beckster01
Chirping
- Jul 16, 2020
- 24
- 64
- 94
I decided to be adventurous and let my first broody hen sit on some eggs and see what happens! Meet Brahma Mama (our chickens have to earn their names around here LOL). I felt like writing down how it went, and what I could have done better. Overall I highly recommend letting your hens brood unless you just don't want mixed breeds.
We learned together and lost quite a few eggs early on. Mama picked everyone's favorite nesting box, so when the top hen piled in there with her a few eggs got smooshed in the first couple days. It was about 5 days in to sitting that I finally got her moved and sitting on the right pile of eggs at which point I only lost one more to getting cracked. I candled on day 7, and left 5 eggs marked that appeared viable. My favorite part in that first week was that I noticed her a few times in the dust bath, and when I checked her nest she had "babysitters," so her girlfriends would sit on her eggs for her! So cute. After the one week mark I really didn't notice her off the nest at all.
The next 2 weeks were uneventful. I checked her food/water daily. She truly didn't seem to be eating or drinking but she was alert and grumble when I open the box and her comb looked normal so I didn't do much. I was afraid to candle after 7 days, because we lost so many to getting cracked I thought if I disturbed her she would flap around and lose more.
Finally, day 21: Hatching day! I was expecting the eggs to hatch on different days as she was sitting in earnest before she'd collected eggs, and I had replaced a few on day 3. On day 21 I didnt notice any chicks yet. Day 22, I saw her out of the box, there were 3 intact eggs in the nest, one dried out shell, and one half hatched chick that looked dead with some blood around it. I went to pick it up out of the way and OOPS. It is breathing. I left it and quick googled "is blood normal when chick hatches?" like a noob. The answer is yes. Oh and apparently chicks don't hatch instantly (who knew? Lol).
The next time I looked at the hatching chick, imagine my surprise when I saw another fluffer running around, fully dried out! Apparently I missed one. Happy to see at least one healthy chick I left them to it and about 8 hours later the second chick finished its hatch. At this time I noticed 2 of the 3 remaining eggs gone. I am assuming these were not viable and Mama Brahma ate them? The last egg she stopped sitting on. I left it one more day. I candled it and it did have a full embryo but I'm not sure if it died because she stopped sitting on it and it was laid later, or if it just died as chicks seem to do (it never pipped).
So, for next time, I will make sure mama is laying in the right box, and I might candle one more time at a later stage to make sure I removed all the non-fertilized eggs. I'm also not sure if there is a way to prevent losing a fully developed chick just because mama stopped sitting. But I'm pretty happy with my 2 new chicks and hopefully at least one is a hen!
The light one is definitely an Easter Egger/Silver Spangled Hamburg cross. If anyone has photo examples of what this will look like I'd love to see! The dark one is either a brahma/SSH or a RIR/SSH. My money is on the Brahma cross, as those chicks were dark before they were feathered.
Here are a few more pictures of the cuties
We learned together and lost quite a few eggs early on. Mama picked everyone's favorite nesting box, so when the top hen piled in there with her a few eggs got smooshed in the first couple days. It was about 5 days in to sitting that I finally got her moved and sitting on the right pile of eggs at which point I only lost one more to getting cracked. I candled on day 7, and left 5 eggs marked that appeared viable. My favorite part in that first week was that I noticed her a few times in the dust bath, and when I checked her nest she had "babysitters," so her girlfriends would sit on her eggs for her! So cute. After the one week mark I really didn't notice her off the nest at all.
The next 2 weeks were uneventful. I checked her food/water daily. She truly didn't seem to be eating or drinking but she was alert and grumble when I open the box and her comb looked normal so I didn't do much. I was afraid to candle after 7 days, because we lost so many to getting cracked I thought if I disturbed her she would flap around and lose more.
Finally, day 21: Hatching day! I was expecting the eggs to hatch on different days as she was sitting in earnest before she'd collected eggs, and I had replaced a few on day 3. On day 21 I didnt notice any chicks yet. Day 22, I saw her out of the box, there were 3 intact eggs in the nest, one dried out shell, and one half hatched chick that looked dead with some blood around it. I went to pick it up out of the way and OOPS. It is breathing. I left it and quick googled "is blood normal when chick hatches?" like a noob. The answer is yes. Oh and apparently chicks don't hatch instantly (who knew? Lol).
So, for next time, I will make sure mama is laying in the right box, and I might candle one more time at a later stage to make sure I removed all the non-fertilized eggs. I'm also not sure if there is a way to prevent losing a fully developed chick just because mama stopped sitting. But I'm pretty happy with my 2 new chicks and hopefully at least one is a hen!
The light one is definitely an Easter Egger/Silver Spangled Hamburg cross. If anyone has photo examples of what this will look like I'd love to see! The dark one is either a brahma/SSH or a RIR/SSH. My money is on the Brahma cross, as those chicks were dark before they were feathered.
Here are a few more pictures of the cuties
