I’m not Mother Nature, but..... My journey hatching broody and bator chicks

[Mimi13]

This morning, waaaay before sunrise, I went up to the run to open the mini coop door so the broody could take her babies out into their little run when the sun came up. Wishful thinking I suppose because it’s all cloudy and gloomy today. Since the main run light had just come on and my headlamp was on, she gladly got herself and the chicks up and came on out. The chicks were so cute just following behind her.

I did all my feeding and went back inside the house for a bit. It didn’t take me long to decide I wanted to go back out and just sit and watch them. So a little after 7 I headed back her way. I guess I’m simple and plain because I enjoy nothing more than just watching chickens. Get a life, you say. Well I say, this is my life! And I’m thankful that it can be.

I watched the broody scratch every bit of leaves and shavings out of a small area, which exposed the dirt. She took those babies all the way to the dirt! And they loved it.

She clucked and pecked at what she wanted them to eat. If they missed it, she repeated the process. They just all gathered around in front of her, waiting and watching. But sometimes, they got around behind her and literally got kicked, along with whatever momma was scratching. They went tumbling and cheeped loudly, then ran back around in front of momma.

Since I was just hanging out with the chickens this morning I thought I would go ahead and open the little run gate to see if she wanted to come out into the main chicken run, and she did, with all three little ones. She said something to them and they gladly obeyed.

They wandered around brand new territory for almost an hour and, since I am kin to Curious George, I just had to time their shenanigans. They had cycled through their foraging/warming sessions once already before I decided to time them.

Warm and underneath momma they were as quiet as can be, but then all of a sudden I heard an eruption of cheeps and peeps and saw them tumble out from all sides. I started my stopwatch when they tumbled out. This foraging session lasted a tad over 13 minutes and took them outside the mini coop/run where they scratched some more in the dirt. Oh my! And then they scrambled around to the far side of the mini coop where they settled down for a bit of warmth, right there on the ground! What?

The broody sat there for the chicks to warm up and snooze for a mere 10 minutes. Then, the warmed up chicks rambled out from underneath momma once again with all the gusto of a bear coming out of hibernation.

During the time of the chicks’ next excursion, which lasted a full 17 minutes, some of the pullets that had been hanging around decided to check out the “new chicks’ crib!” At one time there were six of them in there snooping around and eating the food. Yum, they thought it was different than their own, but little did they know.

I watched closely as first one then another pullet came close to inspect the broody and her chicks. I was freaking amazed! Whether the broody was sitting on them or they were up running around, the pullets just looked, no, stared and walked away.

The broody had no plans of going back in the mini coop/run, but I had to leave and didn’t want to leave her completely “exposed” so soon. I locked them in their little run and went to help my kids move some more stuff to their house. I was able to take some sweet little videos of the chicks in their natural habitat though.

The one major concern I have is I don’t feel they are drinking enough. I have seen them drink so I know they can and their tiny little poops look good and they are very active, so I won’t worry...I guess.

And the biggest drawback of having a broody raise chicks is that I can’t love on them as much.

Needless to say their little feet aren’t clean and yellow anymore.

 

[Kfults]

Sounds like your momma is doing a good job! I have been amazed watching my first broody and chicks too! Amazing they instinctively know what to do. She will take them to the water bowl and instruct them to drink when they need to! So hands off it stress me out sometimes with worry but momma has got this!

 

[Mimi13]

Broody and babies are alive and kicking this morning. When I went back to the coop at 8:30 this morning they were out and about in their run.

I feel I haven’t been able to pay everything enough attention, but life and hatching go on. Even though it doesn’t appear the broody chicks are eating and drinking enough (like they would if in a brooder) to me, they are under the watchful eye of their pseudomomma and I’m glad. My worries have now turned to the bator eggs. They are down to 4 days and of course I’m paranoid they will hatch early (by my count, not nature’s) like the broody chicks did. And with these, I AM the broody. And if the broody ain’t ready, things could get bad.

