Consolidated Kansas

[maidenwolfx80]

HEChicken --that is great what a good girl. I think the same thing, it is a science to get the incubator right and humidity and heat and turning. I have watched many cluthces hatch and grow, this is how my gma did it. I guess they know what they are doing, that is the reason they are laying them in the first place right? I really hope at least one of my girls goes broody in the spring. If she goes broody in fall or winter even should she be stopped?

 

[Kansas Prairie]

But doesn't it make it all the more frustrating that we struggle and struggle to get incubating conditions "perfect", and feel frustrated when we have a poor hatch, while this broody hen leaves her eggs for hours at a time, and hers are all developing just fine?

I agree!

 

[HEChicken]

I really hope at least one of my girls goes broody in the spring. If she goes broody in fall or winter even should she be stopped?

Everyone feels differently about this so I think each person just has to make their own decision based on what makes them most comfortable. I know if you have a flock purely for laying eggs, it is frustrating to have a bunch of them go broody since they are not laying while they are broody. For me though, when I started back up with chickens a few years ago, I couldn't wait to have a broody hen. With that in mind, I researched the breeds most likely to brood, and got several of them, then sat back and waited....and waited...and...the first hen to go broody was a Black Sex Link - one of the breeds least likely to brood. Go figure! And that was after 3 years of waiting. The timing wasn't perfect as it was August and it was that summer we had 50+ triple digit days. Temps were above 100 every single day she was broody and I felt so bad for her sitting on her nest panting away. But she hatched 7 chicks and was an excellent Mama, keeping them with her until they were 15 weeks old and almost as big as she was.

This past Spring my bantam Sultan went broody after laying only 29 eggs, so she was still pretty young. Again, the timing was lousy as we were preparing to move and if I set eggs under her, the due date would be after we moved. But having waited so long for broodies, I find I just can't tell them "no" so I set a couple of eggs under her and left her at the old house to hatch them after we moved, going back to check on her daily. After they hatched, I moved her and the chicks out here.

This is only my 3rd broody but I still found I couldn't tell her "no" even though it is Fall, and this is a really young hen. She is one of my Spring chicks from THIS year, so hatched around Feb 20th. However I'm not concerned about the lateness of the year, since she is certainly capable of keeping them warm enough. And since they will all be girls [insert smile here], they will be ready to start laying by Spring of next year.

The thing about stopping them, is it isn't easy. There are several "tried and true" methods I've read about but none of them seems to last long. I've heard of putting them in a wire-bottomed cage, or dipping them in icy water to cool them down. These things appear to stop them brooding, but within a month or so, they are right back to being broody again. So it seems the only real "tried and true" method of breaking a broody is to let them hatch.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Everyone feels differently about this so I think each person just has to make their own decision based on what makes them most comfortable. I know if you have a flock purely for laying eggs, it is frustrating to have a bunch of them go broody since they are not laying while they are broody. For me though, when I started back up with chickens a few years ago, I couldn't wait to have a broody hen. With that in mind, I researched the breeds most likely to brood, and got several of them, then sat back and waited....and waited...and...the first hen to go broody was a Black Sex Link - one of the breeds least likely to brood. Go figure! And that was after 3 years of waiting. The timing wasn't perfect as it was August and it was that summer we had 50+ triple digit days. Temps were above 100 every single day she was broody and I felt so bad for her sitting on her nest panting away. But she hatched 7 chicks and was an excellent Mama, keeping them with her until they were 15 weeks old and almost as big as she was.

This past Spring my bantam Sultan went broody after laying only 29 eggs, so she was still pretty young. Again, the timing was lousy as we were preparing to move and if I set eggs under her, the due date would be after we moved. But having waited so long for broodies, I find I just can't tell them "no" so I set a couple of eggs under her and left her at the old house to hatch them after we moved, going back to check on her daily. After they hatched, I moved her and the chicks out here.

This is only my 3rd broody but I still found I couldn't tell her "no" even though it is Fall, and this is a really young hen. She is one of my Spring chicks from THIS year, so hatched around Feb 20th. However I'm not concerned about the lateness of the year, since she is certainly capable of keeping them warm enough. And since they will all be girls [insert smile here], they will be ready to start laying by Spring of next year.

The thing about stopping them, is it isn't easy. There are several "tried and true" methods I've read about but none of them seems to last long. I've heard of putting them in a wire-bottomed cage, or dipping them in icy water to cool them down. These things appear to stop them brooding, but within a month or so, they are right back to being broody again. So it seems the only real "tried and true" method of breaking a broody is to let them hatch.

