First Egg Candling

[JLeigh]

Sorry about your hen, Peeps. That has to be a hard thing to go through....I will continue to try to find my female's nest, but it will be next to impossible. My only recourse might be to keep her penned until she stops laying? I don't know what to do except keep looking for the nest. How do you find a nest in the thick woods? I've been out with binoculars which are tough because they don't see through trees, I've followed them for 2.5 hours....I'll keep going.

I already have plans for a second incubator for hatching with no turner. That seemed to make the most sense to me, and I can keep incubating. I'll figure all this out and get a good system going, I hope. I'm just wanting a few keets to hatch from my 5/19 set, and if I haven't killed the keets by washing the two eggs I took this morning, that would be nice, too. (understatement). I didn't soak them, I just wet my fingers and rubbed off the poop. Then I dried them lightly but carefully. That would be my luck - to have killed them. I won't do it again, though.

Ideally I'll want one set in the 1588, and the hatches coming in the other incubator. Haven't gotten it yet. Will get it in the next few days. I've been marking the eggs with pencil so that will be okay.

I think George is truly PO'd with the whole thing, or thoroughly confused, but I'm not helping the situation, or making it easy on her. She doesn't really have a place to lay her eggs. Can't ask my husband to build the coop until time allows - - he works a LOT.

Time is running out, I know. It's stressing me out...big time.

 

[JLeigh]

Another question Peeps - when/if George decides to go broody, will the male follow her and stay with her, or will he come home alone? If I know what to expect, I might be able to find the nest (if he stays with her - if not, "grrr, arghh, bleepbleepbleep, #!@**@$").

 

[PeepsCA]

He should stay with her during the days for a while, but still come home each night... unless he finds a tree he feels is safe to roost in near her nest

he may give up on her tho. Each bird is different, so its hard to say exactly what he will do. If she does end up disappearing he may lead you to her when you let him out each AM tho, just be sneaky/stealthy when you follow him, lol.

The plan for a separate hatcher is a good idea. It works, I've been doing it for years, and I'm sure a million other hatch-o-holics have too, lol. It's just expensive initially, but if you hatch enough keets to sell to pay for your investment, it evens out, eventually (as long as you sell most of what you hatch and not keep 100 keets like me, lmao).

I think if you just keep George in 'til she lays her egg each day and then let her out to free range in the afternoons, she'll be fine and adjust to the new routine. You could sweeten the deal for her by picking her/them some fresh greens/grass and giving her some extra treats while she/they are being kept in, my birds love any wild bird seed mix that has a lot of millet in it, and also the sweetfeed that I feed my horses and goats. She will get over it, it's better than the alternative!

If you don't find the nest, something else will eventually, and she will eventually give up on it too, so don't stress... if you have to write off those eggs because you can't find them it's better than losing your Hen! I'd mark your calendar and if you haven't found them after 2 weeks of looking, forget about it. Save your energy, lol. Your Hen has the potential to continue to lay all the way thru Fall... that could be well over another 100 eggs... so if you can establish the laying in the coop routine with her, the less egg hunting you will have to do. You of course can go whichever route you choose, I'm just suggesting something that works well for me/my flocks, and something that keeps my Hens alive!