Here’s my question:
Can I go ahead and remove the turner and put my little dividers in the incubator now and turn them by hand for one more day? I wouldn’t increase the humidity until lockdown though, which I can do without opening the incubator.

Thoughts, questions, slaps to try and shake me from my worrying appreciated!
@aart @HuffleClaw @WVduckchick

 

[Mimi13]

Checked on broody and chicks this morning and all were scratching around. It doesn’t take them long does it?

I then turned my attention to the eggs in the bator. My incubator counts down instead of up, so midday today it will change from 4 to 3. This morning I went ahead and removed the turner, placed a mesh divider on the tray, filled both reservoirs, and did a quick candle of the eggs. I did candle yesterday morning and marked it as day 17.

I did mark them with X and O only to be able to tell if the chicks were moving themselves. (I will keep a check on them today and if there has not been any movement from them, I will go ahead and turn them. But I will stop any interference when the counter drops to 3 days.) During the first 17 days my RH has been between 47 and 56 consistently. Those numbers are the readings on my two hygrometers.

This morning, all of the eggs did have some change to the air sac, but a few of them had a drastic change in the air sac in just 24 hours. There were also a couple that, I swear, had already internally pipped or were doing so as I candled. Well, it looked that way to my untrained eye anyway. But here is what I saw. The dark “hump” was way above the original candle line from Day 7.

Here are a couple of shots from Egg #10 showing the candling line from this morning encroaching into what was the air sac.

This is Egg #9 which did the same. I even took a video of it showing the back and forth movement like it was trying to pip.

Of course I have no idea what is actually going on, it’s just an educated guess from an uneducated individual. (Well, just in incubation, per se.)

Since the incubator is on my hall bathroom vanity, I’ve got the brooder set up over the bathtub in a Christmas tree tub. It will only work for a very short time since the sides are not very high. The heat plate is on and ready and waiting. This will be my first hands on experience with chicks younger than 3-4 days old. Eeeek! And I can’t wait.

I had planned on putting the brooder in my coop, but I’ve had so much going on this week that I didn’t get it set up exactly as I had wanted. Also the temps are supposed to be in the low teens this weekend, the actual hatch date.

So, as it all stands now, I have pretty much “battened down all the hatches.” I am locked down and on the count down.

 

[Mimi13]

Checked on the eggs:
Day 3 showing and one of the eggs had rolled over. I will now leave them alone. RH is showing 60/72% on my two hygrometers. There has never been a 12% difference between them.

 

[WVduckchick]

Checked on broody and chicks this morning and all were scratching around. It doesn’t take them long does it?

I then turned my attention to the eggs in the bator. My incubator counts down instead of up, so midday today it will change from 4 to 3. This morning I went ahead and removed the turner, placed a mesh divider on the tray, filled both reservoirs, and did a quick candle of the eggs. I did candle yesterday morning and marked it as day 17.

View attachment 1643618 I did mark them with X and O only to be able to tell if the chicks were moving themselves. (I will keep a check on them today and if there has not been any movement from them, I will go ahead and turn them. But I will stop any interference when the counter drops to 3 days.) During the first 17 days my RH has been between 47 and 56 consistently. Those numbers are the readings on my two hygrometers.

This morning, all of the eggs did have some change to the air sac, but a few of them had a drastic change in the air sac in just 24 hours. There were also a couple that, I swear, had already internally pipped or were doing so as I candled. Well, it looked that way to my untrained eye anyway. But here is what I saw. The dark “hump” was way above the original candle line from Day 7.View attachment 1643620

Here are a couple of shots from Egg #10 showing the candling line from this morning encroaching into what was the air sac.
View attachment 1643626

View attachment 1643624

This is Egg #9 which did the same. I even took a video of it showing the back and forth movement like it was trying to pip.
View attachment 1643625

Of course I have no idea what is actually going on, it’s just an educated guess from an uneducated individual. (Well, just in incubation, per se.)

