Hatching with 2 broodies

[Teila]

Aw, that is so cute! But look at poor little Tina just wishing for a minute that she could be up there with them. Great picture and more importantly.....HUGE CONGRATULATIONS for the beautiful egg Cilla gifted to you! I just knew it was coming soon although I was one that bet on Dusty I believe. Oh well, as long as someone is making eggs for you I am tickled.....

Cheers
Marie

Thanks hon, I thought it was kinda cute

Yeah, poor little Tina ... I am thinking she is going to work out how to get up there one day soon

To be honest, I thought it would be Dusty also, or maybe even Tina .. who knows, one day I might get 3 eggs which would be really good; for various reasons, I have only ever had 2 eggs on one day. With 5 girls and some of them getting close to age, might even manage 4

 

[tommysgirl]

Well should I think about moving the incubator eggs under the broodies a few days before hatch date so they can finish them off and talk to them? At that point they will be in separate little apartments.


Thing is, 5 eggs have been under a broody all of this time, the other 6 in the incubator, both started on the same day but I heard they hatch a day earlier under a hen so that might get the timing of the births off (the incubator chicks arriving a day later than the others). Plus these are tiny bantam eggs, I think they hatch earlier than standard chicken eggs too.

I agree with @Teila . I think giving her the eggs on like day 17 is a good idea.

I did have a mama leave the nest early because an early hatcher was running amok in the coop and lost 3 fully developed chicks because of it. So now I lock em up for a couple of days. I let momma out to poo and stuff but for the most part keep em contained so no rascals can mess up the hatch.

@Teila I was horrid. I won't do it again but I was so thoughtless to get rid of all of Norma's babies before she was ready. Thank you for not judging me harshly but I would have deserved it!

 

[Lesa Mae]

Hey S9 

I have no experience with incubators, only broodies so please take the following as simply my thoughts

Both of Cilla's hatches hatched on Day 21; she had the eggs from Day 1 (no incubator) and both her and the chicks are/were bantams, so the whole 'bantams hatch earlier' thing is definitely not gospel.  

If it was me, I would prefer to give them the eggs so, as you say, they can chat away to them.  Also, if there is one day difference that should not be a big deal as I have heard of hatches spread over a week and everyone still doing OK.  I think it was LM who experienced that?

OK, now I am off to work       

Hello all!! Yes it was my first hatch that took 7 long days from beginning to end and everyone is doing really well, and have just had it occur for the second hatch as well only this time it was over 5 days and so far all seems to be going smoothly so from my experience I would not worry at all about a couple of days I was lucky enough to have multiple broodies when this happen so the first hatch a second and third broody took over sitting on the remaining eggs after a few days when momma had to abandon the nest to care for the active little ones. The second hatch had 2 mommas sitting on a nest of 8 eggs where only 4 were fertile and these are doing great with 2 mommas giving orders !!

 

[tommysgirl]

meet the first two babies from the incubator hatch;



Most of these project babies grow in to be be a combination of red white black and mahogany... What does the baby in front look like to you? Am I imagining the dark reddish tint?

hatch day isn't until tomorrow these two were in a hurry.

I will keep you posted re the rest of them there are 2 more Konzas and 3 Pita Pintas

 

[16 paws]

Ok, so here is the latest here.....
My neighbor has complained a couple of times about the roosters crowing. We live on almost 4 acres and are in the unincorporated county of San Diego, not the city. I have 3 bantam roos. 1 polish and 2 cochin. We are allowed to have 25 chickens including one roo is what I remember when we started keeping chickens a couple years ago. She has yelled out over the fence one time "I've about had it, that rooster needs to go into the pot". Yesterday she called to tell me "you are going to very sorry if you don't get rid of your roosters." I immediately said "are you threatening me?" She said, well no, not bodily but in other ways with making things hard for you or something to that effect. I was so mad to tell you the truth I cant remember word for word. I did not want to answer with something I would regret so I told her I would have my husband call her. He always stays calm while I tend to be like a vicious Mother protecting her young when I get riled up!

So we both decided to ignore her and let her do what she needs to do. Now I am scared that the big bad chicken police are going to come to my house and count chickens. I do believe I have a few over 25 but that is counting babies. If we use Tommysgirl chicken counting methods I am under but I don't know if they will see it that way. lol I was going to say I am chicken sitting for a friend.

By the way this lady is a cranky old woman that complains about a lot of things in our neighborhood. Our coop is no where near her bedroom window and they are bantams. I am going to look into the collar thing, I know Liz used it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

PS, one more thing. That night after she complained I packed the 2 bantam roos up in carriers and was going to take them to the feed store, they will re-home. This got the whole flock to clucking....they were very upset, I just couldn't do it. I actually let her bully me last year and got rid of my roo Trousers for her and I regretted doing it. The ladies really missed him. This time I will fight for my right to keep at least one roo.
Marie

 

[Teila]

16 paws I am sorry to read that you are having to go through that drama and I do not blame you for getting mad; I would also; yep, the protection instinct definitely kicks in.

