Coffee's ready...

[chics in the sun]

Good Morning! I had training all day yesterday that was interesting but not that applicable to my job. That makes it harder to focus on it for an entire day! Back in the office today to catch up.

I've decided to let my broody Leghorn have a go at hatching eggs. I'm getting eight total - four Ameraucana and four Blue Plymouth Rocks. Do you guys think that is too many eggs? She just seems so small to try and sit on all of those. Of course, it's still so hot here I could probably just set them in a nest box and they would hatch on their own. I really hope this works. I'm more afraid of her harming them once they are born. She seems pretty determined to stay on the nest, but she's so flighty and high-strung I'm afraid she'll freak out when they are born. I'm mentally preparing myself for the possibility of losing some. I think I will just put a sleeping bag next to the coop until they all hatch and I can see how she treats them!

After work I need to cut down the front of the nesting box she will be put in, as somehow I made it too high. I think I thought it would be set in the ground a bit deeper than it did.

Enjoy your coffee, and have a good day.

 

[oesdog]

Quote:
I would go for it. - It is soooo good that your going to try and she is a determined girl. My Bertha (SS ) Ended up sat on 15 eggs! She is a masive bird we did take all but 8 of them away though. Elly died see, and she took Ellys eggs and put them with hers. Hens are funny sometimes. I think you should let her try to be a mom. Our Bertha did really well - too well!!!! She is still with her chicks and they are 15 weeks old! Crazy because she still tries to put them all under her at night. She only had 4 in the end. We left her with 8 eggs. One exploded on her bottom and she stood on one and cracked it when she got exploded on. One had nothing in and one had a none viable hatch so she only ended up with 4 and they are all doing well. Out of all the incubator eggs we got only two live hatches and little omlet is dieing. So I think personally the Hen is best and no matter how hard I try to be a hen I can;t! I will never incubate again and only use a broody. - Anyhow good luck with it. 8 is ok I think but I wouldn;t put more than that. She will know the viable ones anyhow. I think they know the ones that are growing and ditch or eat the others. She may be a better mom than you give her credit for??? I know next time I am going to try Gerty if she comes into brood. Though she is the one who prefers to sit baby mice than chicks??????

Oesdog

 

[rancher hicks]

Good morning folks,

Chics: I figure what do have to lose. Even if it's her first time she'll learn. Hens say , Never give up Never surrender!

Oesdog: Sorry to hear about your bad hatch, though I don't think you should give up. Practical Poultry had a great article on incubation and it certainly helped me. Last hatch was 20 out of 23. Funny but there were three breeds and one each from each breed failed to hatch.
I will however agree that broodies are less stressful though I've learned to candle their eggs just the same. BO started with 7, two were no good at candling time, first chick got smushed and the other four were fine. All Delawares, but I guess Nick doesn't like one of the three hens he was with cuz one egg wasn't fertile and one egg had a blood ring.

Well folks lots to do, places to go, people to annoy.

Love ya all
Rancher

 

[oesdog]

Rancher - thanks but it kind of ended up a real bad time and very eapensive too!!!!!!! Emotionally as well as in other ways.

We got eggs through the post and meant for them only as a back up to our two broody hens. Then our Elly had a bad prolapse ( Chain saw massacre actually all over the hen house) Nothing we could do and she died. Bertha got her eggs for a while but she couldn;t manage all of them so we put Ellys in the incubator with the bought ones.
None of those appear to have survived. We had thought Omlet was from Ellys eggs but she is a Cuckoo Maran not a X with LeghornSo is not one of ours as she would be a mutt if she was. The Blue Roo deffinatly is bought as none of our hens lay blue eggs. That means ALL the healthy chicks are our own birds as even blue isn;t as good as he should be for his age. So any how we only got those two and one is disabled and will die before she reaches an adult - and the other is a Roooo and will have to leave us.
So it was not a success at all as we actually will have nothing at all from the whole thing!!! We could have purchased half a dozen laying pullets for what I paid out in the last load of Vet bills alone! So you can see how we think it would be more cost effective for us.