Since the incubator is on my hall bathroom vanity, I’ve got the brooder set up over the bathtub in a Christmas tree tub. It will only work for a very short time since the sides are not very high. The heat plate is on and ready and waiting. This will be my first hands on experience with chicks younger than 3-4 days old. Eeeek! And I can’t wait.
View attachment 1643641

I had planned on putting the brooder in my coop, but I’ve had so much going on this week that I didn’t get it set up exactly as I had wanted. Also the temps are supposed to be in the low teens this weekend, the actual hatch date.

So, as it all stands now, I have pretty much “battened down all the hatches.” I am locked down and on the count down.

Sorry I missed that last tag. Seems to happen all too often.

Ok, the greenish egg, top/center - that's how you want the eggs to be laying, with the lowest part of the air cell dip facing upward.
The "bump" you are seeing in the high side of the air cell is either a beak, or more likely the back of its neck, as it gyrates into position to hatch. The air cell will push toward the fat end more, and will get all mis-shapen looking. We call that "drawdown". Internal pips are very close behind drawdown.

Shoot, I have to run, but I'll check back later.

Absolutely love your "chick watching" story-telling. I am so jealous that I don't have all day to sit and watch them. I could easily and happily do it too!

Oh -- removing the turner early is no problem. You can even skip the last turns. A lot of folks stop turning after day 14. Basically once the CAM is fully developed, its not a big deal to not turn them.

Drawdown:

 

[Mimi13]

Sorry I missed that last tag. Seems to happen all too often.

Ok, the greenish egg, top/center - that's how you want the eggs to be laying, with the lowest part of the air cell dip facing upward.
The "bump" you are seeing in the high side of the air cell is either a beak, or more likely the back of its neck, as it gyrates into position to hatch. The air cell will push toward the fat end more, and will get all mis-shapen looking. We call that "drawdown". Internal pips are very close behind drawdown.

Shoot, I have to run, but I'll check back later.

Absolutely love your "chick watching" story-telling. I am so jealous that I don't have all day to sit and watch them. I could easily and happily do it too!

Oh -- removing the turner early is no problem. You can even skip the last turns. A lot of folks stop turning after day 14. Basically once the CAM is fully developed, its not a big deal to not turn them.

Drawdown:
View attachment 1643869

Good deal. I am going to set them correctly right now. Thank you very much. I appreciate all the help while I’m learning. I would much rather imprint my mind correctly from the beginning. Then there’s no wondering, or him-hawing as I like to call it, later on as to what is right.

P.S. What does CAM stand for?

 

[Mimi13]

And Houston, we have a pip! Actually, three that I can see. And I can hear cheeping through that tiny crack!
Am I supposed to go to bed?

This one is hard to see, but it’s right between the #7 & 15.

 

[aart]

Squeeeee!!

I like your dividers, I used something similar,
hope they can't get thru the gaps near the bator walls.

Is that a typical foam incubator?
Will you band chicks to ID them....that's why the dividers??

 

[Mimi13]

Squeeeee!!

I like your dividers, I used something similar,
hope they can't get thru the gaps near the bator walls.

Is that a typical foam incubator?
Will you band chicks to ID them....that's why the dividers??

After I read a thread on how to keep the eggs separate, I thought, dang, I’ve got some of those craft sheets, no telling how old they are though.

No, I’m not gonna band these. They’re just my little chickmutts, nothing really worth keeping a record of. Since I am new to this business, I wanted to make sure I knew which chick came out of the few eggs I knew which pullet layed. Nothing more than learning and being able to spot the different ????. Crap, I don’t even know what to call what it is I’m talking about now. Muffs, crests, feathered legs, combs, etc. With so few chicks, surely I’ll be able to remember who is whose as they age and hopefully be able to see their differences. That’s why I didn’t bother to secure the outer edges.

I just came to look at the name of the bator (Farm Innovators Pro Series Digital Incubator Model 4250) and saw that we have a chick.

I was just in here 10 minutes ago and that egg barely had a good pip going. Dang, that was fast! Maybe I should sit here [on my toilet] and watch, you reckon?