Broody Pullet(s)

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

Day 17

Not sure how the next few days will go.
To my knowledge, no bad eggs.

>.> Having the birds do all the work is certainly much easier.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

-_- Somebody sneaked an egg in when the Austra White was out.
I think it was six days ago.

I'm deciding to leave it.
If another pullet starts setting in the next couple days, I'll give them that egg (there's one who appears to be spending a little extra time in the boxes).

If not, then the egg is just going to not make it.

Ameraucana also was in the wrong box again. Didn't collect eggs in time.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

Baaaaad broody!

So I'm not sure exactly what all went on... but I'll try to piece it together.

One of my pullets was overly interested in the broody nest box. I don't know if she forced the Austra White out, or what.
But 2 pullets added eggs to that nest today.

When I went out, the Austra White was in the wrong box. Which was kind of startling, since she never has been. And there were more eggs in the nest.

And, at some point I noticed the Ameraucana was in the wrong box...
So that's two setters to move.
And, what appeared to be a chick on the ground, that wasn't moving.
Turns out, it was alive. (Fingers crossed?)
And, there were no broken eggs. So somebody ate the shell that it came out of.

So... I put it in a nest box (to keep it safe), had to move the birds (what fun...) and trying to introduce the chick to the "mom" did not go well. Neither of them will accept it. Rather, they were dangerously aggressive towards it.
I'm wondering if it hatched while another pullet was laying? I have no idea.

So, it's pretty difficult to do things one handed.
Might have burned my banana bread.
No, literally. I was baking banana bread when I went out to collect eggs. You know, so the ameraucana wouldn't go on wrong nest again. (She wasn't even sitting on any eggs in the wrong nest! All the birds seemed pretty freaked out by chirping sounds. Glad it was free-range time...)

So I'm concerned about how the rest is going to go now. Fingers crossed one or both suddenly become great at raising chicks, or that any more that hatch I can get to quick...

Also, the egg this one hatched from, I believe is the Austra White egg. However, it appears to be blue.
It doesn't match up with any of my Splash hen eggs.
And it's not from the other flock's eggs. (Might help if I had explained earlier the potential birds)

So, Little is relaxing in the house under a brooder plate. I'll have to have something set up soon.

Have some pictures. The chick picture was taken real quick when I picked it up before trying to get things all set up.

*edit for autocorrect.
Anybody else have "it" changed to "out", or "the" changed to "three" or "thy" ?

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

Fingers crossed, but he's bouncing back from a rough morning.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

I have noticed that the one that hatched today is partially blind.
I don't know if he has a left eye (doesn't open the eyelid) and the right eye, the eyelid opening isn't formed wide enough for the eye to fully see out of?

He has difficulty navigating, and is very much attached to seeing my hand to find his way around.

I'm not around newborn chicks (my flock was 2-3 days old when I got them), so I'm not sure if his newborn down/fluff is normal. But it kind of grabs onto everything. He's on aspen shavings, and it attaches itself to his fluff.

Anyway. I'm not sure how well he'll do if he can't navigate.
I'm expecting some of the other eggs to hatch. If the pullets accept the other chicks, I can try to see if they'll take him.
I assume he'd be a target, though.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

3 new chicks hatched. The moms are accepting of these chicks.

My cockerel is a Black Ameraucana

Austra White
x her own egg (the one they didn't accept yesterday)
- Lavender Orpington egg
- Golden Cuckoo Marans egg

Splash Ameraucana
- Mottled Ancona

I'm not sure if the egg yesterday hatched while a different bird was on the nest and that's why they won't accept it?
The 3 new hatches, their eggshells were all there. (Yesterday's eggshell wasn't)

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

Managed to slip the first chick under the original momma bird.

However, there was a chick on the ground that wasn't okay. I know which one it was and I don't think it'll make it.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I’m sorry, you’re having a tough time of it! Nothing useful to add, except that I hope they settle down quickly and get to chick-rearing.

 

[WingItRanch]

I've been following your posts. Thank you for the updates! Good learning experience. Sounds like you've got your hands full!

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

I’m sorry, you’re having a tough time of it! Nothing useful to add, except that I hope they settle down quickly and get to chick-rearing.

Thank you, you're very kind.
I'm kind of bugging them a lot because I want to make sure no more fall out of the nests. And as soon as she's ready to leave, I want to get the chicks down for her. Well, for both of them.