Thank you for the info. I have been watching mine, they just started laying last week and I am not sure positively who it is but my brahma bantam has been super red and has settled down a bit when being handled and spends alot of time making and remaking her nest. After I have taken the egg in the nest she will go lay in the box and flatten herself out and just lay in there for awhile. I dont know if she is looking for her egg, if it was hers, or if she is just remaking the nest for next time. I know she is way to young to be broody but maybe she has that in mind. I want to hatch some in my incubator and I really want a hen to hatch her own so my kids can see how different it is from us brooding to a hen brooding.

 

[mommahen10]

Trouble shooting: day 23
14 live healthy very busy active and loud chicks
28 in the incubator:
4 dead, full term, look as though they should be alive, 3 inspected and would have been very big chicks and had a huge yolk sac
5 alive, barely moving, not cheeping, now with an open shell on air cell side
19 dead, died late during incubation lots of liquid in there, ewwww

I guess I will gradually try to get the live ones out and see if they will perk up, they are not going to do it themselves. I'm doubtful that they'll make it. But what went wrong with the others? Any ideas or thoughts on that?

 

[chicken danz]

I'm a bit unhappy this morning. I donated mixed eggs to a person on chicken chatter who bought a large incubator. I had given her a list of breeds I had, and told her they were eggs that hens had laid here and there. Unfortunately she must have misunderstood so now the way it is posted it looks like I gave her eggs that I had claimed to be something else. I have a reputation to uphold and it really makes me feel bad. I am sorry but I had to vent. I didn't charge her a dime. Just gave them to her to see how her new incubator would work. They were all just brown egg layers with no promises.
Quote:

Danz, I can't believe how long you've known my dad. Isn't it crazy. I can't wait to talk to him, like really talk to him. We will be there on Halloween. But like you said about it being a small world, I want to be careful what I say too. Like about one of my sale experiences, I felt like I couldn't say anything because you don't know who's out there. But in this case, it's AWESOME!!! It's actually quite amazing. Our house is 12 years old, it's a manufactured home (glorified double wide). I'm trying to wait until tomorrow to look closer at the wiring, my dh gets a bit freaked when I start tearing into things. That's one heck of a sweet potato, ours got huge this year too. I have a pic on my cell phone I will try to transfer it to my computer somehow. We have so many I don't feel bad at all to share with my chicks.

Since I was too cheap to water I am amazed I got much of anything from the sweet potatoes but I will grow them again for sure. I love sweet potatoes but DH doesn't. I actually grew them more for my dogs and to eat when DH wasn't home. Of course my kids love candied sweet potatoes for the holidays too. I wish I had a lot more of them. They are very good for dogs and are excellent for settling an upset stomach. Anytime a dog has a tummy ache if you cook them a sweet potato it will settle it down. And dogs do love them. I often cook sweet potatoes and rice for them as a treat.

We spent the day in OKC, we took our granddaughter & her sister down there to see my son & celebrate his birthday a few days late. He lost his job a couple of weeks ago, so he has been pretty down about that, but he is starting a new job tomorrow thankfully. At least the job market is a lot better down there than it seems to be here. We spent about all of our time down there shopping for the girls because one needed soccer shoes & the other wanted a Halloween costume, so that took up a lot of time just trying to find the proper indoor soccer shoes & a place open on Sunday that sold them. Then it took a lot of time for my granddaughter to find a costume that she liked & that fit her. Of course we had to go to a Halloween store to find one, geez I never had expensive costumes like that, $30 for a costume for a 7 year old. Yeah they had more expensive ones, lots more expensive ones, but her dad didn't have the budget for them. Anyway, it was nice to see my son & my granddaughter at the same time, but now I'm tired, it's been a long, long day. Oh & an update on Dana for those of you who know her situation. She did have the thyroid removed & the surrounding lymph nodes but now they are concerned about a mass in her lung & something in her kidney. They're still awaiting results & trying to decide what to do next, it all depends on what they find with the lung. None of it sounds good at all & she is a very heavy smoker, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if she has lung cancer also or if this is the origin of the cancer. It's such a shame because she is a nice girl.
Sounds like a fun day. don't you wonder how some one can continue smoking when they are suffering from cancer? I can see my DH doing that. I even offered to pay for the prescription for Chantix but he won't consider it. At least he keeps it outside!
I think Candace might have gotten those that were on there for the Topeka area, I saw she had posted that she wanted to pick them up.
Yeah Candace is getting the turkeys. Darn it. I tried! I wanted to give Karen the bourbon red and keep the blue slate for myself.

