June Hatch-A-Long

[jolenesdad]

WTF. My proven broody, alpha hen, is killing eggs.

Earlier in the week she stepped on one and another chicken ran off with it. I found another half bloodied egg two days ago in her box. This morning, she had one killed half hatched egg and one where she had pecked off parts of the shell as it hatched. Excuse me, miss? That's not how we do it here.

Thinking back, I have lost a couple of eggs with her each time. And several have disappeared in "lockdown", I honestly wonder if she only lets an egg hatch at night. I specially remember her second brood I assumed several eggs had gone bad, because they disappeared in the day and then overnight she hatched several. Wow. There were zero pips this morning, I assume she went crazy with two external pips after I checked. Im going to test my theory by continually removing anything that pips in the daytime from her and leaving her only with whatever eggs have not pipped by nighttime.

So, I took the half-hatched, half torn off egg and put it underneath the other broody, yes, the one that killed the chicks 2 weeks ago. However, she has two eggs pipped and has left them be under her.

Let's hope at the end of this hellacious hatch that something can be put together and learned even if it's individualistic to these hens. I STILL have the issue of what's going to happen when they both come out fo the boxes with chicks.

 

[jolenesdad]

They might be. My girls do have short legs but they lay a medium brown egg and are the same size as my standard size polish.View attachment 2181611

Love that hen.

love your avatar.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

WTF. My proven broody, alpha hen, is killing eggs.

Earlier in the week she stepped on one and another chicken ran off with it. I found another half bloodied egg two days ago in her box. This morning, she had one killed half hatched egg and one where she had pecked off parts of the shell as it hatched. Excuse me, miss? That's not how we do it here.

Thinking back, I have lost a couple of eggs with her each time. And several have disappeared in "lockdown", I honestly wonder if she only lets an egg hatch at night. I specially remember her second brood I assumed several eggs had gone bad, because they disappeared in the day and then overnight she hatched several. Wow. There were zero pips this morning, I assume she went crazy with two external pips after I checked. Im going to test my theory by continually removing anything that pips in the daytime from her and leaving her only with whatever eggs have not pipped by nighttime.

So, I took the half-hatched, half torn off egg and put it underneath the other broody, yes, the one that killed the chicks 2 weeks ago. However, she has two eggs pipped and has left them be under her.

Let's hope at the end of this hellacious hatch that something can be put together and learned even if it's individualistic to these hens. I STILL have the issue of what's going to happen when they both come out fo the boxes with chicks.

Oh my gosh! What a crazy difficult month you've had!

I checked my broodies last night and they multiplied again...I now have 5 broody hens and the newest is the one I broke earlier this year because she's nuts. She's allowing me to handle her this time so I'm tempted to see what she does. All 5 of them are together and I have no way to separate that many hens with only one broody pen and the broody pen is also where I would have to attempt to break the crazy one... looks like I'm going to be taking chances with my broodies this month as well...

 

[kelseyk]

I had a lot of reading to catch up on! I have been busy the last couple days and have not had the time to get on like usual. This month is proving to be difficult with hatching eggs and chicks here.

Shipped eggs wise, my call duck eggs and Swedish Flower Hens eggs were all a bust. USPS made sure to shake them up good. My BCMs eggs are not looking too promising either - I am thinking they are all clear as well. But where they are such dark eggs, I am giving them some more time just to be sure. Then my Welsummer eggs were half smashed. All the eggs I just listed came from the Kentucky/Carolinas area. So wondering if the postal facilities in that area are being a bit harder on packages. On a good note, my Lavender Orpington eggs are doing wonderfully! They shipped from Illinois. Hoping my silkie eggs from New York make it here in good shape when they finally ship....being patient where we put in a special request for colors. Pheasant eggs are all doing well. And I through in some of what I think are our Frizzle Tolbunt Polish hends eggs in the incubator. My kids want to see what a Frizzle Tolbunt Polish/Buff Orpington cross looks like.....I have a feeling it will just be another uninteresting yellow chick like all the other chicks this rooster has fathered. That is if the eggs are even fertile.

My Wheaten Marans hatch day was yesterday. These chicks were supposed to go to a friend. Out of 9 I put in lockdown, 3 have hatched. I am pretty sure 3 were late quitters but put them in anyway. And I have 3 that I am still waiting on to see if they hatch. Of the 3 that hatched, 2 of them are missing part of or all of their outside toe on both feet. So I am wondering if their is something going on in the breeding to cause the unformed toes and possible DIS? I am going to have to put at least 1 of those chicks in chick boots as it is walking with it's good toes curled inward. I told my friend about the situation and gave them a choice that they can either still buy these from me or I can try again with eggs from a different source.

