Gave my broody eggs tonight...first time for both of us...anyone else start some today, 4-4-12?

[orumpoultry]

Well guys, the broody bug is really taking off. This morning my Aseel hen, Hatch hen, and two of my Greys ( crossing fingers for these two ladies ) were clucking and fluffed. The sign of another broody in the close future. I've been ( impatiently ) letting my hens clutch up as the 'bators are beyond full! Here's to hoping someone decides to sit!

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

Well I was out of town for two days, came home to find my girls still sitting on their eggs, going to candle the second set tonight and see if we have life. I can't believe how much my little chicks grew in two nights while I was gone...they look like little dinosaurs now! I have 43 in a brooder. I know I am going to have to part with some of my babies, I just don't think I have room to keep all of the 43, plus the potentials that are under the broodies. Roosters will go first, then how do I decide who to keep and who to rehome? Anyone else in the same boat?

 

[orumpoultry]

Do you have room to let them grow out some? I usually see who starts feathering in the best, comb growth, etc, and start selling 'culls' at 8 months and up. Sometimes I'll sell day old chicks and take the risk, or sell them at a younger age and take the risk, but that's just me.

Also,

tossed 5 eggs tonight. Kept smelling something and my ?'d eggs were all bad. Like, black bad. Black and green don't know how they didn't explode bad. Should've tossed them to begin with.

Alas, I still have over 40 in the bator and about 20 out of the original group are going to make it to lockdown it looks like. Time to crank up the hatcher!

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

I have room to keep them for quite some time. I do actually have "room" for them, and could keep them all, but I have 29 hens out in the coop now, 2 sitting on eggs and 43 in the brooder. It appears I have 12 embryos growing with the broody girls. So that is 84 chickens!!!!

I would like to pick and choose and keep my favorites and sell the others at POL, to recoup some of money from the hatchery order and what not. That was always the plan, to sell some as pullets.

 

[orumpoultry]

If I were you, I'd grow them a bit. Let them take on their personalities and decide who you like the best, etc. Have your 'cull' flock separate, and start prepping sale prices. Figure out what you want to sell for, for profit or just to not lose it all? If you just want to recoup losses, then calculate ( after feed ) what a good price would be or sell your pullets for slightly less than what everyone else is selling theirs for. I know out here there is a HUGE group of people who specifically want POL pullets or just laying hens. They don't want to go through the raising process ( who can blame them! )

I always eat my extra roosters, and very rarely sell them. My American Games, if I sell them, I am VERY picky on who they go to.

- Temps aren't staying very stable and I'm a little freaked right now. Morning temps are running 96, but by noon we're at a normal 100.5! I just don't get it. So far, the last of the eggs look like they're going to make it to lock down.

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

Well we had an incident yesterday where another hen stepped on one of Rosas eggs and cracked it. It wasn't bad at first, the membrane did not seem to be broken. I candled it and there was still movement. I put it back under her and was hoping for the best. Then about 2 hours later I was down there to collect eggs and two other hens had pushed her off the nest and they were pecking at that egg...it was cracked more and bleeding. My Rosa was just pacing back and forth but didn't try to intervene. It breaks my heart that she is so low in the pecking order that she didn't try to save her egg.

So I promptly moved her other 4 viable eggs under the other broody (so glad I marked them all) and left four freshly laid eggs in Rosas box. I threw the other girls out of the coop and tried to get Rosa to go back on her nest. She would have nothing of it. She was just pacing back and forth the length of the coop. I left them be alone. About an hour later I went back down and she was back on those eggs, just like they were hers.

Sadly they egg that was cracked open had too much damage and the little chick inside had expired. So sad, I was terribly heart broken yesterday and feeling like an awful chicken momma.

So after much debate, thought and consideration we decided once again to try to move her to a crate in the coop under the cover of darkness. So late last night we moved her 4 "fresh" eggs into the crate and then set her down near there with a light shining on the eggs. She went right to them and sat down. Then she looked around a bit and realized that she was not in a box and freaked out...she got up, was clawing at the crate, even flew into it a few times. It was tearing my heart up, but we turned off the flashlight and just sat real still. She just kept pacing. We decided to leave her and come back again in an hour or so to see how she was. I had visions of her all bloodied and tore up from trying to get out. It was an awful long hour.

When we went back to check on here, she as calm and on those eggs. When I opened the crate she made no attempt to move, so we moved her 4 viable eggs out from under the other broody and back under Rosa. She quickly nuzzled them right to where she wanted them and flattened herself down on them. Oh...what a huge sigh...and thank god for red lighted flashlights. Not a peep or ruckus from the other hens.