How very sad to read that you had packed up your bantam roosters for rehousing. You are so much in my thoughts right now. We all love our chickens so very much and I know how hard it must have been to pack them up and I am pleased that you changed your mind.

I think you are doing the right thing in looking at ways to keep your little boys quiet. I know of someone who lives in the suburbs and has 15 roosters! He has a special ‘rooster box’ which they get to sleep in. It stays darker longer and has sound proofing/padding etc and building something along those lines might be an idea. At last update Liz was still able to have Desi by putting the collar on him of an evening and popping him into his man-cave for the night.

OK, so you may be pushing the line a little on having a couple more roosters than 1, but seeing she probably has or is going to complain shortly, maybe start implementing some noise reduction methods and then, if the chicken police do turn up, you can show them how well you look after your chickens and the measures you are taking to reduce the crowing.

If they say you can only have 1, so be it but please do not start getting rid of them on her threat. OK, you may have to give into the authorities but she is not one of them and until that time maybe comes, I would not let her intimidate you.

Who knows, if she is a professional whinger, they may just treat her complaints as ‘that cranky old woman on the warpath again’ and file it in the ‘maybe one day if we have nothing better to do’ basket.

This has stirred up my dissatisfaction in that we have to put up with neighbours' loud parties, arguments and swearing followed by burns outs in the street when they take off in their cars in a bad mood, screaming children, barking dogs, boom boom boom car stereos worth more than the actual car they are in etc but woe betide we want to have a rooster!

Stick to your guns Marie and hang in there!

Please know that I most definitely have everything crossed for you

 

[Farmer Viola]

Ok, so here is the latest here.....
My neighbor has complained a couple of times about the roosters crowing. We live on almost 4 acres and are in the unincorporated county of San Diego, not the city. I have 3 bantam roos. 1 polish and 2 cochin. We are allowed to have 25 chickens including one roo is what I remember when we started keeping chickens a couple years ago. She has yelled out over the fence one time "I've about had it, that rooster needs to go into the pot". Yesterday she called to tell me "you are going to very sorry if you don't get rid of your roosters." I immediately said "are you threatening me?" She said, well no, not bodily but in other ways with making things hard for you or something to that effect. I was so mad to tell you the truth I cant remember word for word. I did not want to answer with something I would regret so I told her I would have my husband call her. He always stays calm while I tend to be like a vicious Mother protecting her young when I get riled up!

So we both decided to ignore her and let her do what she needs to do. Now I am scared that the big bad chicken police are going to come to my house and count chickens. I do believe I have a few over 25 but that is counting babies. If we use Tommysgirl chicken counting methods I am under but I don't know if they will see it that way. lol I was going to say I am chicken sitting for a friend.

By the way this lady is a cranky old woman that complains about a lot of things in our neighborhood. Our coop is no where near her bedroom window and they are bantams. I am going to look into the collar thing, I know Liz used it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

PS, one more thing. That night after she complained I packed the 2 bantam roos up in carriers and was going to take them to the feed store, they will re-home. This got the whole flock to clucking....they were very upset, I just couldn't do it. I actually let her bully me last year and got rid of my roo Trousers for her and I regretted doing it. The ladies really missed him. This time I will fight for my right to keep at least one roo.
Marie

wow, that a terrible neighbor. I am glad that you hung up, I probably would have said something nasty I would later regret too. I would be interested to know if that 25 is actual chickens, or if chicks count as chickens? I really hope you get to keep your boys, it would be a shame for someone like her to win.

Teila has some great ideas already. I have also heard that keeping them in the dark keeps them from crowing, but it also seems sad... some people put a piece of velcro around their neck and that somehow stops crowing, too.

 

[Teila]

Not detracting from 16 paws current dilemma, I wanted to share our plans for the weekend, weather permitting.

As some of you know, we have the Chateau at one end of the run and the Ranch at the other. For broodies and chicks, the Chateau can be easily segregated from the run by closing one small door. This worked well on the last hatch and yes, I will be using this method again … I now know that my ‘no more hatches’ was so much an idle threat

Anyway, hopefully without boring the pants of all, when the Chateau-door was opened following Cilla and Blondie’s reintegration into the flock, Dusty went back to sleeping in the Chateau with Cilla and Blondie and Tina and Lulu were bunking down at the other end of the run in the Ranch.

I was not particularly happy with having 3 girls sleep in one coop and 2 in the other and have been pondering a solution for a while now.