HEChicken, that is a tiny little hen, how cute! I have lost my little hen that I got in Yates Center, I just never found her at all, so since she was a wild spirit & never would go into the coop at night it's not surprising, but kind of sad. She was a very unique little thing & I enjoyed hearing the funny little sounds she made.
I haven't checked my campine eggs yet to see if they are developing. Maybe with a little luck I'll get a breeding trio or something from them. Perhaps if you raised some chicks yourself they would be a little tamer. This gal says hers are docile. I guess if they develop I'll find out.

I've noticed too that people who usually don't have illness problems are struggling this year. Maybe winter will clear out some of the migratory birds and help.

I actually ordered some Oxine yesterday "just in case" I need it this fall. I got straw, too, yesterday from a neighbor. He has chickens and guineas running into and out of the barn where the stuff was stored. I'm planning to spray/fog the straw bales with Oxine before I let them near my chickens. His chickens seem perfectly healthy, but.... My husband is SO understanding. When we were on the way home, I told him I wanted to store it in the Quonsett until I could get it treated, and he just said OK, no problem even though it means handling it an extra time.

sharol

Sounds like you've got a keeper, Sharol. If you let yourself you'll be using oxine for all kinds of things. I am going to have to order another gallon of the liquid soon myself.

But doesn't it make it all the more frustrating that we struggle and struggle to get incubating conditions "perfect", and feel frustrated when we have a poor hatch, while this broody hen leaves her eggs for hours at a time, and hers are all developing just fine?

I love letting the broodies hatch. But the chicks end up so wild you can't do much with them. It seems they are 10 times healthier than the other chicks too. I have taken several chicks from broodies just to improve their chances of survival. but I always feel mean doing it. Right now I have at least 2 broody silver pheonix I know about. One is in my greenhouse and the other is up on a ledge in the garage. Places I wouldn't look for eggs anyway.
Otherwise I really need the eggs right now to fill orders.
Can't wait to hear from Karen today. I do so hope that Tookey is doing okay.
My little olansk is still improving. I am going to keep treating for a few more days to make sure he is completely cured. I am so thankful!

 

[HEChicken]

Thank you for the info. I have been watching mine, they just started laying last week and I am not sure positively who it is but my brahma bantam has been super red and has settled down a bit when being handled and spends alot of time making and remaking her nest. After I have taken the egg in the nest she will go lay in the box and flatten herself out and just lay in there for awhile. I dont know if she is looking for her egg, if it was hers, or if she is just remaking the nest for next time. I know she is way to young to be broody but maybe she has that in mind. I want to hatch some in my incubator and I really want a hen to hatch her own so my kids can see how different it is from us brooding to a hen brooding.

I have noticed that often after a hen has laid her egg, she will sit on it in the nest for up to 30 minutes. I don't know if this is a recovery time, or what. I've often wondered that myself.

Trouble shooting: day 23
14 live healthy very busy active and loud chicks
28 in the incubator:
4 dead, full term, look as though they should be alive, 3 inspected and would have been very big chicks and had a huge yolk sac
5 alive, barely moving, not cheeping, now with an open shell on air cell side
19 dead, died late during incubation lots of liquid in there, ewwww

I guess I will gradually try to get the live ones out and see if they will perk up, they are not going to do it themselves. I'm doubtful that they'll make it. But what went wrong with the others? Any ideas or thoughts on that?

The only thing I can offer is that if there are fluctuations in conditions during incubation, that might cause the early death of some of them. It could be that there are hot spots in the incubator so the ones who got the hottest during the fluctuation died. Or, it could be that the temperature was uniform throughout but some have stronger genes than the others (survival of the fittest). Oftentimes the females of the species are best able to withstand non-perfect conditions so we can hope that the 14 that hatched are mostly pullets....

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Danz- I need to chat with you, I want to know what breeds you have and what you have for sale right now. I want silver pheonix, and there are a few others. I read your posts and see so many that I am looking for lol.

HEChicken-- When I get the egg there is no one on it that is why I am not positive who is laying and she goes in there after it is gone. Maybe waiting for the egg to be gone first??

