3rd Adopt an egg Hatch-a-long

[Tumbleweedlynn]

I have another 15 eggs on day 2 so may do another hatch a long.... Not sure. Things are getting a bit jumbled with my egg planning since I have had some surprise free eggs offered/come my way. Lol. So these may all end up under my broody after clears are pulled since I had planned to set more on the 11th so they hatched between camping trips and hopefully the others were out of the brooder by then since the younger ones will be 6-7 weeks old and have chick doors open for about 4 weeks by then...

Sorry that was WAY more info than what was needed. Lol

Hey, who doesn’t love talking about their chickens/eggs? I’ve actually got 16 pheasant eggs in lockdown (don’t ask how that happened), several broodys, and one wanna be broody whose eggs I just had to pitch. What a fun crazy

 

[junior67]

Hey, who doesn’t love talking about their chickens/eggs? I’ve actually got 16 pheasant eggs in lockdown (don’t ask how that happened), several broodys, and one wanna be broody whose eggs I just had to pitch. What a fun crazy

Lol. It has been a crazy few weeks here!! I was going to take a break from hatching for myself to let the babies in the brooder move out so I had a place to put babies!!! Lol. Then my breeder that I get eggs from ask if I wanted to do her a favor of hatching eggs so she could see if my previous "lav orp" eggs were labeled wrong or if she has a sneaky black split hidden in her lav pen.... How could I say no???? So she sent me 7 eggs 4 are going....

Then over the weekend someone that I was either egg swapping or chick swapping with told me they would be sort of in my area on Sat and could meet me with eggs.... So she gave me 16 eggs. Around the 11th I will set my eggs for her and hatch the chicks for her....

So that ended up being 2 sets of eggs before I was really ready.... Thankfully I have 2 proven broodys with pretty good timing so they may just get these 2 batches of chicks. Lol

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

Lol. It has been a crazy few weeks here!! I was going to take a break from hatching for myself to let the babies in the brooder move out so I had a place to put babies!!! Lol. Then my breeder that I get eggs from ask if I wanted to do her a favor of hatching eggs so she could see if my previous "lav orp" eggs were labeled wrong or if she has a sneaky black split hidden in her lav pen.... How could I say no???? So she sent me 7 eggs 4 are going....

Then over the weekend someone that I was either egg swapping or chick swapping with told me they would be sort of in my area on Sat and could meet me with eggs.... So she gave me 16 eggs. Around the 11th I will set my eggs for her and hatch the chicks for her....

So that ended up being 2 sets of eggs before I was really ready.... Thankfully I have 2 proven broodys with pretty good timing so they may just get these 2 batches of chicks. Lol

Hey, there you go! Work smarter, not harder

I’ve got 4 Cemani eggs in the bator from someone I swapped with, I think 5 days left for them, then moving 10-12 chicks a couple months old going into their new home tomorrow. I’m turning the machines off after these, I need to go camping!

 

[junior67]

Hey, there you go! Work smarter, not harder

I’ve got 4 Cemani eggs in the bator from someone I swapped with, I think 5 days left for them, then moving 10-12 chicks a couple months old going into their new home tomorrow. I’m turning the machines off after these, I need to go camping!

we are going the end of May I can't wait!! but need to figure out these chicks! I have someone that checks on the chickens and collects eggs but she comes over like once a day which is fine..... BUT my coop is raised so I have a ramp going in and while the babies can get up and down the ramp fine they don't always figure out that is where mom went for the first 2-5 days after mom takes them out.... So with some hatching 5-6 days before we go camping that is cutting it close (again!) for them to figure it out! I did this to myself last year as well and thank GOD the night before we left for camping they all went up the ramp with mom and went to bed instead of me having to show them. I was so stressed up till then. My new coop/run should be built and that will be ground level so debating on moving mom and babies in there but afraid if I stress her by moving her she will leave them??? I don't know what to do....... And do I move both sets of babies and moms if I do move them so the one broody isn't alone?

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

we are going the end of May I can't wait!! but need to figure out these chicks! I have someone that checks on the chickens and collects eggs but she comes over like once a day which is fine..... BUT my coop is raised so I have a ramp going in and while the babies can get up and down the ramp fine they don't always figure out that is where mom went for the first 2-5 days after mom takes them out.... So with some hatching 5-6 days before we go camping that is cutting it close (again!) for them to figure it out! I did this to myself last year as well and thank GOD the night before we left for camping they all went up the ramp with mom and went to bed instead of me having to show them. I was so stressed up till then. My new coop/run should be built and that will be ground level so debating on moving mom and babies in there but afraid if I stress her by moving her she will leave them??? I don't know what to do....... And do I move both sets of babies and moms if I do move them so the one broody isn't alone?

