2015 August hatch-a-long!!

[amberngwin]

I went out to check on my broody tonight. Almost all of her eggs were broken under her. Her underside is caked with broken, rotten egg. The four she had left were filthy and I threw them out.

Ugh man sorry to hear that. How do the eggs crack under her?


I'm going to try to get out tomorrow and give her a bath. If she's still broody after that, I might give her some new, clean eggs. If not, good riddance. 

 

[blkjak]

First one out!

 

[sunnypj]

how exciting! wish mine would start to pip even.

First time for me.

 

[butterfliesdoku]

Adorable!

 

[Cynthia12]

1 lovely little partridge silkie hatched last night. Pip #2 this morning.

 

[Cynthia12]

Lock down today for my RIR's and Sex Links. Trying to get that humidity to stay up. Around 60..62 is where I like it.

 

[Antiquity]

Oh, NO! Such a disappointment, even when you 'don't count your chickens', I still am so hopeful for them all. I don't know if I would have tossed the intact eggs however dirty, if they were not cracked or rotten I might have tried to clean them. The bloom comes off while she sets them anyway eventually. Were you candling all along, or are they too dark a shell to see? If you really want a larger clutch and don't want to chance her leaving the new clutch when the other 4 hatched, then I understand starting over. Plus if she's a stinky booger, good luck with the cleaning!

I didn't have any hope for the intact eggs. They looked like the worlds most psychotic baker had iced them with the stinkiest, most foul buttercream icing the world has ever seen. If I had been able to stomach the smell, I probably would have cleaned them and then candled before tossing. However I'm pregnant and I never quite lost the overactive gag reflex that comes with the first trimester, and I know once I start puking, I won't be able to stop. Add to that that the puking would make me piss myself, and those eggs just didn't seem all that worth it right then. lol

The best I could manage was to remove the nesting box and dump the entire contents into a hole.

Ugh man sorry to hear that. How do the eggs crack under her?

I'm sure a lot of them were rotten, add to that that the hen in particular has never been all that great at this "broody" thing, she probably wasn't particularly careful with them. She's also very heavy and she had a lot of eggs which had all been laid at varying times out in the heat. She didn't have a very good chance to begin with. If she had just done this earlier in the year when the other hen did, she would have been just fine! But no, she had to pick the hottest three weeks of the year when I can't help her and check her eggs as often as she needs.

I feel so bad for her. The poor thing is sulking out on the porch now, covered in egg. Probably wondering why it was so easy for the other hen, but not for her. Now I've got to figure out how to catch her and make her have a bath.

 

[amberngwin]

Antiquity- can you safely bathe a hen?? I just had an egg explode in my hens nest. It was absolutely the nastiest experience - what is that "stuff" anyway? And why did it explode?

 

[FridayYet]

People bathe chickens all the time, especially before a show. Warm water, mild soap.

I just hosed down my psycho broody trying to break her after she almost killed her sole chick. She's drying off in a wire cage now. If it's warm they can dry outside, or you can use a hairdryer on low.

 

[blkjak]

#2 is out and loud. Looks to be a partridge also. Only 1 egg left in the bator. Last one of the season for the bator. Still have 3 silkie hens sitting on eggs though.