Hatching with 2 broodies

[tommysgirl]

Thanks, TG! I got the eggs from Papa's Poultry, and it probably wasn't the breeder's fault that only 2 of 8 hatched, given all the craziness that went on here during the hatch. He's based outside of Redding and has a lot of interesting breeds, so he might be a good option for you for fertile eggs.

Why do you think the eggs were all clear? These were your girls' eggs?

I have spoken to "Papa" re Swedish Flower Hens but decided against them. He is a very nice man though and b/c he travels to sac from time to time he would meet me for an egg transfer. I should look again at what he has. The eggs under this broody came from my Aunt's CA Grey and her EEs and though they range at the same time as a rooster, he apparently is more fond of the girls that he is with 24/7.

Pretty sure fertility is good with my girls but they haven't been laying for $#%@! My brown pen has been moderately OK and my little mutt girl Norma who I hatched from one of my Australorp eggs last spring has been a trooper but my only nearly daily egg is from Blanche.

The excitement of hatching is tempered with the realities of getting boys. I am sorry it is bumming you out. Buying from a big hatchery is a bummer too once you know about sexing there...But, if you want another Red Star, I should have some for you sometime this spring depending on broody fever. I am also hatching CA greys so I can get you one or more of those as well. Both are auto sexing so It will be easy peasy to make sure you get no crowers. I will brood them for you too if need be. I am set up for it.

Good Luck with Desi...I hope the final adjustment will do the trick. He certainly is a beautiful boy.

Well, I got a text message from my Egg-Lady (Chris) today, they are on their way via Express Post and a check on parcel tracker shows them as in transit; seeing I am in a next day delivery area, they may arrive tomorrow while I am at work. My son has instructions on where to put them (not the fridge! lol). Chris mentioned that she popped in a couple more eggs for good luck .. lol 14 or so eggs; not a chance Cilla is going to manage that!
Ordering eggs on-line; another first for me!

Cilla is going well .. I think she goes broody because Mum spoils her more than normal !!
After the big girls get their treats I take her some and I am frequently giving her her special little dish for drinks while she is on the nest.

It is so nice to see Dusty and the Silkies bonding; Dusty has never roosted and tonight when I checked everyone had gone to bed, she was cuddled up in the Ranch with a Silkie on either side .. aaaw!

It seems most of the people who order eggs have incubators so those with eggs can't wait to fill em. I ordered 6 eggs from two different BYCers last spring and got 12 and 11!! so instead of setting 18 as planned I ended up setting 36...don't bother with the math it doesn't add up. Of those 36, 3 of my own eggs hatched 1 of one shipment and 3 of another. I think I was too neurotic to handle an incubator so now I leave it up to the mama birds.

Sweet image of Dusty cuddled up to the silkies...Liz is right who wouldn't want to spend the night next to a couple of those sweet fluffy things

 

[lizgarf]

Thanks, TG. I have plenty of hens at the moment, what with the addition of the Brady girls, so my only real motivation for hatching more is to appease the inevitable future broody. I'm sure your red stars will be lovely, but I don't want to commit to adding anyone at the moment. And, I agree that going the pre-sexed route is no better for the little roos, even if it would be easier for me. I'll just wait and see how I feel next time someone goes broody.

I made a second collar, this time with a 2-inch wide piece of velcro, instead of the two smaller pieces. It was much harder to make, for some reason, as I broke two needles and it took over an hour! It's much stiffer than the one that's on Desi now. He has been quiet since the last adjustment, but I'm very doubtful that he'll stay that way. He can still eat/drink/mutter and he shouted a bit when Rousseau pecked him (something is definitely going on between those two). I will probably sub the new one on him at some point and then maybe see about adding a third piece of velcro to the middle of his current collar, which would make it a bit less stiff than the new one, but eliminate the current flexibility in the middle of the collar. The rooster-collar lady's collars have 3 narrow strips of velcro on them. I could just order one from her, but it'll take some time to get here and I want to see if her new factory-produced collars are working as well as her earlier ones. So far, I can't see any real reason why hers work and mine don't, so I'm also skeptical of buying one and waiting for it to arrive just for it to not work either.

