Anyone have a hen or eggs set for October? Join us!

[JenW]

I know I'm a lil late for this thread...but my black silkie hen has just gone broody about 3 days ago. This is going to be my first hatching experience. She's sitting on 6 eggs, only one is hers & the rest are going to be mixed. My red silkie roo is daddy to all of them. I separated her to a pen by herself so she will stop stealing eggs layed by my other hens lol. I ordered 10 turken pullets that will arrive on nov 1st as day old chicks. Will it be ok to put the babies in the cage with her while she's still setting? I don't want her to stop setting on her eggs, they should hatch 6 days after the babies come in. Of course I would watch how she reacts with them before leaving them unattended...I set up this pen before I knew she was going broody for the new babies. Now I might have to come up with something else! Any input is appreciated!

 

[CALI CHICK]

I know I'm a lil late for this thread...but my black silkie hen has just gone broody about 3 days ago. This is going to be my first hatching experience. She's sitting on 6 eggs, only one is hers & the rest are going to be mixed. My red silkie roo is daddy to all of them. I separated her to a pen by herself so she will stop stealing eggs layed by my other hens lol. I ordered 10 turken pullets that will arrive on nov 1st as day old chicks. Will it be ok to put the babies in the cage with her while she's still setting? I don't want her to stop setting on her eggs, they should hatch 6 days after the babies come in. Of course I would watch how she reacts with them before leaving them unattended...I set up this pen before I knew she was going broody for the new babies. Now I might have to come up with something else! Any input is appreciated!

She likely would abandon the eggs to mother the chicks. My broody Buff Orpington left several "late" eggs to care for the first chicks that hatched.

If I were you, I would set up a brooder: Big plastic storage tub, feeder, waterer and clamp light with heat bulb (both available at Walmart). I buy the purple reptile bulbs which are great because they are dark, so the chicks don't stay up and bother you all night. After your silkie hatches her babies (and they are strong and healthy) you could try to add the turkens to her brood.......but that is a LOT of babies for one little silkie. Personally, I would brood them seperately.

 

[FeatheredFreind]

Thanks phonix. I ended up with 6. 5 I had to help. The prettiest one is really weak. I cant even get it to eat wet mash. I have been giving it electrolite, sugar with a dropper. I try to crush the mash up more so it will fit in dropper but I am lucky to get any in at all. All the chick wants to do is sleep. It just stands with its head hanging down. I took her out of the brooder and put her on a heating pad with a tea towel so she can rest better and I can see if she is pooping.She was chirping too much in the brooder; not sure if it was from the other chicks disturbing her or if I already have her spoiled.This last feeding I gave her some kitty milk and she really seems more satisfied. Dont know if that is good for her or not but I cant get anything solid in her.Do you know of anything else that I could feed her that would be better for her??? I really would like for this one to make it.

 

[Bresseman]

So I think I messed up my first batch of hatching eggs! I put 18 coronation sussex and 8 Cornish in my brand new Ova Easy 190. I should have read the whole owners manual. The eggs were shipped to me so I allowed them to set out large side up for 24+ hours. Then put them in the incubator without turning them the first three days. Then just before I left to go away for the weekend I set the incubator to turn every 175min. Apparently when you do this the incubator turns the eggs right away for it's first turn. What I forgot to do was cycle through the setting as is explained in the manual and ok all the settings before they will go into affect. Well that means that I left and my incubator basically didnt heat or turn the eggs for 2.5 days. The temp in the house probably went below 60 degrees as it is an old house and the heat was turned off. Should I toss the whole batch out? Or having turned the incubator back on when I got home this afternoon should I wait and candle at 10 days . I'm sick about it as I had all these eggs shipped to me at some expense. Ugh! What a bummer as I think they are a total loss!

 

[CluckyCharms]

Hi all, this is a new thread to me (I think) as I was on another one for my last hatch. But...since all my chicks have hatched already from that clutch - and the other thread is past the date the thread was designed for - I figured I'd hop on this one.

Congrats to those who have chicks hatched out. There are some *gorgeous* little babies on this thread (was browsing pictures) =)

I have the following due to hatch by Monday:

1 Black Copper Maran
1 Speckled Sussex
3 Swedish Flower Hens
1 Blue Orpington
1 Mystery egg (the code came off somehow)

The following are due to hatch on the 27th:

10 Swedish Flower Hens
4 Norwegian Jaerhons

 

[dwegg]

I guess I'm over here now...my broody is due to hatch wed I think...I had 10 eggs under her...then she ate one a while ago...I think it was a dud...then this morning when I was taking her out for her morning scratch around I didn't notice that an egg was caught up under her and it dropped on the cement and smashed....

There was a fully formed moving chick inside but I couldn't save it...so now I have 8 eggs I'm waiting on...5 buff silkie and 3 paint (the one I dropped this morning was a paint)...

 

[thebanthams]

dwegg, keep your eye on your chickies! One of my hen ate two already! I took the babies away from her and let Minnie a white silkie to take care of them. she is a good mom. THe other hen is a silkie and astrolorp mix. I dont know why she ate them ! made me very sad !

 

[dwegg]

What? Ate the chick? Oh I hope not...I hope she doesn't do anything like that...this is my first time with a broody and I have many questions...

I think she ate that egg as it was not developing....she has not done anything like that since...and my other one squashed an egg this morning as well...it is not going well with the broodies...I think I would prefer the bator!

What sort of feed do you put I with the hen and babies once they are born? Starter? Or grower? Do I need a heat lamp in the garage for them?

 

[SilkiesForEver]

My goodness, what is up with my Silkies?!?! I have three broody's now!!

I don't know how I am going to distribute the eggs! The new one (Poppi, a buff non bearded hen) is sitting on one non-fertile egg right now but, I have more eggs coming in the mail. Gosh, I hope they hatch, cause my broody's are multiplying!

Anyhoo, what do you guys think of me changing this thread every month, you know, November, December (although I don't think we are going to get much people during that month

)? That way people could have hatching buddy's whenever they hatch eggs! What do you think?

 

[dwegg]

Well the last two years I have always put on a clutch to hatch on Christmas eve...I loved having chicks hatch Christmas day...