Out in the chicken pen, I am having trouble with my older chicks picking on my next younger set of chicks. I have been keeping each new set of chicks in a pen in my coop for 1 1/2 - 2 weeks before letting them out. One of my daughters silkies got it's foot hung up on the night run fence last night and the other chicks pecked all it's head feathers and some of it's wing feathers out. I decided to catch all 5 of the silkies and put them back in the pen until it heals up a bit (or until I need it for the next round of chicks). It was a bit traumatized, but I could see it instantly get more comfortable when I put it back in the small pen. It started eating and drinking right away. I think it will pull through....just take it a while to grow it's feathers back in.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

They might be. My girls do have short legs but they lay a medium brown egg and are the same size as my standard size polish.View attachment 2181611

Looks so much like ours! Are they bantam?

 

[hysop]

What was the chick supposed to be?

Olive Eggers. So there is zero white feathers in them. They’re supposed to be chipmunk 🐿 I’m not complaining as long as it’s a girl.

 

[hysop]

That is an extremely fertile rooster. Lol

Right?!?! This is the third batch that I was expecting one breed and another popped out

Speaking of which, that rooster got attacked by a hawk but he was smart and even though he lost the fight he won the battle; he entered into his netted pen so the hawk couldn’t carry him away and instead found the way out of the pen without my rooster as his prey. He’s recovering well

 

[FortCluck]

Right?!?! This is the third batch that I was expecting one breed and another popped out

Speaking of which, that rooster got attacked by a hawk but he was smart and even though he lost the fight he won the battle; he entered into his netted pen so the hawk couldn’t carry him away and instead found the way out of the pen without my rooster as his prey. He’s recovering well

Sounds like my eggs. If this Cochin chick is black I’ll flip my lid I’ve been trying to get Cochin Deathlayers, but Squatch is still hanging on!

 

[jolenesdad]

I had a lot of reading to catch up on! I have been busy the last couple days and have not had the time to get on like usual. This month is proving to be difficult with hatching eggs and chicks here.

Shipped eggs wise, my call duck eggs and Swedish Flower Hens eggs were all a bust. USPS made sure to shake them up good. My BCMs eggs are not looking too promising either - I am thinking they are all clear as well. But where they are such dark eggs, I am giving them some more time just to be sure. Then my Welsummer eggs were half smashed. All the eggs I just listed came from the Kentucky/Carolinas area. So wondering if the postal facilities in that area are being a bit harder on packages. On a good note, my Lavender Orpington eggs are doing wonderfully! They shipped from Illinois. Hoping my silkie eggs from New York make it here in good shape when they finally ship....being patient where we put in a special request for colors. Pheasant eggs are all doing well. And I through in some of what I think are our Frizzle Tolbunt Polish hends eggs in the incubator. My kids want to see what a Frizzle Tolbunt Polish/Buff Orpington cross looks like.....I have a feeling it will just be another uninteresting yellow chick like all the other chicks this rooster has fathered. That is if the eggs are even fertile.

My Wheaten Marans hatch day was yesterday. These chicks were supposed to go to a friend. Out of 9 I put in lockdown, 3 have hatched. I am pretty sure 3 were late quitters but put them in anyway. And I have 3 that I am still waiting on to see if they hatch. Of the 3 that hatched, 2 of them are missing part of or all of their outside toe on both feet. So I am wondering if their is something going on in the breeding to cause the unformed toes and possible DIS? I am going to have to put at least 1 of those chicks in chick boots as it is walking with it's good toes curled inward. I told my friend about the situation and gave them a choice that they can either still buy these from me or I can try again with eggs from a different source.

Out in the chicken pen, I am having trouble with my older chicks picking on my next younger set of chicks. I have been keeping each new set of chicks in a pen in my coop for 1 1/2 - 2 weeks before letting them out. One of my daughters silkies got it's foot hung up on the night run fence last night and the other chicks pecked all it's head feathers and some of it's wing feathers out. I decided to catch all 5 of the silkies and put them back in the pen until it heals up a bit (or until I need it for the next round of chicks). It was a bit traumatized, but I could see it instantly get more comfortable when I put it back in the small pen. It started eating and drinking right away. I think it will pull through....just take it a while to grow it's feathers back in.

That’s a long standing issue with marans. They’re probably not missing a toe, it’s likely fused together. It’s a reason I go back and forth all the time with whether or not I want to work with the breed. If it is just fused webbing, the consensus is to snip it at day old chick age. They should not be used for breeding.

unfortunately most breeders just cull the webbed toe offspring from breeding flocks. I personally think that’s not enough as the breeder birds who put out fused toes should be culled. However, that’s probably something that cannot be done with such a pervasive issue in a breed with limited imports to trace lineage to. It’s likely something that came with the imported breeding flock.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

My broody hen doesn't like me checking on her brood progress.