So then this morning after not sleeping much, I was hesitant to go check her. I was afraid that as light shown in the windows that she would once again realize that she was not in a nesting box, but in a cage and freak out. I finally drug myself down there and to my surprise, she had built herself a little nest and was all comfy in the corner with her eggs. I slipped some food and water in there for her and she didn't even move, much less make an attempt to get off the eggs. So tonight is Day 20. I am hoping all the ruckus yesterday didn't do any damage. I have to leave today and go to town, but I can at least know that the other hens can't bother her and that if there start to be any pipping she will be just fine.

Please keep your fingers crossed for her (and me)!

 

[This_chicks_place]

Well we had an incident yesterday where another hen stepped on one of Rosas eggs and cracked it. It wasn't bad at first, the membrane did not seem to be broken. I candled it and there was still movement. I put it back under her and was hoping for the best. Then about 2 hours later I was down there to collect eggs and two other hens had pushed her off the nest and they were pecking at that egg...it was cracked more and bleeding. My Rosa was just pacing back and forth but didn't try to intervene. It breaks my heart that she is so low in the pecking order that she didn't try to save her egg.

So I promptly moved her other 4 viable eggs under the other broody (so glad I marked them all) and left four freshly laid eggs in Rosas box. I threw the other girls out of the coop and tried to get Rosa to go back on her nest. She would have nothing of it. She was just pacing back and forth the length of the coop. I left them be alone. About an hour later I went back down and she was back on those eggs, just like they were hers.

Sadly they egg that was cracked open had too much damage and the little chick inside had expired. So sad, I was terribly heart broken yesterday and feeling like an awful chicken momma.

So after much debate, thought and consideration we decided once again to try to move her to a crate in the coop under the cover of darkness. So late last night we moved her 4 "fresh" eggs into the crate and then set her down near there with a light shining on the eggs. She went right to them and sat down. Then she looked around a bit and realized that she was not in a box and freaked out...she got up, was clawing at the crate, even flew into it a few times. It was tearing my heart up, but we turned off the flashlight and just sat real still. She just kept pacing. We decided to leave her and come back again in an hour or so to see how she was. I had visions of her all bloodied and tore up from trying to get out. It was an awful long hour.

When we went back to check on here, she as calm and on those eggs. When I opened the crate she made no attempt to move, so we moved her 4 viable eggs out from under the other broody and back under Rosa. She quickly nuzzled them right to where she wanted them and flattened herself down on them. Oh...what a huge sigh...and thank god for red lighted flashlights. Not a peep or ruckus from the other hens.

So then this morning after not sleeping much, I was hesitant to go check her. I was afraid that as light shown in the windows that she would once again realize that she was not in a nesting box, but in a cage and freak out. I finally drug myself down there and to my surprise, she had built herself a little nest and was all comfy in the corner with her eggs. I slipped some food and water in there for her and she didn't even move, much less make an attempt to get off the eggs. So tonight is Day 20. I am hoping all the ruckus yesterday didn't do any damage. I have to leave today and go to town, but I can at least know that the other hens can't bother her and that if there start to be any pipping she will be just fine.

Please keep your fingers crossed for her (and me)!

Here's hoping all goes well!

 

[Lute]

Hi! I placed eggs on the same day (I missed this topic or I would have said something!) and I've already got a chick hatched (and chirping loudly!) and two more are externally pipped! They're a day early!

It's my first hatch. I'M SO EXCITED.

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

Hi! I placed eggs on the same day (I missed this topic or I would have said something!) and I've already got a chick hatched (and chirping loudly!) and two more are externally pipped! They're a day early!

It's my first hatch. I'M SO EXCITED.

Are they under a hen or in an incubator. I really want to go look under her, but yesterday was such a ruckus I just want to give her space and time...perhaps I will go again tonight in the cover of darkness and look at the eggs for some pips.

Oh...pictures please!!!! I am super excited for ya.

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

I went down to check her water and food and she was sitting in an awkward position, and out in front of her was some broken shell. I moved some of her feathers out of the way and found another crushed shell...Number 5. We noticed last night that 5 had a hairline crack in it, but it wasn't anything like 7 was yesterday, so I just put it back under her. Well it looks like that made a weak spot and she either stepped on it or put too much of her weight down on it. It was cracked all over, like when you crack a hard boiled egg. The membrane was dried out and the beak was stick out, there was evidence of some dried blood.

I thought it might be alive, but it was not. It was far enough along that it had absorbed all the yolk, but the umbilical cord was still attached and there is a hole in her belly.

This one is a lot further developed than the one that got broken yesterday. So out of the 7 she was given to hatch, 2 were quitters from the start, number 3 and 6. Number 7 and 5 have both been cracked and expired before hatching on their own. So we are down to number 1, 2 and 4. Keeping fingers crossed that she doesn't squash them and that they are still viable.