Hatching with 2 broodies

[lizgarf]

Hey Team,
I know big things are happening out there - chicks are hatching and whatnot - but, I have the biggest news to hit my flock in 2 months: Grace laid an egg!!!
She also let out an egg song that could have awoken the dead! I hope my neighbors don't get suspicious before Desi even starts crowing!

PM, I'm sorry to hear you have so much trouble with your birds! Maybe now isn't the best time to expand? Why are you hatching so many, by the way? Are you going into the chicken business?
Adorable mental picture of Goliath sleeping with the bubbies. Way to find some love, little ones!

 

[Pooman]

Just dosed "Wonky" with vitE and a multivitamin wi a bunch of selenium. See how he is in a few hours time, otherwise he is looking quite healthy and happy, but still wonky .....

 

[Pooman]

Wooooooo egg..

I'm getting a heap more cause i love eggs and want to eat some of them, so need a good flock of broodies and egg layers for my production, not a business at all just fun and food. Just random events (snake bite etc) and Lola was kinda expected, now injury and this wry neck thing. But that should be an easy fix, 2 hours we will check and maybe give a bigger dose.

All,a big learning curve, the missus ordered some chicken books the other day, so they will help i think

 

[Teila]

Gooood morning Team Broody

Aaaw at Puffball TGG; looking forward to the pictures and also, like Liz, fingers crossed for more bubbies. Puffball sounds like an adventurous little soul; might need naming after a superhero? Lol

Still no eggs Liz! Gees that’s rough. I can picture it now, you give them the remaining eggs and they proceed to try and hatch them .. broody here we come! Lol

Lolz Pooman, NO! no eggs! I agree with TGG “this is exhausting”. I don’t know about the featheries but the humans need to return to some degree of normality for a while. Well, as close to normal as living with chickens will allow!

Yikes Pooman, you are having a bit of a bad run at the moment! I hope Rocky is OK and it is nothing serious. Good luck with the little wry neck munchkin also. On a lighter note, you can be our go-to person with emergencies; you are becoming very experienced in that department.
Seriously, hang in there, normality is hopefully just around the corner.
Goliath sounds like a real sweetheart .. ‘Goliath’ was maybe a bit off in the name department lol

Welcome jak2002003, lovely to meet you and welcome to Team Broody!
Congratulations on the successful hatch and again, agreeing with Liz, another successful co-parenting story. I still remember reading a thread that adamantly stated that co-broodies would not work and they would kill each others chicks .. hhhm, bzzzt, wrong! Lol
Sure sounds like they have worked it out and know what they are doing. A bit of tag-team parenting will give them all a chance for some down time.

A bit of an update on Cilla and her going broody again. Basically, Cilla and Dusty are crazy! Lol. As mentioned previously, I resorted to taking the nest box away after Cilla did not want to leave it except to bash Dusty! Gave it back to Dusty for a quick egg lay and then took it away again. The pair of them spent the afternoon fighting over the corner that the nest box used to be in. When they were not fighting over the corner, Cilla was stalking Dusty all over the garden; hunting her down to bash her. Lots of squawking, puffing up and pecking. Dusty was walking around like a blown up beach ball on legs! Bubbies, while safe in their run, are freaking out at all the commotion and I am getting a headache from breaking up fights and trying to work out what is the best thing to do; separation, ice baths etc. 5 o’clock last night, Cilla lays an egg in the nest box-less corner and Dusty proceeds to steel it and sit on it; furiously guarding it from Cilla and me! I finally get the egg away from them and because it is getting close to bed time and Dusty likes to sleep in the nest box, I put it back. It is not bed time yet but Dusty snuggles into it and commences broody-chicken impersonations. Cilla has now decided to go for a wander around the garden like nothing happened! After ½ an hour in the nest box, Dusty is wandering around the garden with Cilla, best buds again! This morning I gave them breakfast and as they seemed to be playing nice, opened the run for all to share. When I came in to type this, all four were quite happily scratching through the lawn clippings I threw in there yesterday like nothing had happened! Crazy Chickens!! lol

 

[Teila]

Hey Team,
I know big things are happening out there - chicks are hatching and whatnot - but, I have the biggest news to hit my flock in 2 months: Grace laid an egg!!!
She also let out an egg song that could have awoken the dead! I hope my neighbors don't get suspicious before Desi even starts crowing!

