Early Christmas present

[thndrdancr]

I can personally attest that my best broody at least, moves and fusses with her eggs constantly.

She would be perfect for experimentation if she survives the winter, she is getting older and has a gimpy leg.

When I hatched myfirst set, I had one killed in the coop, I think by my nasty mean I'll tempered bs peahen, Champaigne.
My chicken hen and peahen were so busy arguing over who got the children (they had mutually sat together) the babies wandered off and were attacked.
So I wanted to be ableb to keep an eye on next ones.

Enter Gimpy, who I have to bring inside periodically to treat. Her leg is OK til she keeps getting over mated with the roos. when I bring her in, she always goes broody in our living room easy chair!

I took advantage of this this summer by having her sit, altho there are only 2 chairs in our tiny living room. Makes it rough for visitors!!!

 

[casportpony]

I incubated the majority of mine under hens, but moved most of them to the bator once they pipped.

-Kathy

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

Zaz, I've read so many times that pea eggs started under broody hens tend to have a higher hatch rate. Saw where someone thought it might be because the broodys keep the eggs moving around under them, and are always fussing with them, and that maybe that helps, particularly in the first days of incubation. What do you think? Why do eggs started under broodys have a higher hatch rate?

q8, didn't I read where you have some kind of cooling system for your pea pens? I'm guessing you must spray or mist water, and maybe augment it with a fan? That would keep the temperature down nicely, even from 50C... seems like broody hens could manage as long as you had them under shade and down to maybe 40 or 42, I bet they would be okay. I yanked my eggs from an nest which was abandoned by the peahen when she was about to cook, it was 115F or so (we were having an exceptionally hot spell), and she had built her nest on a stack of hay, right next to a west-facing wall of corrugated metal, so it was heating up like an oven. Pretty sure the eggs would have died from being overheated, but I think to some extent, like Zaz said, the hens can shield the eggs from the heat like they do from the cold, so if they weren't in an oven, maybe they would do okay?

Does anyone there hatch under hens? If they can survive in the temperatures, maybe they can also hatch in them?

We have cooling system only for the peas, the chickens pens don't, the problem is all these birds in the farm not in my home, and i only go there in weekends, and my incubator in my home, so if i'm going to incubate the eggs under chickens i can't move them later to the incubator and if let them hatch under her, i need to be there to get the chicks directly when they hatch.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

Any bred of hens that will sit eggs will work, many of my broody hens are mix breeds and they are the very best broodys.
Check around and see what kind of hens hatch out babies in your country and go from there. what i did last year is let the broodys sit them till they were found moving in the air cell then i pulled them and hatched in my hatcher.
This year I had a great hatch rate i put 75 eggs under the broodys and only 8 did not hatch

It gets into the 100's here but my hens temperature runs around 104 degrees and so they have evolved to keep the temps cooler than their body heat verses trying to keep the temp warmer from what i observed in the heat of our summer.
i plan on doing more studies on the sitters and temps but i need to get better readers to do this like it should be with multiple hens

That's a great hatch rate, we have some brahma chickens and other mixed chickens, if my incubator was full in late summer i would incubate some under them, but they go broody all the time, only once every two or three months, but when they stay they will never get up LOL

 

[Garden Peas]

So we've gone two nights without an egg... wonder if she's done?

 

[casportpony]

So we've gone two nights without an egg... wonder if she's done?

Mine did five eggs in November and looks like she's done for the year.

-Kathy

 

[Garden Peas]

Hey Zaz, here's a question for you. When you are handling eggs, do you notice a difference in the way fertilized eggs FEEL when you pick them up? I haven't candled yet (I'm kinda thinking of letting this be a surprise in January), but I notice that after a few days, the eggs start to feel different when I pick them up to turn them. Kinda more solid.

I'm wondering if the fertilization and beginning of development makes the egg feel more solid compared to an egg where there's nothing going on.

Also wondering if I'm just imagining it in hopes of a hatch

But I kinda think I've noticed something like this before...

Anybody? I just figured Zaz is so incredibly observant that if anybody would have noticed, it will be her

 

[zazouse]

I know what you are feeling but it was always farther along in the incubation then again i did not touch my pea,chicken or guinea eggs till 2 weeks had gone by.. but there is difference in how the developing one felt verses a quiter or one that did not develop at all

 

[Garden Peas]

I know what you are feeling but it was always farther along in the incubation then again i did not touch my pea,chicken or guinea eggs till 2 weeks had gone by.. but there is difference in how the developing one felt verses a quiter or one that did not develop at all

Thanks, Zaz... it seemed like it to me, but I would hate to think I was just imagining things. I haven't candled, but I think one of these guys is on a speed run, the egg is already sitting up instead of flat on the wire. Seems like a couple of the others are trying to.

 

[Garden Peas]

I forgot to put it on here, the egg thread ... she laid egg #5 this evening!