Clueless natural hatch.

[travl4me1]

I'm clueless. The hens seems to be on point.

I have fought and fought this cochin from going broody. I broke her twice, but I can’t get her to snap out of it this time around.

Rather than fight her, I have joined her. I found a farm with fertilized eggs and was kindly given 4 of them. I put a small basin on the ground, with wood chips, so she stays out of the actual nesting area which gets really warm and stale during the hot days. She is covered but in open air, protected, alone and refusing to come off these eggs.

I got into chickens to have eggs. I was never interested in the raising chicks part.

I have a handful of questions and hoping someone will have pity on me and give me a quick lesson here.

1. Her chest feathers fell out ? I picked her up last night to put her near water and feed. She/ate drank for 6 mins then jumped back on nest. I noticed her chest was bare of feathers. No signs of lice or mites near vent area, and she had those feathers prior to giving her these eggs a few days prior.

1. Do I need to rotate eggs or will she do all the work?

1. Do I need to remove her from her nest 1 or 2 times a day so she will eat and drink? Otherwise, I think she is sitting on them 24/7. I didn't see her freely come off them this entiore weekend, unless I intervened. She woudl eat/drink real fast and jump back on the eggs.

1. My 5 others hens have zero interest in what she is doing and just avoid her. Assuming we will be successful and have a live birth(s), do I need to isolate mother and hen from other hens, at that point?

5. Do chicks need to be vacinated for anything? What and when?

If there is a link that exists to cover all these details, that would be great. I searched and couldn't find exact info.


Thanks for your help.

 

[sumi]

1. She pulled out her feathers herself. Broody hens do that, don't worry.

2. No, she will do it. Broodies roll and rearrange their egg all the time.

3. Put food and water near her, but not right in front of her, so she needs to get up to eat and drink. If you are 100% sure she's not getting up lift her off the nest once a day, so she can eat and drink and stretch her legs a bit.

4. That's difficult to say. Sometimes the rest of the flock will be fine with the chicks, other times they will attack the chicks. What I usually do is remove mom and chicks for the first 2-4 weeks and then introduce them together to the flock while the chicks are still with mom.

5. See here: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps030

 

[ECiesielczyk]

I hatched one chick naturally last year and we did nothing. The hen stayed in the coop with the chick the whole time. The mama was a great mama and we had no issues. This time (my eggs started hatching yesterday) my brrody Maran sat on 12 eggs (small Sumatra). This morning we moved them into a separate bin because they weren't able to leave the nesting box (we put the nesting box in the bin) with some food and water close. The babies and mama started eating and drinking almost immediately. We will probably reintroduce them in a couple of weeks. Good luck and congratulations!

 

[travl4me1]

Thank you guys. yesterday afternoon she freely came off her eggs for the first time. She Ate/Drank, and dusted for about 10 mins, then returned to her eggs. I think she knows what she is doing, and I just need to be silent and learn.

Sadly, I leanred a valueable lesson about picking them up off the nest. Make sure you can count and see the eggs before lifting her up. She must of had one clutched with her foot or wing and it fell when I got her up to my waist. So we have 3 eggs, rather than 4. My fault. Lesson learned.

 

[ECiesielczyk]

I would always check when my hen would get up, then I would look.

 

[travl4me1]

If anyone can lend some final advice, I would appreciate it. Down to the final week here. If you look at original thread, hen is setting in a basin about 8 inches deep with a few inches of Shredded pine.

Do I need to change this set up prior to them hatching ? I have considered trading her out for another basin full of sand,and perhaps cutting 1 side of basin out to ground level. I guess I am worried 3 or 4 inches wood, with high sides, isn't a good spot for them to break out of their shells?

 

[Mama2B&D&...Chickens]

She sounds like a great momma already...it's an amazing thing to witness them but sit back and relax, most are great at there jobs (she sounds like one of them, you'll know! lol) but its all a huge learning lesson...enjoy and don't be too hard on yourself! Im on my broodies 4-5th sit and I'm STILL clueless at some things/knew things will pop up! GL!

 

[travl4me1]

Well, woke up to 2 chicks and a 3rd egg with a hole in it, but no noise or movement. Went back at lunch and that egg has remained the same. No egg or movement. I can see beak in hole. I have left it, but assume chick has expired.

2 out of 3, I would say.

These were red sex link and I am assuming I have a boy and a girl, or not possible to sex them by color? Female has the chipmunk stripes or am I wrong?






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