California - Northern

[manychitlens]

The best way to break a broody is to give them some chicks. You can take the chicks away from them after two days an either sell the chicks or keep them for yourself.

They then need to get their hormones back to laying which will take some time.

The best way to protect your plants is to use netting to keep them away from eating the plants. Just about every garden plant is food for the little eating machines....

Interesting. So a broody will accept chicks that she didn't hatch? Does it matter how old the chicks are? That is a very good tip, thank you!

And about the netting, noted. lol. Luckily I'm not too into ornamental plants, haha.

I totally understand that! Now that most of mine from my backyard are fertile, it's either eat them or don't eat eggs. I had the same hurdle to get over with our very first non-fertile eggs. That was easy to adjust to and so was the fertile thing.

Okay good, I'm not the only one.

I think I will likely have the same hurdle with the non-fertile eggs. It's funny to believe so strongly in something (i.e. having chickens so that you know your eggs are gotten humanely, the chickens are happy, etc) and yet have this issue. Thank you!

 

[EZFarms]

Im really hoping on that ron i dont want to lose another batch of chicks

 

[manychitlens]

Two more pics and then I promise to behave! My oldest daughter is turning 29 tomorrow and we are spending the day together today to celebrate her birthday! Have to get some things done before she gets here!

At Karen's party, there is going to be a raffle give away. It was so fun to participate in at her last party. I have been collecting little chicken items ever since then in preparation for the next chicken party raffle! Here is one thing that I am bringing for the raffle. It is a chicken feet plant stand (orchid not included)!

This is adorable!!!

 

[CackleJoy]

The best way to break a broody is to give them some chicks. You can take the chicks away from them after two days an either sell the chicks or keep them for yourself.

They then need to get their hormones back to laying which will take some time.

The best way to protect your plants is to use netting to keep them away from eating the plants. Just about every garden plant is food for the little eating machines....

We bought nice shrubbery (John Malkovich style when my husband says it) that the chickens wouldn't eat. They thought the roots were wonderful for playing in and dug one up - completely trashed it. We now have a fence to protect the shrubbery.

 

[PetRock]

Okay good, I'm not the only one.

I think I will likely have the same hurdle with the non-fertile eggs. It's funny to believe so strongly in something (i.e. having chickens so that you know your eggs are gotten humanely, the chickens are happy, etc) and yet have this issue. Thank you!

One of my daughters (26 yrs old) won't eat any of our eggs. She doesn't want to know what butt her eggs came out of. It boggles my mind that she would rather eat store eggs laid by abused hens. My youngest daughter (12 yrs old) doesn't really want to eat the fertile eggs but she will use them for baking.. She can't get over the fact that they could hatch into chicks. By eating them, we are not allowing them to grow into chicks! She will adjust. She is getting used to processing the extra cockerels and actually watched the killing process the last time we did it. The first time, all she could handle was washing and bagging them in the kitchen.

 

[fowlman01]

I agree 100%, Walt! Seems everything will kill all of us nowadays according to the internet. You can pretty much prove or disprove anything you want with it!

Everything online is true until someone debunks it.

w.

 

[PetRock]

Everything online is true until someone debunks it.

w.

 

[tls_ranch]

I have 19 baby barnies this morning, so far out of 42 eggs. I took my incubator in to my daughter's kindergarten class yesterday. Not the best time to be moving the bator, but the kids loved it. In the interest of science, The teacher opened the bator and held one egg in her hand as the chick was hatching for the class to see. The kids were really amazed at the chick hatching in front of them. I left the bator in the class overnight ( temps and humidity ended up being all over the place). My bator is usually very, very steady, but due to being in a unheated class room the temps dropped as low as 97 then shot up after the heat was turned back on. The thermometer / hygrometer recorded the highs and lows. Some how the temp got up to as high as 102! My bator has never been that hot before...Still 19 chicks were hatched by morning to the delight of the kids. I brought the bator home and got the temps / humidity stabilized. More are now pipping and zipping, so I hope the rough night and ride to/ from school didn't mess them up too much.

Trisha

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Manychitlens
I was collecting eggs everyday. In fact many times a day and it didn't matter. She, and a few others are broody. An olive egger, a cream Legbar, and Monica my Isabel orpington. It took 3 days in a wire bottom guinea pig cage raised off of the ground in her coop to break her. After 2 days she was broken but I left her a little longer to be sure. Now I wait for her to start laying again :/ we shall see.

 

[CackleJoy]

Those 53 bleached

eggs are on lockdown. Well a few less.

Super strange goings on in there. See if there is any feedback on this one:

All MFL eggs which were below the tetris stacking:

Removed 4, no need for eggtopsy with these light cream eggs. Can see right through them.
1 egg had a crack (how in the world did I miss it?) that appeared to be expanding. Very happy to find it before the explosion

The chick began developing but quit at embryo stage.
1 egg quit at embryo about 1/4" big. Obvious embryo at first candling.
1 quit at embryo about 1" big, can see bumbs on the embryo like a head.
1 quit at 1/2 the size of the egg.
Very strange to have them quit in succession like that. I wondered if the eggs on top may have had something to do with it.

I noticed that about half of the eggs appear to be quitters as the chicks don't quite fill up the whole space like I think they should, and they are not moving.

A few questions regarding that - and trouble shooting for future reference.

I noticed a couple days ago (Day 16?) that the temp dropped to 99.6 for a while. Odd. The room must have been colder. Is that a problem?

Also, humidity. I'm aiming for 30% or less but one day the water ran completely out and I was gone so there was probably no humidity all day.

And they were on my daughters dresser and it occurred to me that the vibrations from opening/closing drawers could impact them. Although, all the air sacks are intact so I don't see how.

Of course early exposure to bleach fumes could have affected lung development which could wait until just before hatch to cause demise - I suppose that's possible. Probably won't bleach the bator so heavily next time. Live and learn!

I welcome feed back.