Still no hatches!One fell out and cooled completly so i opened up to find a yolk with what seemed like a 5 day-old chick that had seemed to of died! what is the causes of this? Im hoping they are not all like that. Maybe going to put another batch under her this week although she is still sitting on the same eggs!
Thanks for all your advice!
I was afraid that would happen and we were working on a plan to get her and her eggs out of there so she can finish out the sitting and raise the chicks away from the main coop. Since my daughter said they were cold to the touch and we had no idea when she did this, we assumed they were done. So of course the 8 year old is on the same page as me. Let's crack one open and see what it looks like. We've tried candling but like a baby ultrasound, it's a little hard to really know what you are looking at! SO...we crack one open and low and behold there is a little chick! It was very exciting but also very sad. Then we got scared and thought what if the other eggs aren't dead yet we need to put them back! So we gave them back to the hen. I have no idea how to know if they are still good and figure we should let her finish out the 21 days to see how it goes. She was sitting on all 4 eggs. When I got home tonight around the same time, those 4 eggs were very cold so they had to have been laid hours ago. I do have one or 2 late day layers, which gives me hope that her babies weren't cold as long as I'd thought....but it seems bleak to me. I just took a peek in the eggs with the flashlight again, but really, I have no idea how to find clues to see if they are alive at this point. Am I doing the right thing by keeping her on them, or should I start over with new eggs?
thank you very much for the information.my other silkie that's was the same age sadly passed away for I don't know what reason she was the only loss out of 38 birds.
I'm pretty new to owning chickens! Well, my hen just went broody (I hope). About a while ago, she also had gone broody but was discouraged and left her eggs. Now, after discovering her secret nest (and 22 eggs in said nest--I have two hens and they both laid here!), she decided to go broody again yesterday. I want to say she's a Buff Orpington, but correct me if I'm wrong. Since she refuses, I have no idea how to help her. I can't cover her over my plants/trees because their branches are everywhere! She's only protected by some leaves and it makes me sad because I worry for her. She's my smallest hen and the previous owner (my aunt) had cut her wings to an extremely short length so she barely has any wings! It's been half a year and they haven't grown back. She manages fairly well, though. I just worry about her being outdoors in the environment. Help? Haha. Being broody has certainly affected my hen since she was the sweetest thing in the world before this! It's so shocking to see her to aggressive and protective haha. shes so cute. sorry, i have no idea on how to moove her. i did it with a borrowed hen, and it worked, all i did was moved her at dark, and put her in a cage with a nesting box and her eggs. a few days in the cage, and she started being broody again. hope that helps :/