Also because Blue and Omlet are hand hatched and hand reared they don;t feel like farm animals or even back yard chickens - not like Berthas brood that we just let her get on with it. - We feel responsible not only for the chicks but also what happened to little omlet ( We didn;t get the temp right or the humidity as it was our first time and we had a problem with the incubator. Maybe that caused her handicaps??? ) Anyhow we are mum and Dad to them I guess as they don;t have a mommy hen do they??? Certainly to Omlet who wont now grow up we will be. That should not have happened as we wanted BYC for eggs and eventually we want to go into Meat - not only with Chickens but Pig and Goats too. We do not want Pets - and yet here we are with Two of them all because we incubated eggs instead of letting nature take its course and using a broody hen as GOD intended! Some folk say you sould not intervine but the fact that we bought eggs and put them in an incubator and hatched them into a brood box and all of that means we did intervine as they should have stayed with their mother. Ethically I am struggling with that whole concept after this when we witnessed all the tender love and care and endless lessons the chicks in the yard have had from Bertha and our pathetic atempts at parenting chicks is well lacking to say the least and that is why we have decided not to do this again. We are not chickens and mothers do know best and maybe mother hen is best for them longterm. It has been for us a very long expensive and sad learning curve! I love wee Omlet and now I have to watch her slowely die - and yeah I do get cross at God for letting it happen in the first place! I mean he could have made her ok but he didn;t and his creations at times are well not up to it - look at my Danny "children of a lesser God" and all that, it certainly brings up a whole heep of questions. Then I get to going full circle - it was our fault it is our responsibility and we can;t fix it. So we will never do it again. If a chick dies with its mom in the yard then that is nature but I sure don;t want to be the mom! Not a second time anyhow.


Oesdog -

 

[TigerLilly]

"Mornin" all! Enjoying my 1st cup of java & hoping my fingers work well enough to type...I love to hear about all the brooding going on (sorry about yours, oesdog), even though I don't think I'll ever go that route. But then again, I said I'd never have baby chicks at all and here recently I've started thinking about getting some to see what all this fuss & cuteness is about in raising them up...
Well, tonight is a work night, so it's off to catch up on everything else, take care of the critters and get ready for work.
Hope everyone had a blessed day!

 

[rancher hicks]

Well now that is a whole lot to think about now isn't it?

Publically I will say this. If everyone who ever failed just up and quit where would this world be? My own son had open heart at age four. Many came before him and many died while doctors, who never gave up failed, while learning how to fix a defective heart. Doctors said without the surgery he wouldn't live past his 20's or less. I thank God these doctors, Christian or not, perservered and learned to fix childrens hearts. I can assure you that someday your son will be well if not on this side of heaven then the otherside.

For me we need a new furnace and new bedroom window before we need a chicken. One has to make wise choices and sort out their priorities wisely. If a chicken gets sick and I can't fix it, it goes to the chicken coop in the sky. Unless of course it survives on it's own.

Also I've had bad hatches with the loss of more than a dozen eggs and one live chick. My own ignorant fault. The key word is ignorant. Now if one was neglectful in their duties to hatch then one could blame themselves. Yet still learn and try again.

As for Gods' creation? Remember Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good". Not just good but VERY good. So why are things the way they are now? In short because Adam and Eve sinned (disobeyed God) and messed things up. There's much more that could be said but this is not the place.

Take care everyone and be encouraged, "the bible says trouble comes to visit but it doesn't say it comes to stay" - unknown.

Love ya all
Rancher

 

[Scoop]

Am I the first one at the coffee counter?

I've got leftover coffee from yesterday. Maybe that has scared everyone away!

Tonapah I wrote you out a long PM and then it got deleted somehow!!!!

Just want you to know I am praying for you!
Welp, gotta get this office vacuumed some time today. Might as well be now!

Just need one more sip...

 

[chics in the sun]

Our coffee shop is quiet today, just me and scoop. More coffee for us, I guess!

I am trying to convince my broody to stay in the nest box that is in the broody cage without completely blocking her in there until later. If she keeps going back to the other nest box in the coop, will it disturb her to much to keep moving her back? Should I just block her in there? I don't want to accidentally break her of her broodiness before getting the eggs. She was still in the correct nest box this morning after I moved her late last night. I'll have to see where she is when I get home. That box is smaller than the two main ones, so I hope she doesn't feel cramped. It is 12 x 16. Does that sound big enough for hatching babies?

Have a good day, chicken hearders!

 

[Tonopah Pati]

Good morning,
Scoop I did get a long PM this morning, you should have a reply.
Coffee is really good this morning. I was able to get all my chores done, a few min. on the computer, then I have to head to town got to get a cemo treatment at 11am.
I'm ready to jump in the shower. I have an hour drive one way.
I think one of my chickens is breaking and eating the eggs, however what is strange is that not even a little bit of shell is around. Is this normal that the chicken would eat all the shell? Do I have something else eating the eggs?

I have a Frizzle Bantam hen that went broody she set on 10 eggs and hatched all 10 and they are almost full grown. I call them my Pack 10.

 

[karl E lutz]

Good morning chicken wranglers
I finally got a break. We are so busy that I have forced my wife to go to work on a machine,I don't know what the pay is, but I do know what her bonus will be!
Tono I am glad to her that you are getting your strenth up. All the chores done and time to drink coffee Wow that is pretty good.
Wish I had more time to catch up but I must Go. God Bless!