good to know on amazon. Thank you
Hopefully! How many more days do they have until they are supposed to hatch? Most of my broodies this year were first timers and young. I tried to keep a close watch on them but a couple of them had problems getting back on the correct nest because other birds were laying in the nest. Only 1 time did none of the eggs hatch and that was because 1 exploded and contaminated the rest of them.
I've done it all 3 ways and all 3 have their own problems. When I waited until they had started hatching or all hatched, I had problems with the other hens/pullets thinking that the newly hatching chicks were free protein for the taking. I guess the mama must have been lower on the pecking order and didn't protect them. I have had more success with moving them right before they hatch (2-3 days). The downside of that is that I had one pullet freak out and stop being broody. She would not settle back on the eggs even though she was shut in a dog kennel. Fortunately, my incubator was running so I transferred the eggs and hatched them inside. If you decide to move her, I recommend doing it in the evening a few hours after she has settled down for the night. I left the pullet that is currently hatching eggs closed in the kennel after moving her and supervised her R&R periods. She has hatched 3 out of 5 eggs so far. This is day 22 and I'm hoping that the other 2 eggs hatch today!I had a long winded question here but my laptop batt died w/o warning and now I have no time to retype it all. Here it is in a nutshell
Bantam cochin eggs for HAL fell through so I ordered more BY mixes. More Grab Bag Chickens!!!
2 of my 3 current broodies have always co brooded hatching eggs together last time and hatching/being given chicks the previous. This time there is going to be nearly 3 weeks between hatch dates so I am worried that broody 2 will give up her eggs to help raise the chicks. So I have shuffled birds and am going to move broody 1 into her own pen and coop with her clutch. Do I:
move her before the eggs start to hatch...fri/Sat
Move her after a couple have hatched but before they all do?
Move herafter all the eggs have hatched
Thanks!
Are your chickens full grown yet? Most cats will not bother an Australorp. If this one is feral and goes after them, I would trap it and relocate it(to the pound!)Had some chicken excitement just now!! I let the girls out loose for some yard time, since we're home... Heard some LOUD alarm clucking and ruckus and looked out to see an orange tom cat chasing them. He came in through the opening at the very back where the missing fence brace (I HAD a brace, but the neighbors took it when they made a barrier outside the fence to keep their dog from leaving their yard) is allowing an opening between the blue house next door and my sagging *** fence. Needs to be fixed, obviously. Darn it all. Sooner than I had budgeted for...
Hubs heard the noise too, and opened the living room window to yell out the back, which sent the cat fleeing. In the meantime, however, I had an Australorp up on the fence out to the river, and a Marans on the fence by the bird feeder (also down to the river), and slowing making her way around the corner to the common fence with the Dog Owners to the north!!! (these neighbors are nice people, but they don't take wonderful care of their dogs, which are always out and always barking, for hours and hours at a stretch. They told me one of their dogs killed some of their chickens before they got rid of the rest of them...) Do NOT want my chickens, lovely expensive chickens!!! in that yard. At all.
Holy Schnikies, now what! My girls are not hand tame for me, since I work full time, and I got them as started pullets... I put some scratch on the ground to see if that would get the australorp off the ****** fence. Yes, but not in the run. She tried to get in the run, but missed the door, and started to go under the house (raccoons knocked down the barrier last night), which would mean she could go out front. To a busy and speedy road. Tossed a LOT of scratch in the run, the other 4 went in, and she followed them. Closed the door. Went to go find the Marans. She was ON the common fence, looking down at their ground. I grabbed a towel from inside (to slap around) and went out front, to try to herd her around back again. I thumped on the fence, which made the dogs bark up a storm. She hunkered down on the fence. I walked up very slowly, and was able to grab her feet as she sat on the fence, well above my head. I picked her up, she flapped a little bit, I held her close and she settled down, and I put the towel over her head, and carried her through the house to put her back in the run. I've blocked off the wide gate so the chickens don't go out the driveway, and it's too heavy for me to lift with one hand, so through the house was a lot easier.
Marans now reunited with her buds in the pen, and the pen is now locked. No more out time for them unless I'm out there gardening.
I was in the front of the house when the chickens sounded off, so I don't know if the cat even got close to them. I don't think so. Nobody's feathers look disrupted, there's no blood to be seen, and they settled down within 5 minutes of the cat leaving. Nobody looks hurt, just a little upset.
Me?? I'm a lot upset. I really and truly did not want to lose a bird to the dogs next door, the stray cat, or the road out front. I'm still feeling the adrenalin rush...