 

[Teila]

Liz, *&$# !! Not what I wanted to hear!!
Sorry to hear you are feeling a bit down; I understand exactly what you are saying and I wish I had an answer. One of the reasons I ummm'd and aaaha'd about this hatch is that I will only be able to keep one or two and will have to let the others go.
Never an easy decision and obviously the longer you have them the harder it is to part with them which is one of the reasons I am not going with Silkies this time. They take way too long to mature and reveal their gender. I will buy proven Silkies Hens from now on if need be!

One of the things that out weighed my concerns about having to part with some was how happy Cilla appeared to be with her bubbies last time and how determined she was to be broody again.

I think what you have done for Desi and how you are giving your all to keep him is wonderful .. you are a special chicken mum and yep, all par for the course but the joy far outweighs the sad times!

Will check back again later for news on the latest collar tweak

TG, definitely no incubators at my place! I can't imagine me being able to raise a brooder full of chicks anywhere near as well as Cilla! I would have to take holidays off work! lol

I was thinking to give her 6 eggs; I pick two and hubby and son get to pick two also but now Chris has sent more, I am wondering whether to try 9, three picks each.
I am not going to get 9 from 9 surely!
Anyway, hopefully they will arrive today and I will be able to make a decision then on number due to size, possible damage etc.

I get up at 04:45am and with getting closer to our winter, each day is that tiny little bit darker ... this morning was the first time I was out of bed before the girls! lol
Not long after I got up I heard a hen in the run making chicken song noises and raced out to check .. it was Suzi. I am not sure if that was her attempt to crow or if she was just having a sing-song .. Dusty and Tina were still dragging themselves out of bed! I chatted away to Suzi and told her that she probably should ssshh so early in the morning and I never heard another peep out of her before I left for work. I don't think it was a crow attempt but time will tell. She is still not showing any signs of being big and brave and still runs from anything that spooks her
I have no doubt Tina is a girl and the only doubt I have about Suzi is her comb which is slightly bigger than Tina's.

 

[lizgarf]

Liz, *&$# !! Not what I wanted to hear!!
I think what you have done for Desi and how you are giving your all to keep him is wonderful .. you are a special chicken mum and yep, all par for the course but the joy far outweighs the sad times!

Will check back again later for news on the latest collar tweak

Thanks so much, Teila. The team's support is so helpful right now. Desi has collar #2 on right now and he seems a bit more annoyed with it, but still able to do everything. No crows yet, but there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to when he crows. Now that the old collar is off, I can see it was too stretchy. Hopefully this one will work better or a new mod of the old one might work, while allowing more vertical flexibility.
And yes, the joy often outweighs the sad times. I'm writing this from laptop on my lounge chair in the backyard, and Grace is underneath me, trying to lay her egg. She's making cute little noises and being all around adorable. Jan keeps coming by and jumping up on the lounge to be with me too. I really do love them. But, I'm terrible at setting realistic boundaries with them. My work productivity has been particularly bad since this whole broody phase, hen-adopting, rooster-crowing, series of chicken chaos all started back in September. I need to work on putting things in perspective.

You get up at 4:45 am?!?! You were meant to be a farmer! Not me!

 

[tommysgirl]

I was thinking to give her 6 eggs; I pick two and hubby and son get to pick two also but now Chris has sent more, I am wondering whether to try 9, three picks each.
I am not going to get 9 from 9 surely!
Anyway, hopefully they will arrive today and I will be able to make a decision then on number due to size, possible damage etc.

If you candle them when you get them you should be able to tell if there is any air cell damage and then you can keep the ones with the best air cells.

I like the idea of everyone picking some.

I had bantam eggs for breakfast. 3 of em haha

I am looking forward to having tiny egg layers Did I tell you guys that my aunt has a Silkie roo in with two D'Uccle girls? When I get a broody I am going to give her some.

 

[lizgarf]

Oh yeah, TG, Papa has some particularly beautiful-looking and unique Brahmas! You all know how much I love my Brahma, Bettina! I would definitely get some of those, if I were to order fertile eggs again.

 

[MistyMountain]

I feel for you, Liz. I was hoping he would forget to learn how to crow. Willie crows at random times here. He almost always crows when my husband is around or flies by on the ATV. Competition, maybe? If we lived closer and it came down to it, I would offer to give him a home for you. I hope the new collar works and you get to keep him!

