Just going to bash my head into a wall for a bit...

[bt03]

So We have one broody broody hen and about 3 1/2 broody hens. The broody got 4 eggs about 17 days ago because we couldn't break her from sitting no matter what we tried. With 100+ temperatures every day for the last 40 some odd days I had to come up with some creative ways of keeping her cool but her keeping the eggs warm. That meant extra deep hay and shavings for her to nest into but a fan on top of her to try to keep her cool enough not to die. I figured that whoever else was trying to sit at least 75% of the time would get a chick when they hatch and I kill 2 birds with one stone (pun intended). We keep the number of chicks to a very minimum and the broodys get their babies. Little did I know... Every day when Big momma would go for a drink or a bite any one or two of my other 14 hens would go and lay an egg in her nest. I didn't notice for a few days because I only go out before and after work to make sure everything is ok but I go more on weekends. Last aturday is when I discovered that her little bantam bottom wasn't covering all of the eggs, because there were 14 large-jumbo eggs under her!!!

So I have been trying to take them out as fast as they lay them but I felt bad about taking the others that had been there for almost a week and developing so I left them for her to keep sitting on until I could get the incubator set up this weekend to finish off the newer eggs once her original 4 hatched. Meanwhile the other 3 are taking turns on the same nest, so because they don't know how to sit and stay they get a dummy egg until I have a baby for them. Really bad idea again. I noticed a cracked egg sometime last week and just thought with 2 cats and a dog that like to follow and sniff eggs and chickens then it was just a mishap along the way. This morning I found that one of the sharing broodys had kicked Big Momma off of her nest and was covering only half of the eggs (not sure how long they were uncovered) and 2 eggs that had been picked and half developed dead chicks inside!!!

So that means only 2 of my original eggs are going to hatch if they weren't uncovered for to long, my Big Momma is going to be not so good at mommahood this time, my 1/2 broodies are about to live in a cage with very wet bottoms so they are completely done with sitting, and now I have a chick killer/egg eater on my hands!

 

[N&MSchroeder]

 

[specklesmom]

So sorry! Maybe the heat is driving them nuts. It was down to only 107 here (DFW area) today and I'm sure it is worse out your way. Take care and hope you get cooler weather and RAIN soon.

 

[pgpoultry]

Sometimes these broody hens do behave in a very odd fashion. I DO hope that you have sat least some chicks hatch out.....then you may be able to graft them onto the others.