Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Prairie, they are so adorable!

But 5 bucklings! Wow! Bye a they will need to go, I am sure.

How is your peacock doing? If you get a chance to get some hens closer, go ahead and do so. I have a guy friend in Hawaii that has been wanting me to visit, and he even bought me a ticket so I am leaving April 1 for three weeks. Trying to make it as easy as possible for my sister to take care of things. I have a hen sitting on some eggs I really want of my splash orp that died but she doesn't want to deal with babies while I am gone.

. I understand but I sure wanted a couple of his progeny.

I have eggs half incubated already, sure hate to throw them out when I can see the little heart beating and stuff, feels like murder to me. Guess I am just silly and sentimental.

If you have a hen sitting on eggs why not let her brood the chicks when they hatch. I'd be catching her off the nest and candling then adding some of those other eggs in the incubator if they are anywhere close to due at the same time. Or put the most advanced eggs under her and let the others go. I can't toss developing eggs ....which is why I have an earring eating turkey in the house in the first place!! I feel terrible if I accidentally toss or break an egg that is developing.
I have a couple of broodies right now that I'm letting sit. I just don't want to deal with started developing eggs. One of them is sitting on eating eggs and the other is in one of the purebred pens. The laying hens don't normally hatch much so I'm just down a hen for now. The other is a first time broody and I am just letting her give it a try. I have so many eggs to hatch right now I'll take a break when I can.
I found a guinea egg yesterday in the hen house. I have 5 free range guineas and I thought they were all boys. Obvisously I missed one of them. I thought I had lost all my free range girls last year. The pen of girls haven't laid any eggs yet. It's warmer in the hen house though so I am sure that is why I got an egg.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

X2 with Danz. All of the broodies I have had with chicks don't need any help. All your freind would need to do is normal feeding and what not. By April they will be old enough to be with the big birds and the broody will protect them.
At least they have a chance that way. Not wanting to throw out developing eggs, especially ones from a lost bird, isn't silly or sentimental at all. I say let your broody go for it!

 

[KsKingBee]

I don't know if it is a wives tale or not, but dad said that grandma used to put a box over a hen on a nest of eggs to make her go broody. If you could get another hen brooding you could put the incubator eggs under her.

 

[chicken danz]

That makes sense King Bee. They do like privacy. Back when I had mostly free range birds they would go to the barn and pick the darkest most secluded hole they could. I can see that would probably work.
With broody hatched chicks I always put a waterer out for chicks to prevent accidental drowning but otherwise they seem to do great all alone.
Prairie, I meant to say congrats on the babies. That would be my luck to have so many boys. One nice thing about Nigerians is that the boys are able to breed as young a like 9 weeks old so you wouldn't have to wait forever for a male to grow to maturity.
thndrdancer I wish I had friends that would buy me a ticket to Hawaii. I would find a way to have my birds cared for for sure. It would be so awesome to have a friend that lived there too so you wouldn't spend all that money on motels and stuff. My sister texted me from Hawaii when she was there and said that chickens run wild all over the islands.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I don't know if it is a wives tale or not, but dad said that grandma used to put a box over a hen on a nest of eggs to make her go broody. If you could get another hen brooding you could put the incubator eggs under her.

This could work if it raised body temp enough! Plus how could she do anything BUT go broody with a box over her!

 

[thndrdancr]

Well I will have to do some modifying if I hatch them so they can be taken care of in our dog pen by the broody. Right now I have them inside, I had eggs under her to make her go broody for my peahen eggs but then I broke the pea eggs, hoping to get more and she only sat on these eggs haphazardly, so I was surprised to see them developed and not far from hatch! :0
Have to get metal waterer out with marbles and all, and fix up doghouse for her as the babies can't hop in coop til older. Sis is worried that it will be too cold but I think they should be ok. Although mom is nesting in house right now, hope she can adjust to outside temps again.
Thanks for all the support guys. I wished I could find a caretaker for the babies and mom just while I am gone, would be easier on sis.
I will surely miss my birdies!

 

[KsKingBee]

I will surely miss my birdies!

We will miss you too!

Sorry you have to go.

If I remember right grandma would cut a hole in the side of the box so the hen could eat and drink. If my eggs start stacking up I may try to make a hen or two go broody.

 

[chicken danz]

I like your idea and may try that myself. I'm getting at the point right now that I'm running out of incubator space cause the goose eggs take so much room. When the peas start laying I'll really be in a pickle. Even on broody per pen would help me out a lot.
thndrdancer I have used a big plastic dog kennel for broody and chick housing before. You can use the pop bottle waterers and hang them from the door at a level the chicks can reach until they get a little larger. I've had a hen sit on eggs and then just stay there after she hatched until the chicks got a couple weeks old. Then since it was in the pen with the other birds I just left the door open and let the broody handle her chicks. They did great and the other birds didn't bother the chicks.

 

[chicken danz]

My eggs are stacking up. I just spent the last several hours getting eggs candled and new eggs ready for the incubator and marked. I have zero space left at all and I think I will probably have to set up a third incubator some time this week. I tossed 82 eggs today that either weren't fertile, had gotten frozen, or had stopped developing for some reason. By date most of them had gotten too cold cause most of the ones that are newer were developing. Yesterday it was another 32 goose eggs I tossed. But there are several hundred babies incubating.
I also got my first turkey egg of the spring today. If they start laying and the pheasant and the guineas start laying I am going to be really desperate for room.
I've got a ton of duck eggs too and would really like to incubate some more but there is no room.
It's a miserable cold wet day out there and I really haven't done much but mess with eggs and gather the ones they had laid. I noticed a while ago there must be an additional 8 or so in the BBS pen alone since about 2PM. The girls are letting me know to them at least it is spring. At least I had a fairly small hatch today. Maybe only about 30 chicks.
I checked out the new kittens while ago. We have 4 of them. A blue one, a black one with white on his ears, a gray tabby and a gray tabby with some gold on it. Not very exciting colors but hopefully they'll be tamer than the last litter but still be good mousers. At least if these are tamer I can get them neutured later. It's been a long time since I got to play with baby kitties.

 

[leck8]

How do you guys telike if a egg is fertile