California - Northern

[ronott1]

My Broody experience was not that good either. Mimi left the nest after the first one hatched. I found it cold and barely alive this morning. I popped it ant the last two eggs into the hatcher and the little guy is dong fine!

Mimi is not longer broody and shows no interest in the nest box.

 

[gryeyes]

I managed to catch Mama and Daddy Duck overseeing their ducklings' swim in the new pond.



(The kiddie pool is empty because the ducklings cannot get out of them once they get in; already lost one duckling that way two days ago.)

 

[chickee]

My Broody experience was not that good either. Mimi left the nest after the first one hatched. I found it cold and barely alive this morning. I popped it ant the last two eggs into the hatcher and the little guy is dong fine!

Mimi is not longer broody and shows no interest in the nest box.

Awww, that's too bad! Sorry to hear that!! I have only let two broodies hatch eggs (one LF Wyandotte and a bantam Wyandotte) and they were super mom's. The bantam Wyandotte and a bantam buff Brahma are broody right now and I would love to give them eggs, but don't have anywhere to keep them separate after the chicks hatch.

 

[Deerling]

King Natural Lay Pellet is GMPO free. It is not organic but at $19 a bag I think it is a great product. It also comes complete with probiotics. I also like the pellet size, which is small enough for my bantams. My chickens seem to do really well with it.

Where do you buy it? Maybe I can have Mark pick it up when he's in Novato. Or we can use it as an excuse to come see you! I bought the Bar Ale flock (I think it is all purpose... can't remember the exact name) yesterday, so we'll see how it goes. I've just been using Purina but I would really like to try Kind Feed.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Exciting!!!  Where did you get the eggs?  I have 30 shipped LF black Langshan eggs in my incubator right now along with 2 of my own mixed Langshan eggs from the farm.  Wed will be day 10 and  that's when I'm going to candle them to see if anything is developing.  Can hardly wait!  I came home from the farm with 19 more hopefully fertile eggs that I will put in the incubator for a staggered hatch if these shipped eggs aren't developing.

Mine are from a lady I actually found on Facebook haha. I was searching and searching for croad langs because of the pretty bloom and found her somehow

 

[lawatt]

My Broody experience was not that good either. Mimi left the nest after the first one hatched. I found it cold and barely alive this morning. I popped it ant the last two eggs into the hatcher and the little guy is dong fine!

Mimi is not longer broody and shows no interest in the nest box.

i'm sorry to see this, although at least you saved the abandoned chick! mine are all sticking with their broodiness, Eleanor just seems to be taking the concept a little too far!

i'm experimenting by letting Speedy & her lone chick out in the run, but shutting Eleanor & her chicks outdoors completely, where they are free-ranging -- with me standing around keeping an eye on everything -- maybe she will mellow out once they're "seen" outside their enclosure a bit?

edit: after nearly an hour of relative peace, one of Frances' chicks wiggled through the wires of its enclosure -- and Speedy attacked it viciously, until i intervened. so both Eleanor and Speedy are intolerant of anyone else's chicks. i'm now thinking i might just have to remove all the chicks & raise them indoors in a brooder. *sigh* -- somehow this is what i'd hoped to avoid by hatching with broodies!

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
Multiple broodies can be a pain. Other hen's chicks are seen as interlopers and attacked. Most hens will do this. The mommy hen should run to the rescue and chase off the attacking bird and call her chicks back to her. I have seen it work after a few tussles.. and I have seen it not work. As long as the chicks stay with the right momma it works. Its when they don't know which hen is their momma that trouble starts... With the ones that it worked best the chicks were about two weeks old when introduced. Old enough to run away from the attacking bird and old enough to know who was their momma.

I hope your girls can settle things without caging them all off. The ones that are wiggling out sound like they are listening to the other mother when she calls.

 

[lawatt]

Multiple broodies can be a pain. Other hen's chicks are seen as interlopers and attacked. Most hens will do this. The mommy hen should run to the rescue and chase off the attacking bird and call her chicks back to her. I have seen it work after a few tussles.. and I have seen it not work. As long as the chicks stay with the right momma it works. Its when they don't know which hen is their momma that trouble starts... With the ones that it worked best the chicks were about two weeks old when introduced. Old enough to run away from the attacking bird and old enough to know who was their momma.

I hope your girls can settle things without caging them all off. The ones that are wiggling out sound like they are listening to the other mother when she calls.

hmm, the ones that have gotten hurt have been ones that were out of the enclosure but their mom was still IN (and so couldn't rescue) -- perhaps i should try just taking all the enclosures away, although i'm afraid of a complete brawl, or chicks getting hurt further. (all the chicks involved at this point are about 6 days old)

thank you for the insight -- i'll keep trying to figure this out...

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
Yes, that is usually what happens, the chick gets away from where the mother can protect them and the other birds attack them.

You can try removing all the enclosures and watching them. If the hens get into serious killer fights you will have to put the enclosures back. Keep an eye on where the chicks are if the hens fight, that's when they can really get injured. If the hens clash once or twice and back off you will be ok.

Its like roosters fence fighting.. sometimes when they get face to face they change their minds. Sometimes when the hens do this the rooster or another hen will come over and peck everybody down.

I personally would wait at least another couple of days, until the chicks can run away on their own and are used to their own mommie's call.

 

[lawatt]

Yes, that is usually what happens, the chick gets away from where the mother can protect them and the other birds attack them.

You can try removing all the enclosures and watching them. If the hens get into serious killer fights you will have to put the enclosures back. Keep an eye on where the chicks are if the hens fight, that's when they can really get injured. If the hens clash once or twice and back off you will be ok.

Its like roosters fence fighting.. sometimes when they get face to face they change their minds. Sometimes when the hens do this the rooster or another hen will come over and peck everybody down.

I personally would wait at least another couple of days, until the chicks can run away on their own and are used to their own mommie's call.

thanks again, i REALLY appreciate your suggestions -- i tried letting Speedy completely out of her enclosure, with her chick, and they free-ranged happily outdoors with the rest of the flock -- until Eleanor showed up with her two chicks, and then went after Speedy (ignoring the chick this time!) -- in a serious brawl, even when Speedy tried to submit and get away Eleanor kept attacking her -- finally had to separate them. (Max the rooster just stood by watching, didn't try to intervene, nor did any of the non-broody flock.)

this all happened outdoors, so the chicks had plenty of room to get away from the fighting, and other than being quite frightened, eventually found their proper moms again -- then Eleanor fortuitously took her chicks to investigate the opened enclosure pen, and they now are closed up in that for a while, to give Speedy and her chick a chance to breathe.

so the chicks seem quite adept at running away and following their own mama's calls -- it's the mamas that the problem, at this point. at least Eleanor's 3-week-olds are too big now to wiggle through the enclosure's wire, so they can't get out without her.

(and apologies to all on the thread for this play-by-play -- i'm just so at a loss as to how to manage everyone!)