I baaack and I have a question

[Eddie the Yeti]

Sorry I have been away a while but work has been hectic. Anyway I had to go out of town for 2 weeks and did not have anyone to watch my chickens. I rooster, 8 hens. I filled a 30 pound feeder, threw in a new scratch block and build a 35 gallon waterer and hoped for the best. They still had food and water when I got back, scratch block is gone though!. Anyway while I was gone they laid between 50 and 60 eggs. I knew this would happen and decided I would see if any went broody and maybe get some chicks in another week or so when I checked on them the eggs were two nesting boxes and, sure enough one of the big barred rock girls was sitting on one side. When I went out again this afternoon, no chickens in the boxes, but the side the rock was on , about 30-35 eggs were all very warm to the touch, like higher than my body temp. The others 25-30 in the other box were cool to the touch, more like ambient temp outside. there were several broken eggs on both sides. I took out all the broken ones and all of the ones on the cool side. I am reasoning that, even though I did not see a hen brooding, the other eggs are warm because she is actively tending them. I am inclined to leave the eggs on that side alone for another week or two to see if she hatches any of them out. I usually donate most of the eggs to the homeless shelter anyway, so I don't lose anything by leaving them in there. any thoughts on whether they will hatch? is it a good idea to just let them go? This whole chicken ting is an experiment and a way to learn what needs to be done for when I retire and go hermit. I would love to see what happens. Also the rooster is missing a bunch of tail feathers. The chickens are in a big open air coop with a smaller shelter coop inside. too many predator to free range them. so the only thing that could have plucked roster tail feathers was a hen. Would a roosting hen assert herself against the rooster if he tried to mess with her? Rooster is SLW, so some of the Barred Rock hens are almost as big as him (almost). Anyway sorry the post is so long, maybe if I got on here once in while I could keep it shorter ;o) thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Quaen]

Sorry I have been away a while but work has been hectic. Anyway I had to go out of town for 2 weeks and did not have anyone to watch my chickens. I rooster, 8 hens. I filled a 30 pound feeder, threw in a new scratch block and build a 35 gallon waterer and hoped for the best. They still had food and water when I got back, scratch block is gone though!. Anyway while I was gone they laid between 50 and 60 eggs. I knew this would happen and decided I would see if any went broody and maybe get some chicks in another week or so when I checked on them the eggs were two nesting boxes and, sure enough one of the big barred rock girls was sitting on one side. When I went out again this afternoon, no chickens in the boxes, but the side the rock was on , about 30-35 eggs were all very warm to the touch, like higher than my body temp. The others 25-30 in the other box were cool to the touch, more like ambient temp outside. there were several broken eggs on both sides. I took out all the broken ones and all of the ones on the cool side. I am reasoning that, even though I did not see a hen brooding, the other eggs are warm because she is actively tending them. I am inclined to leave the eggs on that side alone for another week or two to see if she hatches any of them out. I usually donate most of the eggs to the homeless shelter anyway, so I don't lose anything by leaving them in there. any thoughts on whether they will hatch? is it a good idea to just let them go? This whole chicken ting is an experiment and a way to learn what needs to be done for when I retire and go hermit. I would love to see what happens. Also the rooster is missing a bunch of tail feathers. The chickens are in a big open air coop with a smaller shelter coop inside. too many predator to free range them. so the only thing that could have plucked roster tail feathers was a hen. Would a roosting hen assert herself against the rooster if he tried to mess with her? Rooster is SLW, so some of the Barred Rock hens are almost as big as him (almost). Anyway sorry the post is so long, maybe if I got on here once in while I could keep it shorter ;o) thanks in advance for any advice.

Are you sure the rooster isn't just molting? For the eggs, I do believe they will hatch, but you would need to mark the eggs in the box. They will hatch late, because there are so many eggs and only one hen. I recommend candling them. Post some pictures of questionable eggs and go on from there. I think pictures are uploaded through the attach files button. Make sure the nesting box isn't off the ground.

 

[Kiki]

Can you take all of the eggs into a dark area or wait until it gets dark tonight and candle each one?
Can you post pictures of your setup please?

 

[Eddie the Yeti]

Thanks for the replies, I went out to look again as it is getting dark and there is a hen on the eggs. I do not really want to chase her off of them just to candle them, especially since it gets fairly cold at night. I also wondered if she can even turn the eggs since there are so many. I think I am just going to wait. If I assume it took a couple of days of not gathering the eggs to get her to go broody then we can safely say that what she is sitting on are probably 7 to 10 days old. If they hatch late it should take 2-3 weeks . I will see where any new eggs get laid tomorrow, guessing they will be in the empty box, but we will see. As i said I really have nothing to lose. Also I did not think about the rooster molting, right now it is just his tail feathers. Chickens are fun, huh?

 

[Quaen]

Thanks for the replies, I went out to look again as it is getting dark and there is a hen on the eggs. I do not really want to chase her off of them just to candle them, especially since it gets fairly cold at night. I also wondered if she can even turn the eggs since there are so many. I think I am just going to wait. If I assume it took a couple of days of not gathering the eggs to get her to go broody then we can safely say that what she is sitting on are probably 7 to 10 days old. If they hatch late it should take 2-3 weeks . I will see where any new eggs get laid tomorrow, guessing they will be in the empty box, but we will see. As i said I really have nothing to lose. Also I did not think about the rooster molting, right now it is just his tail feathers. Chickens are fun, huh?

One thing to loose is the hen abandoning some eggs, that would otherwise be perfectly fine.

 

[Eddie the Yeti]

One thing to loose is the hen abandoning some eggs, that would otherwise be perfectly fine.

See, I don't feel that is a loss. First I really don't need 30+ chicks. I suppose I could sell them but I really don't need the money. If I wanted to ensure that they all hatch I suppose I could run to tractor supply, buy and incubator and transfer them all into it. However, as I read other people's posts I may not get any better hatch rate from the incubator since it would be my first time too. I never intended to have a rooster. When he came to me he identified as a hen. but since this whole thing is a learning experience I decided to keep him. I have already raised hens without a rooster. part of the grand experiment. Now, at some point I do intend to get an incubator and learn how to get good results from hatching eggs. It is a skill I will want later when I retire and go hermit in the woods. But for now I can see how the hen does by herself and have something to compare to when I try the mechanical route. Any egg that does not hatch is one that probably would have been cooked and eaten anyway if I had been home. The only real loss is the 3 dozen eggs the homeless shelter didn't get. I hope people weren't too hungry for the two weeks I was away.

 

[Eddie the Yeti]

OK eggspiriment is over. The last of the eggs were to old to hatch and there was a smell and some maggots. I thought nothing was hatching. Granted I only check the nest once a day, in the evening after work, but I thought I would see pipping or a chick or two. I did find empty eggs but thought they were broken by the other hens. May have been right. this morning as I was raking up poop I found some small bird bones, just a few and scattered but I have the feeling my mamma hen hatched a few and the others dispatched them.
I know this will make some of you mad and it is a little depressing to think about but I did say this was a learning experience. I think I am going to go to Big R and get an incubator for the next try.

 

[saysfaa]

I'm not mad, I assume we do the best we can and it is often hard to tell what we don't know.

If she sat all three weeks, I would let her try again but with fewer eggs - maybe ten or a dozen the first time. One hen can't cover 30 eggs. If she had a number she could cover, the outside eggs would still be cooler than the inside eggs but not too much cooler for too long because she could mostly cover them. Each egg would get too cold for long periodically because she would regularly rotate the outside eggs to the center.