June Hatch-A-Long

[mrchicks]

I noticed a little after I posted that there was actually a little blood on the membrane where it pipped, so I was thinking it just needed more time and planned to leave the incubator sealed for at least a few more hours, watching and waiting. Then DH opened it up and cracked around the shell a little to 'help it'. At that point, the membrane was looking at little dried out and the chick was actually peeping and acting alive and I was afraid it was going to get stuck. I decided I needed to intervene at least to correct what DH had done, lol. I took the egg outside where the humidity was 80% today, kept the egg wrapped in a wet paper towel (not over the spot where the chick pipped), and carefully chipped away the shell around where the chick would zip. I nicked the membrane and one point and there was a little blood, so I decided that the chick just needed more time and DH shouldn't have messed with it in the first place. I left it on the wet paper towel and ripped a little strip to put over the membrane to keep it from drying out, then I put the egg back in the incubator and hoped for the best.

Took my 6yo to see a musical this afternoon and came home to 3 newly hatched chicks in the incubator (including #5, above)! Still a few more eggs in the incubator, including my 6yo's 'favorite' egg (a single yokohama that we got from a friend)... but most of the rest were question mark eggs that I wasn't sure of at lockdown candling. I am thrilled with our hatch, considering it was our first time and we had so many difficulties with temp and humidity.

 

[emorems0]

Oh, they are in heaven... now comes the real work of chick survival, my 3yo's kung fu grip!

 

[mrchicks]

I made my son practice by holding cotton balls. When he could keep from flattening them, he could hold a chick.

 

[chickengirl1193]

So my chicks are 4 weeks old today, and now I have a broody on day 2! This is my first broody. I have her in the coop with the chicks because I dont have any separate grow out pens so thats the best I could do... it's safest for her and her babies! Any advice for me with a broody? This is my first time! I have water and food in the coop so she doesnt have to go far to eat and the nest is on the ground. Nobody bothers her in there

 

[Cynthia12]

So my chicks are 4 weeks old today, and now I have a broody on day 2! This is my first broody. I have her in the coop with the chicks because I dont have any separate grow out pens so thats the best I could do... it's safest for her and her babies! Any advice for me with a broody? This is my first time! I have water and food in the coop so she doesnt have to go far to eat and the nest is on the ground. Nobody bothers her in there

Sounds good. As long as no one will bother her..and you have food and water near. Now for the wait. I just had my first broody since last year. Sure if fun to watch her with those babies.

Oh..edit to note...don't worry about the most horrible smell she will be eliminating, that's called broody poo. Not a good smell at all, and she is fine! lol...

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

My June hatch has officially finished with the total for the month being at 64:
4 Silkies
6 Bantam Cochins
42 Coturnix Quail (7 of which are Texas A&M)
11 Narragansett Turkeys
1 black Polish chick


Here are the latest...the Narragansett poults and the little black Polish:


I hatched the chick out, partly because it was a fertile egg (and my little middle son likes Polish), and partly just in case the turkey poults needed help in finding their food and water...of course as luck would have it, the chick was the very last to hatch, but by then poults were already eating and drinking anyway...in fact, they were pretty much all doing so within hours of hatching. In saying that, I did put a diamond ring (14k gold with 1/2 ct solitaire - nothing that would tarnish and hurt them) in their food bowl to draw their attention to the feed (worked like a charm!) and I put a couple of red marbles in their waterer to do the same, just to get them started.
Which just goes to show that every girl needs diamonds!

I've since taken the ring and marbles out of the dishes as the all of poults are eating and drinking without any encouragement. Plus the chick is there now to remind them how should they happen to forget.

 

[missnu01]

I want some turkey eggs badly.

 

[chickengirl1193]

Sounds good.  As long as no one will bother her..and you have food and water near.  Now for the wait.  I just had my first broody since last year.  Sure if fun to watch her with those babies. 

Oh..edit to note...don't worry about the most horrible smell she will be eliminating, that's called broody poo.  Not a good smell at all, and she is fine!   lol...

Okay awesome! She has been coming out twice a day to eat drink and take a dust bath. At first she would go back to the wrong nest but now she realized where her eggs are. So in theory I have to do absolutely nothing for her and the eggs? Is it safe to keep them with the flock? If I need to I can put a fence around the coop (within the bigger fence) just so they have peace. But I only have 7 adult chickens and 4 chicks

 

[Cynthia12]

Okay awesome! She has been coming out twice a day to eat drink and take a dust bath. At first she would go back to the wrong nest but now she realized where her eggs are. So in theory I have to do absolutely nothing for her and the eggs? Is it safe to keep them with the flock? If I need to I can put a fence around the coop (within the bigger fence) just so they have peace. But I only have 7 adult chickens and 4 chicks

I keep mine in a personal space of her own. They love the peace and quiet, and not having to worry about the others bothering them. I also keep food and water near them as you are. It sounds like you are in the same predicament as I was with my first broody one. We did make a fenced in area on the floor for her. She was in a bottom nesting box, so we made a fenced in area to her.

 

[missnu01]

My first broody was 2 not one...One hen went broody and then her sister went broody and they nested side by side and constantly switched the eggs between nests and such. I just left them on the floor of the coop, but something was maybe stealing their eggs. Or eating the chick's as they hatched Because in 3 weeks they were still setting broken egg shells everywhere and no chicks. As it got closer to the 3 week mark you could hear peeping, but no chicks...so I gave them each a new set of 8 eggs a piece just like the first time. This time between the 2 of them setting 16 eggs 2 chick's hatched. Within hours that 2 became one...and those 2 hens cobrooded that one click and it ended up being an orange EE x BO hen. I sold the one sister and the single chick in the fall, and kept the other sister. And that hen is my woods broody. She did way better not in the coop, with no help or checking. Hatched 15 eggs and they were everyone hers, so she couldn't have had too many eggs she was setting because she didn't lay in the coop for about 2 weeks before she disappeared. So I knew what was up. An egg a day for 14 days and she came down with 15 chick's all from her own eggs. So she hatched as many as she set or really close to it. I know they were all her chick's because she is my only bantam and all the chicks were tiny. So...I'm not sure what I'm saying here other than brooding in the floor of a coop ends with worse results than setting in the woods with no protection from anything. After that first fiasco with 32 eggs and 8 weeks of setting ending in one live chicken I was never going to let another hen go broody and set eggs. Luckily woods broody decided she was going to do it anyway and restored my faith in broody hens. Lol.