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BATOR vs. Broody on shipped eggs. Candling thru Hatch Pics!

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ADozenGirlz

ADozenGirlz

The Chicken Chick[IMG]emojione/assets/png/00ae.png
10 Years
Oct 18, 2009
6,121
102
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Connecticut
I bartered with mopargal1972 for 7 Silver Spangled Hamburg eggs and they came, perfectly packaged & intact TODAY! The "problem" is that I have a 7 egg bator and she sent TWELVE! DOH!

As fate would have it, my Silkie (who is 11 mos & never laid an egg) has been broody for the past 3 days and I have been moving her out of the heat of the nest boxes continually (as the temps have been in the high 90s all week). NOW she's got something to DO!

What do I need to know about taking care of Freida (the mama) while she broods these eggs? It's going to be in the 90s here this week. UGH.

My husband built me a broody pen for her today (see Post #2) but she won't have anything to do with it. She flipped out when we put her in it so I moved her out before she destroyed the egglets!


The brilliantly packaged eggs:
43104_7-3-10_silver_spangled_hamburgs.jpg


Before I even set these eggs, Freida's hard at work:
43104_7-3-10_silver_spangled_hamburgs_2.jpg


Freida, happily sitting on her surrogate eggs:
43104_7-3-10_silver_spangled_hamburgs_4.jpg
 
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Well, my husband finished the Maternity Ward but Freida wants NOTHING to do with it. She freaked out in it so I put the eggs back in the Big Girl Coop and she returned to it after a lovely dust bath (it's 92 degrees here today).

43104_7-3-10_broody_pen_2.jpg


Everybody EXCEPT my broody girl was interested in the Maternity Ward.
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43104_7-3-10_broody_pen_6.jpg
 
I have had terrible results with silver hamburg birds, small eggs, and dumb broody mother behavior, we bought a slew of them for HERITAGE BIRDS, figuring saving a strain of birds for the world to enjoy might have been fun. So, one rooster, and 5 hens, handled tons as young birds, fed treats, special goodies etc... well when one hen began to build her clutch we were so eggcited, She was ferocious, attacking the dog when wonderdog went to investigate why one of her birds was nesting out of bounds.... So at hatching day, we notice one dead bird and several eggs just starting to open. So my patient daughter watching at a distance, noticed that as soon as the baby was born the mother started a dance. well, not wanting to interfere with mother hen, since she knows best. My daughter noticed that bird number two was dead. Well, dumb bird noticed that something was moving and started her "stomp the heck out of it til it stopped moving" DANCE. Well this played out with all of the hens, so we learned that as SOON as the bird was hatched we have to remove them and sneak them under another broody bird, like our RIRs. That was the only way we EVER got any live birds out of our Hamburgs. No wonder they are dying out. We finally got rid of them. not worth the time or little tiny eggs, considering they eat and eat and eat...

Jack
 
I left mine in the nesting box under one broody hen for most of the 21 day hatching period. She only got off when another hen wanted on to lay her eggs in that box - - - you know they all want to lay in the same box
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So - - - make sure you mark those eggs if it is possible for them to be confused for somebody else's eggs. We put an X with a pencil on the ones we were trying to hatch.

When we got to the last week - - - around day 18 - - - we moved hen and eggs to new spot. She went OK without any trouble. The new spot was in a Large dog Carrier in the house. We put her in first and let her calm down over the strange setting. Then we placed her eggs in there. She sat right down on them and finished the hatching.

She accidently killed the first two that hatched. She stepped on one and I don't know what she did to the other. Third one was fine and fourth never hatched.

GOOD LUCK with yours
 
I've had great luck with my broody girls so don't go getting discouraged before you even get started. I've found that when I have to move a broody girl it works best to do it at night. I put her in the new enclosure and cover it with an old towel or blanket. I leave it covered for the first 24 hours and that seems to help the hen adjust and go back into her broody trance without a lot of fuss or escape attempts. I wouldn't give her the eggs until you're sure she's setteld in though. Best of luck!!
 
I have a banty hen setting on one dud egg, so I just bought her six Silkie eggs off eBay. This will be my first experience with shipped eggs, and I'm keeping fingers and toes crossed that at least a couple will hatch. In general my broody hens (of various breeds) have made excellent surrogate mothers, so I'm surprised to read of the negative experiences. I would expect yours to do just fine
big_smile.png
 
Thanks for the helpful info everyone!

Do any of you just leave the broody girl in the regular coop nesting box and let her do her thing there?
 
I did, but I only had two hens and they were both broody at the same time. Very successful, out of 8 eggs one disappeared without a trace, not even shell left, and 1 failed to hatch.
 

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