California - Northern

[HighNDryFarm]

oh, and I killed some of my newly hatched chicks because in the chaos of the puppies, i forgot to turn on their heating lamp that I had turned off during our 100 degree day. super fail!

i have a SFH that went broody so i'm giving her the eggs for a few days to see if she can raise the chicks better than me!

i've never worked with a broody as my incubator before. any major to dos/not to dos? or do i just give her eggs and let her do her thing?

Sorry about losing the chicks. That's what I hate about turning the light on and off. I love letting broodies do the hatching. Yes, you just count the days, make sure she has access to food and water. You'll be surprised how much they leave the nest, how many times the eggs get cold and how many still hatch! The only thing I would do is after about three days into hatching or when you see the hen is spending more time trying to take care of the chicks then setting the remaining eggs is to finish them in the incubator. In my experience I always have fully developed chicks that didn't make it because mom had to take care of the chicks. Otherwise, let her have at it, it's a very interesting process to watch. As she gets close to hatching I'll give you some more details on how to tell when she's "locking down" and then when a chick is hatching....oh, and to wear gloves when you try to see what's going on under her!

Quote: Well darn, that's not good. Sorry to hear.

I had a drama today. One of the broodies went to poo and got lost. She tried to go to her old nest and found a new mother with chicks there. She went crazy and attacked the chicks, killed one, took a quarter sized piece of skin off another, and tried to break the neck of the Icelandics babies. Luckily I had just gone down to take some pics so I grabbed her before the mother chick pecked the broodys eyes out.

The little one that was hurt is shocky, I put neosporan and blu kote on the wound, but that's a BIG missing piece on a 3 day old chick. I don't know if it will make it. And of course, the icelandic eggs got cold while Catalina was out on her rampage.

I was shaky for a while afterwards, I thought Catalina might go for me at one point, she was like the hulk chicken. As soon as she got her eggs she calmed down and started to purr and ate out of my hand. Speedy the rooster was trying to figure out who to defend, luckily he didn't run in while I was hauling catalina out.

I have never seen a hen do that. Do you think it has something to do with her being the head chicken? She was sitting WITH the other hen just 5 days ago, I moved her to cover these other eggs since she had only been sitting for a week.

Deb, I got some more of what I think are Iowa blue eggs today from the egg swap, but no broodies to stick em under so they go in the bator. Hopefully from 2 batches Ill get some girls. Ill ask what they are a bit later, but they look the same!

Ok, I want a CALM chicken week now, with no surprises! In fact I want EVERYONE to have a calm chicken week!

Edit: Also, if anyone is looking for thermomoters, Amazon has infrared thermometer as their 1 PM hourly special.

Oh my gosh! How scary! I've heard how crazy broodies can be but man, that sounds downright terrifying. Glad she settled down, hopefully the rest of the week is quiet.

Well here they are.After a long 4 month wait.

Congratulations!

 

[MonsterClucker]

Lol Chickens are hilarious! Hope this makes someone else smile!

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
Thank you Jason!

They actually seemed a bit more active today when it was hotter.

Ron

 

[Papa Brooder]

Quote: ha ha nice. do you actually bring food and water to her? or will she take care of that herself. It's about 4 feet away but she would have to leave the eggs to get it. yes, I do need to remember to count the day. Keep thinking i'll just remember but I better put it on the incubtion calendar!

 

[Papa Brooder]

well my hatch is going well. with all that action it looks like it could be a 90% hatch or more. that's good i think i have 12 CL eggs in there. been noticing my swedes seem so slow compared to everyone else in the bator. anyone else noticed that?

 

[Miss Molly]

Lol Chickens are hilarious! Hope this makes someone else smile!

very cute...

 

[Papa Brooder]

Oh, miss molly, and everyone else... guess what I found today in my jubilee orp pen?!!! although it looked like a silkie egg that could have been mistaken for goat poop in regard to size of expelled item to bird size, i am thinking I have my first jubilee egg!! I ran it over to my broody. i know, i shouldn't even try to hatch it but I couldn't help myself. I don't think it's even fertile. mister man in the pen seems to be a late bloomer and not very interested in his first love... we will see in just a few days. also my BLRWs blessed me with a couple of eggs as well. I even found one in my second SFH but I was thinking it may have rolled over from the BLRW pen because there has not been another egg since and that was almost a week ago, but there is at least an egg a day out of the wyandotte pen.

i started to make the list of what I am going to sell. so if anyone is wanting some chickens close to point of lay get ready... I need to make space. i'm thinking the silver laced wyandottes have to go, a pair of BC Marans, some orps, all the "mixed"chicks that I ended up with... about 5-7 of them out of 100 but they were all supposed to be pure.. makes me wonder... still trying to get the list down to 10 or less: who's on for sure?: cream legbars (still my favorite so far) laying like champs, cool look, blue egg, auto sex...they are the top of the list. rhodebars pretty much same reason and not as common so will be fun to work with, swedish flower hens ( i like the look, i like land race, like personality, not liking laying so far. we will see with my next batch but these first girls have been less consistent... still so pretty to look at and LOVE the variety. Brahmas: not sure which colors I'll end up keeping but I just love the look of these guys. They are so regal and just plain cool to watch. BLRW, so pretty and great personality. ORPs... here's where it all starts to go south. love the orps. love the look, so puffy and cool. flightier than i thought they would be.. but lemon cuckoo, lavender, BBS, jubilee, and gold laced.... gonna have to narrow down but how.... maybe the lavs and lemon cuckoos? so hard ... marans: i have wheaton and BBS copper marans. leaning toward a small group with a splash roo over my black hens and blue hens ( just love the egg color, have to have it!). Sussex: light, speckled. ah man 4 more pens really?! may say goodbye to the light and just keep a few layers to look at because they are cool.silkies, sizzles, polish... have to keep one pen of each at least but how to choose the color. the combos are endless. they are fun to look at, easy to sell, the manage to die or get killed a lot so you need to have extra. definitely some of the stupidest chickens out there but always my favorite to hold and cart around with me. funny think is in that brain fart i probably forgot 5-7 breeds that I am actively working with: yep here they come: MF leghorns, faverolles, hamburgs, want to add..

ok too tired, hitting the wrong keys...mental brainstorm over, CL adds time to get rolling!

 

[Miss Molly]

well my hatch is going well. with all that action it looks like it could be a 90% hatch or more. that's good i think i have 12 CL eggs in there. been noticing my swedes seem so slow compared to everyone else in the bator. anyone else noticed that?

Way to go Jeff. I hope they all hatch for you. I have noticed I have had some late quitters with my Cream... How about you ?

 

[HighNDryFarm]

Quote: ha ha nice. do you actually bring food and water to her? or will she take care of that herself. It's about 4 feet away but she would have to leave the eggs to get it. yes, I do need to remember to count the day. Keep thinking i'll just remember but I better put it on the incubtion calendar!

No, she'll leave the nest to go eat....at least most will. I've never had one that didn't but I've heard of people who have. Mine usually get off when I'm doing chores, I don't know if they think I'm babysitting or what but that seems to be the break time. With all the stress keeping the incubator perfect, I think you'll be surprised how long broody breaks are!

 

[Miss Molly]

Happy Dance for you Jeff... Jubilee egg...YES!
I'm in the same boat as you Jeff.. I have all these amazing breeds. I keep telling myself, "focus." I'm not doing so well.
I love them all..... I was trying to decide who must go... So far, no one. I guess I need more breeding coops.. Yikes!