind and started attacking the chicks BAD. Fortunately the mamas stepped in and my mom was here as well to get things calmed down, the mamas got the chicks under them and then she decided the mamas were too close to her and went after them :/ So we grabbed her as she was hissing at us

and put her outside. Knowing what needed done, but trying to avoid that I tried to find her a new home, but no one wanted to deal with her So, our friends who have had chickens for years helped us cull her. I felt bad but kept seeing her grab that one chick and not let go until I grabbed her and pinned her down. My mom and I were both surprised the chick made it, but it did and we have two healthy chicks

Something else that was interesting...after we put her in the kennel we realized that all 3 of her eggs were gone?? So we assumed the other broody (also nested on the floor beside her and is just the sweetest thing, actually helped protect the chicks, sweet girl so I am calling her Sweetie hehe!) stole them and sure enough when we moved her and the mamas/chicks into their own pen she was sitting on 5 eggs, so she stole the mean one's eggs! Craziness! Like she said, you're not a good chicken, you don't deserve these babies! Or maybe instinctively she knew that the mean hen wouldn't be a good mother? Who knows. But it was definitely interesting and I wondered if the mean hen realized her eggs were gone and that made her "snap"? She even went after my roo, which she has never done. There has never been any aggression or pecking or anything in my flock, so something went off in that hen And everyone else was on edge when she tried to come back in to the coop as we were getting things rearranged in there. Everyone started clucking their *alert* like they were upset just at her presence, makes me sad actually But I know we made the right decision, still sucks.

So I am hoping for a couple more chicks from the 5 eggs Sweetie is now sitting on, but honestly with all the craziness yesterday and them being moved from the one nest to the other etc I'm doubtful there will be survivors?? We shall see.

 

[cppeace]

broodiness makes some hens very very testy. My little Rouen hen who is brooding get all fluffed out and tries to attack the pilgrim gander when it's meal time. He's like 4 time or more her size lol Glad the sweet hen took in the eggs. Foul who are broody will often steal eggs from others nests. They want to hatch them all.

 

[MesMama]

Yeah I just couldn't believe how that hen was acting, like a switch was flipped

And I guess I could've taken a chance and put her in a kennel or whatever with her eggs and have her isolated to hatch her eggs, but man...would she ever be able to be with the rest of the flock? I don't have the facilities to have separate flockcs I guess I know that she was doing what her instincts were telling her but, wow. Sucky deal

 

[MesMama]

And I had no idea they would steal each others eggs LOL! Funny/not funny I guess ;P But I guess I'm glad she took them too, probably have a better chance than they would have with the other one :/

 

[cppeace]

Yeah once the broodiness passes she should return to her normal behavior. She is one you may want to try and stop from going broody or making sure nests can be more separate.

 

[MesMama]

Yeah once the broodiness passes she should return to her normal behavior. She is one you may want to try and stop from going broody or making sure nests can be more separate.

Well we decided to cull her last night though Just felt it was the right decision? I just felt that from everything I read that it gets worse or at least not better and that it usually means they will be questionable mothers too? IDK I just hope I made the right decision

 

[MesMama]

I just don't have the facilities to have kept her separate

 

[cppeace]

You made the decision you thought best, that's all we can do.

 

[MesMama]

You made the decision you thought best, that's all we can do.

Thank you <3 I am second guessing it and just feel terrible that she did what she did and that we had to do what we did And I know that it's part of having livestock, we've had cattle for years, not many but around a dozen and when we have ones that aren't good mothers we feed them out and butcher them, it sucks but gotta do it. We learned the hard way with that too, kept one cow that wouldn't allow her calf to nurse, we bottle fed it, but then allowed her to have another the next year thinking maybe it was a fluke...nope, she did the same thing and we couldn't save that calf