 

[HEChicken]

We spent the day in OKC, we took our granddaughter & her sister down there to see my son & celebrate his birthday a few days late. He lost his job a couple of weeks ago, so he has been pretty down about that, but he is starting a new job tomorrow thankfully. At least the job market is a lot better down there than it seems to be here. We spent about all of our time down there shopping for the girls because one needed soccer shoes & the other wanted a Halloween costume, so that took up a lot of time just trying to find the proper indoor soccer shoes & a place open on Sunday that sold them. Then it took a lot of time for my granddaughter to find a costume that she liked & that fit her. Of course we had to go to a Halloween store to find one, geez I never had expensive costumes like that, $30 for a costume for a 7 year old. Yeah they had more expensive ones, lots more expensive ones, but her dad didn't have the budget for them. Anyway, it was nice to see my son & my granddaughter at the same time, but now I'm tired, it's been a long, long day. Oh & an update on Dana for those of you who know her situation. She did have the thyroid removed & the surrounding lymph nodes but now they are concerned about a mass in her lung & something in her kidney. They're still awaiting results & trying to decide what to do next, it all depends on what they find with the lung. None of it sounds good at all & she is a very heavy smoker, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if she has lung cancer also or if this is the origin of the cancer. It's such a shame because she is a nice girl.

I'm so glad Danz quoted your post because I totally missed it. I see that I have a post directly beneath it so I guess I was typing while you were posting. I am sorry to hear that Dana is not out of the woods yet, and about your son losing his job, but glad he got another one so easily.

It makes it challenging to have to shop in another city for things, but for future reference (if you don't mind used items), look up Play it Again Sports and see if they have a location in OKC. They have been a life-saver for me with years of my kids being in multiple sports. They will take any pair of sporting shoes, and give you $5 credit for them. Then they resell them for $10/pair. So you can buy hardly worn (in some cases) shoes for $10. Then, when they outgrow that pair, return them for $5 credit and buy another pair, so in reality it only cost $5 for the second pair. Several times I've been able to take in 2 pairs of shoes that no longer fit, and leave with one pair that does, with no money changing hands. The thing with sporting shoes, is the kids only wear them for practice and games for a short season (most soccer seasons are 8 weeks long). So if they have 2 one-hour practices a week, and a game, they wear them 3 hours a week, times 8 weeks, for a total of 24 hours of wear. Then they get put in the back of the closet and by the time the new season starts, they pull them out and they don't fit any more. So where I wouldn't ordinarily buy used shoes, because the kids have been wearing a pair of tennis shoes all day every day to school and worn them out in places, with sporting shoes they can still be in really good shape - just the wrong size.

I'm a bit unhappy this morning. I donated mixed eggs to a person on chicken chatter who bought a large incubator. I had given her a list of breeds I had, and told her they were eggs that hens had laid here and there. Unfortunately she must have misunderstood so now the way it is posted it looks like I gave her eggs that I had claimed to be something else. I have a reputation to uphold and it really makes me feel bad. I am sorry but I had to vent. I didn't charge her a dime. Just gave them to her to see how her new incubator would work. They were all just brown egg layers with no promises.

I love letting the broodies hatch. But the chicks end up so wild you can't do much with them. It seems they are 10 times healthier than the other chicks too. I have taken several chicks from broodies just to improve their chances of survival. but I always feel mean doing it. Right now I have at least 2 broody silver pheonix I know about. One is in my greenhouse and the other is up on a ledge in the garage. Places I wouldn't look for eggs anyway.

My little olansk is still improving. I am going to keep treating for a few more days to make sure he is completely cured. I am so thankful!

I can't believe someone would complain about eggs that were donated

That is so true about broody raised chicks - both the lack of socialization and the being extra healthy. I do love watching a Mama Hen with her chicks though, and I have enough chicks I've raised myself that are so friendly I have to step carefully to avoid stepping on them as I move through the yard, so I don't really mind if a few are stand-offish. As long as they lay eggs. It can get to be a problem if they get ill though, as they hate to be handled so much that it is a challenge to medicate.

So glad to hear your Olansk cockerel is continuing to improve

I saw my Muscovy drake mating the same hen again this morning. I'm hoping Chickies-Duckies will check in because I'm wondering if this means she is getting ready to lay (I didn't expect duck eggs until Spring) or if it just means he is randy and doesn't care what her status is.

 

[HEChicken]

HEChicken-- When I get the egg there is no one on it that is why I am not positive who is laying and she goes in there after it is gone. Maybe waiting for the egg to be gone first??

Oh, I misunderstood! In that case she may just be "practicing" and that may mean that soon you will have two layers