If the chick hatches with his gut out he wont live so she may know this and did this. I remember when I started 21 years ago I had a R I Red pullet that was sitting on some eggs and my box had a two inch board to keep the straw in good enough for her but to much for the chicks. One guy got out and was looking around but could not get up over the board got cold and found him dead. I thought to myself why did you not grab him by his neck and put him in and warm him up? She looked at me like no comment. I latter hatched about fifty chicks in my little incubator so all well ends well. I latter figured out I needed a two foot by two foot box with a one inch lip and then I put some dowel rods up and down about every inch so the chick can go out and get water and feed and then come in if he gets cold and needs to warm up. I had water up high for her to drink and would put some pellets or scratch for her to eat. If I let her out of the box she or they scratch all the time getting dirt and feed in the waters dirty. Nocking over the feed for the chicks. Some times I would just put a 75 watt bulb in the box and enclose it so the chicks would go in and out on their own. Some times the broody would have ten chicks and I would give her five or ten more. Depends on the time of year and how cool it is. Right now I have a two x three foot box with about eighteen inches tall walls. I have a piece of plywood on top to go over the walls. I too a table saw and cut about a 14 inch or so cut in the large board put two hinges on it and all I got to do is lift the closest board up to get to the chicks and put their feed in a one quart jar feeder and a one qt water container I bought from the feed store. I leave them in there for about seven to ten days and ship them out. For myself they stay in the box for about two weeks then I have a eight by eight large fowl pen with one inch wire around it to keep them from getting out. I have a box in there like this one with a hole in the side so they can go out and come in when they get cool. Once they get full feathered they go to another eight by eight pen and they are on their own till they are bigger then I have to cull them out so they are not over crowded. I hope to do a better job this year with the ax and cull sooner to avoid feed birds that should be removed earlier to keep the cost down. You would think after twenty years you would learn this but so many times I want to wait another two or four weeks and almost every time I say to myself I should have got rid of them. The ones that jump out and feather and mature faster are always the best birds to show or breed from.
I received an email from a 4-H mom. Her son has been raising barnyard chickens and is in the third year of his poultry project. They now want to choose a heritage breed to show and have decided on the Delaware.
They found my website and emailed me for "true to standard" stock. I do state on there that my birds are a work in progress, being restored to meet the standard.
I would love to be able to help out a 4-H kid and hope some day in the future that I will have birds good enough to share. Right now, my Delawares are of very poor type. I'm hoping to get some better breeding stock myself.
They were also thinking about ordering eggs from the breeder that I got my Delawares from, but I don't think they will get anything close to standard that way.
I could either refer them to Kathy or should I talk them into an easier breed, like White Rocks or something of single color? I've been listening Bob.
They are in far northern California. Any breeders in that area that you could recommend?
Yes and even the not serious too, my company/visitors have a blast watching the goings on around this joint, entertainment at its finest, don't have to go anywhere or pay big bucks for it either, LOLI'm sorry to hear that your first experiences with broodies have not been more positive.I've often thought that the broody moms "knew" but I've also seen cases were they were just not meant to be moms. (I was attempting to clean up a nest late last summer because mom had been hatching for days. I was convinced we were done but she had other ideas. Came back 6 hours later and she was right. The final egg HAD hatched.) Very hard to judge chickens' behaviour coming at it with human eyes. I hope the remainder of the eggs hatched without incident and you find yourself with a good broody mom and a load of chicks. Nothing more thrilling that watching the hens raise them. All folks serious about chickens should get a chance to watch chickens being chickens.
