Our first broody...shipped eggs started on 8/10. Come & hatch along!

[damselfish]

We are all excited because one of our hens finally went broody! We ordered some hatching eggs and after some minor snafus, we got them and placed them under her today. Come and join me if you're starting eggs around this time!

I'm allowed to hang out here even if I only have a "natural" incubator, right?

 

[Tropical Chook]

Well, I'm with you on this one. Just placed my shipped eggs under my broody about to or three hours ago. I'm really fortunate as far as broodies are concerned. These native Thai chickens go broody just at the sight of eggs. Honestly, if I don't go out to collect eggs for two days, you can be rest assured a hen will be sitting on them.......lol. Even when you take all the eggs away from her, she'll just sit and wait for the others to come and lay in her nest box. Ah well, this is my first attempt at hatching eggs, and if any hatch after their 9000+ kilometer trip, I'll more than likely be the only person in Thailand with Light Sussex birds...lol.

By the way, good luck - I sure hope we both have a happy story to tell in three weeks time

 

[justtoni44]

HI,
My eggs came this morning.2 dozen.three very broody hens.................
I'm in. Will write more later...................need to unwrap eggs

 

[Tropical Chook]

Quote:
Good luck.....keep us informed

I now have a sexually confused teenage rooster in the nest with Miss Broody........................whenever mom-to-be leaves the nest to eat or poop, her little toyboy takes her place on the eggs until she returns - strangest thing I've ever seen

 

[Miss Red]

I have three broody hens... I swear except for mid winter I rarely get under five.

Hen 10 ( a near constant brooder, sat three months raised the final hatch is sitting again) is sitting on three EE eggs.

Hen 14 is a first timr brooder so she's getting a light bulb until I figure what to risk on her.

Hen 7 is sitting on two random bantam eggs. I know they'll be silkie crosses or d'uccels but I forgot which is which and didn't mark them.

these were all set the 8th so I'm a bit ahead of you. Probably going to put my five cornish eggs under her.

 

[damselfish]

All right! Glad to have hatching buddies!

Here's a picture of my broody hen, Red, just after I gave her the shipped eggs. Notice the "Get away from me and by the way I don't want these stinkin' eggs" glare. But when I came back 5 minutes later, they were all nicely tucked in underneath.

 

[Tropical Chook]

Nice pic.... I wish I could get one or two uploaded so you could see Miss Broody and her toy-boy teenage roo alongside her. He is still taking her place on the eggs whenever she leaves the nest, and then as soon as she returns, he simply move over and out of the way. I tell you, these two have really got a handle on teamwork. My only regret so far is that I only ordered six eggs, but then again, my broody is so small she's barely managing six as it is.

Before the eggs arrived, I really believed I had no chance of getting any of them to hatch, but now that I see Mamma laying on them, I feel quite confident at least some will hatch. Hell, I'll be happy even if I only end up with one. At least then I'll know it's possible

I can't believe I still have to wait this out for about 18 days or so. It's worse than waiting for your first egg

 

[damselfish]

We had a bit of bad luck in the nest when we came home last night. Broken eggs, and egg goo all over the nest. DH and I had to get Red out of the nest box, and he held her while I took care of the cleanup. Out of my 8 shipped eggs, three were broken. Plus, we found three eggs in there from the rest of our girls. They aren't fertile, we have no rooster.

I replaced all the bedding and wiped down the remaining shipped eggs with a damp cloth. Then we got Red herself cleaned up. She had egg goo all over her feet and chest (and beak, but I really think that was incidental cleanup efforts). Back into the nest she went, and settled right back down. She was really pretty well-behaved, complaining in a very worried voice, but not trying to scratch or peck DH.

So, we shall see. I think we may move her after all. I'm guessing that was an egg-trampling incident from jostling with someone else in the nest. They didn't have sharp peck marks, more like generalized crushing and cracking. I did notice that the shells seemed pretty thin compared to those of my girls, who mostly produce eggs with some serious shell strength.

Worry, worry, worry....

 

[Tropical Chook]

Well, one week past and two left to go. At the moment all seems fine but having said that, I've not candled the eggs so I have no real idea. Will more than likely candle on the weekend just to see if there are any which are developing or not.

Sorry to hear about your mishap with the trampled eggs. That teenage rooster of mine is in and out the nest about a million times a day but so far he hasn't broken anything yet.

Will update after candling.....

 

[Miss Red]

well I candled last night because one of my hens got pulled off her nest and I needed to check on her... Sneaky girl had somehow managed to "find" 13 eggs! We took all but three, the three furthest in development, and scrambled them for the chickens. (Only one or two had even started developing.)

But, out of my three girls all five original eggs have now turned to 8 and they're going strong.