Wooo hooo Liz! Excellent news! Are you going to take it's picture, frame it etc? lol

 

[Pooman]

Lol Teila crazy chickens.

So checked Wonky just now, and he is looking better, Mavis seems to be a great and cooperative mother, not freaking when we come close so that awesome the chicks stay out.

Rocky and his. 2 girls are locked up together, Rocky looks sore and is standing still, we checked hi earlier and nothing is broken but he ain't happy boy. Considering some ibuprofen maybe a small amount for him to help reduce the inflammation he would have from his injury

 

[Teila]

Way to go Wonkie!!

Any idea what Rocky did to hurt himself Pooman? He hasn't picked up an infection in a small cut? I ask because I have lost a girl through that. She picked up a Staph infection from the ground being too damp (we moved the coop and run after that learning curve).

 

[texgardengal]

Hey all. Sad news. Chickie #1 little white puffball doing fine. Chickie #2 didnt make it. Dont know if Miss Molly sat on her or if it just didnt make it through the end of the hatching process. I heard it chirping but then it didnt make it. Needless to say it was very sad. Only one little chickie but I said I would be happy with one....It was just sad. But, because Miss Molly was still sitting on the eggs I just let her do her thing...Wasnt sure when to get rid of the other eggs...It could have been a good 3-4 days in before I finally got to mark the eggs. So anyway, today I go out to feed them and chickie #3!!! A little black bubbie. What a surprise. It seems to be doing OK so far. I only saw it for a few minutes before it climbed back under Mom. Chickie #1 is spending more and more time out of the nest so after our first...loss I worry when I dont see it. I have to calm down. lol. There is still no co-parenting. Miss Molly is still her bossy self. Sassy was totally kicked out of the favorite nesting/hatching box spot. She has decided to lay her eggs in the tiny lttle space BEHIND the nesting box. hahaha poor sweet little thing. She's at the bottom of the pecking order around here. The boys are doing great with the chickies so far. They just kick puffball around but dont seem to mean any harm.
Teila, you had me rolling with your crazy chicken story..... I can just see that crazy broody hen guarding that egg...

Reminds me of when I was trying to find out how many eggs Miss Molly was sitting on, she wasnt having it!!!!
Pooman you crack me up too. Wonky....lol ya'll are too funny. Hope the chickie is doing better.
Congrats on the egg Liz! Hope it's the first of a lot more...
Welcome Jac!!! .

 

[texgardengal]

 

[Teila]

Oh My Goodness TGG , pictures like that should come with cute overload warnings! How adorable are those little munchkins?!
Miss Molly is a very pretty girl
Wow these chickens are an emotional roller coaster, how sad to read about chickie #2 but huge lift in spirits with your little black bubby giving a most wonderful surprise.

Cilla continues to try out for the lead character in the next Stephen King novel! Either that or the lead role in a Sybil remake. My crazy little girl has multiple chickenality disorder! It is like someone is throwing a switch on her from evil to angel and back again, repeatedly! Poor ole Dusty is walking around with a permanent 'what the?' expression on her face lol.

I think I am winning the 'You Are Not Broody!' stakes but 'Sybil' (lol) continues to throw a curly one every so often. I get home from work and extract my puffed up, mildly aggressive feathered beach ball from the nest box and rescue any eggs. When I go to pick her up she buries her head in the straw so that extracting her becomes more difficult!! Over the course of the next two hours 'Sybil' switches mood at least 5-6 times; cute to aggressive; aggressive to angelic; angelic to aggressive .. you get the picture! We are talking some serious hormone fluctuations. At bed time, if I time it right, I only have to relocate her from the nest box to the roost once but if I don't time it right, the record to date is 5 times! lol
I wonder who will crack first? Her or me? No longer broody or broody on eggs? lol Stay tuned!