I’ve been amazed how quickly chicks adapt in a run/coop with mama. I just moved a broody and her eggs into a separate area I call the apartment, because all the boxes in the coop are filled with broodys. I did this with the last batch, and those babies were wild, all over the place, but always followed mama up the small ramp into the “coop”. I had to put two broodys and their babies in there last week, and although the hens were a little itchy with each other, the chicks were fine

 

[junior67]

I’ve been amazed how quickly chicks adapt in a run/coop with mama. I just moved a broody and her eggs into a separate area I call the apartment, because all the boxes in the coop are filled with broodys. I did this with the last batch, and those babies were wild, all over the place, but always followed mama up the small ramp into the “coop”. I had to put two broodys and their babies in there last week, and although the hens were a little itchy with each other, the chicks were fine

so you have no problems moving a broody and her chicks? Heck I have been trying to move either one of my 2 broody's to a different nest box (I have 3 built into my coop in one spot and a community one built in under my poop boards (out the back of the coop but the poop boards are in ftont/above it. BUT I have a plastic nest box that is just sitting in my coop since I was hoping another box would help the lines for the nest boxes but it has been used ONCE since i put it in there. LOL) so figured perfect spot for a broody and her babies since the boxes they are in are the favorites for most of the other girls AND it has a big lip on it so I need to use some make shift "stairs" for the chicks to get into it which wouldn't be needed for the plastic one. Well neither one of them are having it. Right now I squeezed it into one of the reg nest boxes and put my broody that will get babies first in it. She stayed so far today so hoping she stays and maybe I can move the whole box and chicks and her after they hatch and she will stay. BUT all that to say I am afraid that they will have no part of moving to a new coop since I can't even get them in a different box! now mind you if someone is in their box when they come back from their quick break they will just go in another box if it is empty (not the community one since neither will use that one, but the set of 3)......

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

Oh yes, I’ve moved a broody out of her box several times in the last couple days! But the one I moved to the apartment was in a plastic bin thing from the dollar store, I just lifted the whole bin, with her in it, and placed it in the “coop” (I think an old rabbit house). She bolted out and checked out her new run, and I tried placing her in a couple more times in the coop, but she didn’t have it. About 10 minutes later I went out to check, and she settled back in on the eggs. I’ve moved a broody across the yard into my big brooder pen in my backyard with day old babies, and they were fine. I’ve been lucky with these Cemani hens - they are committed!

 

[junior67]

Oh yes, I’ve moved a broody out of her box several times in the last couple days! But the one I moved to the apartment was in a plastic bin thing from the dollar store, I just lifted the whole bin, with her in it, and placed it in the “coop” (I think an old rabbit house). She bolted out and checked out her new run, and I tried placing her in a couple more times in the coop, but she didn’t have it. About 10 minutes later I went out to check, and she settled back in on the eggs. I’ve moved a broody across the yard into my big brooder pen in my backyard with day old babies, and they were fine. I’ve been lucky with these Cemani hens - they are committed!

ok. PHEW hopefully they will move to the new coop with out issue. I am just adding onto the run that I already have (width wise) so will leave the HWC between and the door to get in it (now) will be in between them so I can either close that door and have 2 separate runs where there is HWC between them, or leave the door open and it will be an extension to my current run. Then the new coop will be attached to the new run. I want to figure out how to build a chick door, well 2, into the HWC between them that I can open or close it for when I brood so they can go in between but the big ones can't get in it if I want......

I am a tad nervous as I had an incident last year (the only one I had with 4 broodies). I had 2 broody at the same time. had shipped eggs (they were crap from a crap breeder) so only got 1 chick (think it was that mama it may have been 2) from the eggs that BOTH were sitting on since that was all that was fertilized. So I bought the 2nd broody chicks and gave them to her. She took right to them. Well one of her chicks ended up in the other broody's nest box and that broody killed it....... the one I bought chicks for never hurt the others chicks (the one that killed the other broodys chick is one that is broody now but sad I can't remember which one!). Now after that they were out in the run together etc and there were no issues it was only that one and that one time...... Funny thing is.... if the broodys chicks (the one that killed the chick) were peeping loudly for some reason the other broody would go and beat up on the other mama because the babies were crying! that one is NOT broody at this time so don't have to worry about either broody getting beat up (and again it wasn't horrible and no blood and only happened a couple times but I found it funny it was like she was mad the other one wasn't taking car of her kid (s).

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

ok. PHEW hopefully they will move to the new coop with out issue. I am just adding onto the run that I already have (width wise) so will leave the HWC between and the door to get in it (now) will be in between them so I can either close that door and have 2 separate runs where there is HWC between them, or leave the door open and it will be an extension to my current run. Then the new coop will be attached to the new run. I want to figure out how to build a chick door, well 2, into the HWC between them that I can open or close it for when I brood so they can go in between but the big ones can't get in it if I want......

I am a tad nervous as I had an incident last year (the only one I had with 4 broodies). I had 2 broody at the same time. had shipped eggs (they were crap from a crap breeder) so only got 1 chick (think it was that mama it may have been 2) from the eggs that BOTH were sitting on since that was all that was fertilized. So I bought the 2nd broody chicks and gave them to her. She took right to them. Well one of her chicks ended up in the other broody's nest box and that broody killed it....... the one I bought chicks for never hurt the others chicks (the one that killed the other broodys chick is one that is broody now but sad I can't remember which one!). Now after that they were out in the run together etc and there were no issues it was only that one and that one time...... Funny thing is.... if the broodys chicks (the one that killed the chick) were peeping loudly for some reason the other broody would go and beat up on the other mama because the babies were crying! that one is NOT broody at this time so don't have to worry about either broody getting beat up (and again it wasn't horrible and no blood and only happened a couple times but I found it funny it was like she was mad the other one wasn't taking car of her kid (s).

My favorite go-to phrase concerning this whole chicken business, is that it’s all a crap shoot.

I haven’t had my chicks for long before they go to a new home, and haven’t had chicks with mamas amongst the rest of a flock. That is a scary proposition for me, but I may see how it goes with my olive Egger who is sitting on four eggs. The first sign of aggression from any other girls that the mama can’t handle and I’ll pull the plug quick on that little experiment

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Sounds like a busy hatching season for both you! I wish i could hatch..... but dont have the room, nor could i probabaly stop after one hatch