We're looking at 11* F and snow tonight. All the floppy comb leghorns are doing well, no frostbite. Willie, on the other hand, has some speckling on his rose comb. I put some vaseline on it for tonight and put a bit on the leghorns as well. Poor guy can't tuck his head when he is keeping watch over his girls!

The weather is not hurting us in the egg department. I have about 7 confirmed layers and collected 6 eggs today. Three of the EE's are laying. MJ lays a blue egg, Sandy is mostly blue, if not a slight hint of mint. I am not sure who the third one is, but she lays a pretty light sage green egg. They all measure below peewee size right now on the scale. Curly, the white leghorn, is consistently putting out large eggs. I can not wait to share them with family and friends! I am saving up the best ones right now for our neighbor.

I came home from PT today to find 7 chickens running around. Sneaky buggers. They squeaked out a little crack between the gate and the post. I spent a good 30 minutes that I should have been working on a design chasing them around.

Telia, I am sad that winter is approaching and days are getting shorter for you, but I am sooo ready for spring here! Can't wait to hear about the eggs! Goooo Cilla!

 

[lizgarf]

I feel for you, Liz. I was hoping he would forget to learn how to crow. Willie crows at random times here. He almost always crows when my husband is around or flies by on the ATV. Competition, maybe? If we lived closer and it came down to it, I would offer to give him a home for you. I hope the new collar works and you get to keep him!

Telia, I am sad that winter is approaching and days are getting shorter for you, but I am sooo ready for spring here! Can't wait to hear about the eggs! Goooo Cilla!

That's very sweet of you, MM! I appreciate it!

Well, no new crowing since the new collar went on around 1, but that's not really any different from yesterday, so there's no way to know yet what tomorrow will bring. I'm going to put the tarp on the front of the coop tonight to help make it stay dark in there longer, but it's impossible to make that coop completely dark. At least it'll damper any errant crows a bit.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring in the crowing department, but it is supposed to finally bring some rain! While MM and TGG are freezing their tootsies off this winter, California has been crazy warm and dry. It's been pleasant but also kind of creepy. Dec/Jan are normally our wettest months, and if we don't get a lot of rain soon, it should make for an interesting year (or years)!

Speaking of TGG, anyone else wondering how she and Cheep are doing?

 

[Teila]

Aaaw Liz, bit sad that Desi is not as comfortable with his new collar. Hopefully once you get Desi’s collar sorted things will settle down a little for you. I have the option to work from home if I wanted but I know that I would not be able to get in the zone. I am not sure if I mentioned in the past that I am an IT Support Officer? The company I work for has specialized software. I can picture me putting someone on hold while I rush out to see what the girls are cackling about! Lol
I start at 07:00am for the early bird users which is why I am up at 04:45am. Not so nice in winter but I do get to finish at 3pm which means I am home before the girls go to bed. In summer they get a good couple of hours free range in the afternoon; maybe an hour in winter.

I often wonder how little Cheep and his adopted Dad are doing. Such a little fighter!

So 15 eggs arrived while I was at work this morning and all 15 were intact! They have been resting since 09:30am. Going with Liz’s advice I am going to give 9 of them to Cilla tomorrow. Sticking with my ‘no interference’ method, I didn’t candle; we picked three each and I marked the picks so we know whose picks hatch, if any! Once I give them to Cilla I am stepping back, no touching! Que Sera Sera

Oooh TG, can’t wait for pictures of Silky X D’Uccle; I reckon they would be very cute!

MM, I thought my girls laid OK sized eggs for bantams until I got these eggs today! I had to laugh, no way Cilla would be able to handle them all; 9 might be pushing my luck. While the guys leant towards the bigger brown eggs, I went for the smaller white ones.

I hope everyone is OK with the cold weather you are having. Snow? Wow, I wonder what my girls would think of that. It is funny the extremes our chickens have; yours with the cold and mine with the heat.

Liz, the Users will have to wait tomorrow while I check on any Desi News when I get in! I am becoming quite adapt at typing with my fingers crossed!

Cilla hard at work....


Aunty Dusty with her 'added responsibilities'....

 

[Didymus]

So cute and adorable! I love chickens