This has now become a bit of an issue for them also. As Cilla has returned to her #1 chicken spot and they are a single happy flock, she is also not happy with some of her charges sleeping at the other end of the run and keeps running up and down the run at bed time trying to check on everyone. Also, LuLu runs up and down the run trying to be with Tina and the others at the same time; she eventually settles with Tina but I can see she is not happy with the separate quarters.

Last night LuLu tried to sleep with everyone else in the Chateau, leaving Tina alone in the Ranch (not good) but she kept going backwards and forwards so often, Dusty, Cilla and Blondie got thrown out of whack and in the end, because it was getting dark, I had to put them up on the roost, into bed etc.

Hoping to cut a long story short … I thought about trying to teach everyone to sleep in the Ranch (it is big enough) but this would upset Dusty, Cilla and Blondie. Also, on the next hatch, the chick that I keep will be used to sleeping in the Chateau and I would be right back where I started, having to teach them to start sleeping in the Ranch at the other end of the run. I cannot teach them all to sleep in the Chateau, which would probably only upset Tina, because it is not big enough. So, after much deliberation and discussion, this weekend we are going to move the Ranch down to the same end of the run and back it onto the Chateau; make some ‘renovations’ so that they become one and will be known as the Condo. We are going to do this in such a way that when we have a broody or chicks the Chateau can be ‘recreated’ without much effort but this way, everyone will still be in the same 'coop' but still able to sleep in their favourite spot.

It is going to take a bit of doing and a bit of remodelling but we figure that spending a few evenings getting everyone off to bed while they get used to the new set up is going to be much easier that this continued confusion at bedtime which is getting worse, not better.

Wish us luck! I will take some before and after piccies

 

[Farmer Viola]

yes, it's that time again..... MORE PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!!

I am so in love with this little family

here they are starting to explore further away from the coop and run


this is inside the run. these smart mamas relocated the babies inside the safety of the run yesterday; no more cat carrier nest.


fluffy butts!!!


hard to get a non blurry photo of these fuzzballs!


I just love this photo!!


this is the only splash blue laced red wyandotte, and this is the one with the limp. she's walking on it more today, and can get around with the mamas, but needs to lay down and rest in between.

 

[tommysgirl]

16 paws I am sorry to read that you are having to go through that drama and I do not blame you for getting mad; I would also; yep, the protection instinct definitely kicks in.

How very sad to read that you had packed up your bantam roosters for rehousing. You are so much in my thoughts right now. We all love our chickens so very much and I know how hard it must have been to pack them up and I am pleased that you changed your mind.

I think you are doing the right thing in looking at ways to keep your little boys quiet. I know of someone who lives in the suburbs and has 15 roosters! He has a special ‘rooster box’ which they get to sleep in. It stays darker longer and has sound proofing/padding etc and building something along those lines might be an idea. At last update Liz was still able to have Desi by putting the collar on him of an evening and popping him into his man-cave for the night.

OK, so you may be pushing the line a little on having a couple more roosters than 1, but seeing she probably has or is going to complain shortly, maybe start implementing some noise reduction methods and then, if the chicken police do turn up, you can show them how well you look after your chickens and the measures you are taking to reduce the crowing.

If they say you can only have 1, so be it but please do not start getting rid of them on her threat. OK, you may have to give into the authorities but she is not one of them and until that time maybe comes, I would not let her intimidate you.

Who knows, if she is a professional whinger, they may just treat her complaints as ‘that cranky old woman on the warpath again’ and file it in the ‘maybe one day if we have nothing better to do’ basket.

This has stirred up my dissatisfaction in that we have to put up with neighbours' loud parties, arguments and swearing followed by burns outs in the street when they take off in their cars in a bad mood, screaming children, barking dogs, boom boom boom car stereos worth more than the actual car they are in etc but woe betide we want to have a rooster!

Stick to your guns Marie and hang in there!

Please know that I most definitely have everything crossed for you

X2 well said Teila! There are people who aren't happy unless others are unhappy. I am sorry you live next to one of the @16 paws .

wow, that a terrible neighbor. I am glad that you hung up, I probably would have said something nasty I would later regret too. I would be interested to know if that 25 is actual chickens, or if chicks count as chickens? I really hope you get to keep your boys, it would be a shame for someone like her to win.

Teila has some great ideas already. I have also heard that keeping them in the dark keeps them from crowing, but it also seems sad... some people put a piece of velcro around their neck and that somehow stops crowing, too.

Teehee Farmer Viola the only thing that counts is pullets who are at POL or beyond. LF =1 Bantams = .5. Roosters are their own catagory but the same rule applies LF roosters ar 1. Bantams are.5. Using this formula...which is the ONLY correct chicken math formula @16 paws has 1.5 roosters and there is NO WAY to get rid of a half rooster.

Glad you guys like my new babies. I can't wait to get my hands on them.