3 weeks ago, I gave my broody Buff Orp, Molly, 11 Dark Cornish eggs to sit on. She was as happy as could be.
I candled at 11 days and removed an egg that was completely clear.
Last night, I made a horrifying discovery. Decided to check and see if any of Molly's eggs had hatched early. I lifted her off the eggs to see if there was any action and I smelled something HORRIBLE and I only saw 8 eggs and one dead chicks. One of her eggs went bad and exploded. The dead chick had successfully hatched, but it was covered in rotten egg nastiness and died. I made the decision to transfer Molly and the remaining eggs to a spare box with clean hay. While moving the eggs, I found that two of the eggs had pipped but had died in shell. These eggs were closest to the rotten egg and were covered in goop. So I moved Molly's six remaining eggs into the clean box with her. One of the eggs had pipped and had a very lively baby trying to get out. I also trimmed away Molly's stomach feathers that had the nasty egg goop on them. This morning, I checked and she had 3 lively babies. I checked again a little while ago and she had 4 babies!
At this point, I decided to try grafting the 4 babies that hatched last week to Molly. I know she is fully capable of caring for 10 chicks at a time (because that is how many she hatched last time). She took to them right away, tucking them up underneath her wings. Now the rest is up to those babies. Since they are older, I shut the box so they don't wander off and added small dishes of food and water in the box for them. They seem to be responding to her "food" call. Which is nice. I'll be watching them closely today.
I candled at 11 days and removed an egg that was completely clear.
Last night, I made a horrifying discovery. Decided to check and see if any of Molly's eggs had hatched early. I lifted her off the eggs to see if there was any action and I smelled something HORRIBLE and I only saw 8 eggs and one dead chicks. One of her eggs went bad and exploded. The dead chick had successfully hatched, but it was covered in rotten egg nastiness and died. I made the decision to transfer Molly and the remaining eggs to a spare box with clean hay. While moving the eggs, I found that two of the eggs had pipped but had died in shell. These eggs were closest to the rotten egg and were covered in goop. So I moved Molly's six remaining eggs into the clean box with her. One of the eggs had pipped and had a very lively baby trying to get out. I also trimmed away Molly's stomach feathers that had the nasty egg goop on them. This morning, I checked and she had 3 lively babies. I checked again a little while ago and she had 4 babies!
At this point, I decided to try grafting the 4 babies that hatched last week to Molly. I know she is fully capable of caring for 10 chicks at a time (because that is how many she hatched last time). She took to them right away, tucking them up underneath her wings. Now the rest is up to those babies. Since they are older, I shut the box so they don't wander off and added small dishes of food and water in the box for them. They seem to be responding to her "food" call. Which is nice. I'll be watching them closely today.
