July Hatch-a-Long (including 4th of July hatch-a-long)

[Shahann]

Well we had some sad news but also some great news.....

mama decided to take her babies outside in the sunshine. And my other hen is being so good and gentle with the chicks too! She’s a model auntie

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the kids gave them all names...if I wasn’t dealing with lice in the coop, I’d put the 4 in the brooder straight out with the others.

sunrise
Buffy
Anna
Elsa
Nugget
Dixie
Honey

LOVE the names!!! Great job, kids!

 

[Shahann]

I let Blondie have the six eggs she was sitting on July 4th, 2020. I carefully picked up the nest box and Blondie, covered her with a light table cloth, and moved the whole unit to my original chicken coop. This was a new experiment for me. Typically I would have put her in the small brooder part of the coop. The area I moved her to is at least 48 square feet (plus).

After I moved her and the six eggs I realized that she didn't have a green egg from Fancy the 2nd Generation Easter Egger that a broody hen hatched for me about four years ago. Fancy is the last of my colored egg layers. I decided to give Blondie just one more egg.

Blondie is over six years old and is one of my original hens from when I started raising chickens. She could be a tad older than that because I purchased her and the flock from a friend that was moving.

I found Blondie off the nest on day 18. She was laying lifeless near the fresh water. I have only been opening the door to the coop to give her fresh water and make sure that there is feed. I clear her broody poop when it's there. I also open the door to the brooder side and let a summer breeze blow through the coop. I pull out some fresh spearmint and set it in the corner of the coop for a little aromatherapy. Turned out she wasn't lifeless at all. I just happened to catch her while she was on break... I also peeked at the eggs and realized that she had eight eggs! She must have laid another egg when I set her. Hmmm. I caught it just in time. Will eight eggs be too many for her clutch? We shall see...

The rest of the flock can visit her via the open door of the brooder through a screen. Below you can see a picture of the proud dad, Wiggles, and two of my October, 2019 hens visiting her through the screen. I like to hear them "talk" to her. This is the first hatch I have given a hen such a big area and so much freedom--and visitation. I have another coop where all the other chickens and ducks go in for the night.

Yesterday I checked on her on Day 21. Four chicks had hatched!!! They were all different colors. Blondie is a Buff Orpington. Wiggles the rooster is a 1st Generation Easter Egger. He is five years old. Wiggles is such a gentle rooster (around people). He got the job done!

When I checked on her and the four chirping chicks, there was a half of an egg with a dark spot. I tried to poke Blondie to get her to move her head just a little so that I could see it. I didn't know if that egg/chick would be viable. Low and behold it was Meredith in the first pic in this post!!! A little grey chick!!! When I saw the grey chick I decided that chicks in this hatch will most likely have character names from Grey's Anatomy. (That's also how I keep my chicks/hatches straight from year to year.) They often have theme names. I have named them after Disney princesses, Snow White hatched seven chicks one year and I gave them dwarf names... When the Easter Egger hatch happened I named them by the colors... You get the idea.

I can't wait to try to check on them today to see if more hatched. Blondie was adament about sitting on those eggs and protecting her nest. I didn't disturb her. It's time for me to be patient a day or two more if necessary.

Stay tuned for hopefully more fluffy chick pictures! Current status: 4 out of 8 eggs have hatched!

 

[FortCluck]

See it is stuff like this that makes me wonder if I want to let a broody have her eggs. There are more reports here of fails than success.

Yeah she was over being broody I guess. I won’t fault her for it, it’s her first time and it’s 100 here every day... I wouldn’t want to sit on eggs either.

My other hatched theirs fine, but two sucked at continuing being moms. One of mine is still taking care of her chick so she will be my broody I use next time.

Mrs. Tweedy is still sitting on quail eggs as well.

 

[AgnesGray]

So after a month to a month and a half with no rain, pastures bone dry and brown....it has rained 6 out of the last 7 days! The last 2 days have been gulley washers! Somewhere between 4-6 inches (hard to tell where it was coming down sideways). We went out for a walk right after todays rain and I took some pictures. Got out early enough to see a very small waterfall where the water was running off between 2 hills. It has been 13 years since there was water in the creek.
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Woah! Amazing pictures! What emotion there must be to see that!

 

[FortCluck]

I don't like my ducks hatching their own ducklings, they have a tendency to mess things up. Had quite a few squash either the eggs or the hatchlings, or simply not been able to brood the eggs properly and the eggs have died during incubation.

I think it has a lot to do with location. They usually find cramped and bad nesting-places inside the house. The floor is hard, cold and slippery, and 3 unmovable walls around. That's not how it's done in nature, everything is more flexible and the babies would be able to move around more. (unfortunately they blatantly REFUSE to be moved, and toss out any bedding I give them.)
Often times the nest is inside a crowded and noisy coop too, with lots of distractions. Wild birds will leave the nest permanently if they're distracted too much. Many failures probably aren't due to the broody hen herself, but the environment.
I like this article: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...e-make-a-sitting-hens-job-so-difficult.74389/

Mine was outside under a thorn bush with shade so it was perfect to what nature would be. Think she just picked a bad time to go broody. It’s been insanely hot here.

 

[AgnesGray]

See it is stuff like this that makes me wonder if I want to let a broody have her eggs. There are more reports here of fails than success.

After my collective experience this year of failed broodies, it'll be a special situation for me to try again. My olive Egger decided Friday that she would start to sit on eggs and we're working on changing her mind. On the other hand I saw a local homestead Wednesday and she gives her broodies 4 each of her choice, up to a month old and has only had an issue once. She has 300+ chickens. It was kind of amazing to see various groups of mamas and chicks roaming around her yard.

 

[FortCluck]

Hoping these chicks are doing okay in their eggs! They’ll be Polish Brahmas I believe or Polish Booted Bantams. I’ll find out if they hatch.

 

[chickiebaby1]

Had another surprise pip this morning! Maybe I’ll have a chick when I get home from work!

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Sad day. We had to put down one of my 2 year old sex links named Dolly She got injured somehow and didn’t recover the past two weeks. We did antibiotics and everything we could. We even wrapped the injuries. She was declining.

Here’s her being the weirdo she always was every single day...

I’m a wreck

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Had another surprise pip this morning! Maybe I’ll have a chick when I get home from work!

 

[FortCluck]

Thanks. I cried for a bit yesterday. I’m a bit better today. No life not being able to move and you can’t even enjoy being a chicken. My husband said a prayer for her before we turned her to ashes. We cremate all our layer flock chickens if they pass away. It feeds the earth.