New Brahma Group: Blue Partridge x Partridge, Plus Dark

[ColtHandorf]

How's Bash doing?

 

[speckledhen]

How's Bash doing?

He's going fantastic, Colt, thanks for asking!

 

[WhoDatChick]

I know, but I was really looking forward to these chicks this time, even though I wasn't going to keep any of them. Better for it to not make it further if it was going to be weak, but that is rational thinking and I'm not rational at the moment.

As far as him playing the violin, he plays the fiddle, if you get my drift, and I really don't like fiddle music. It is just irritating whining in my ear, like a huge mosquito. Right now, I'm just not in the mood for that. I just want it quiet.

I’m sorry you lost one and that you are sad... but the fiddle rant was hilarious

 

[speckledhen]

I’m sorry you lost one and that you are sad... but the fiddle rant was hilarious

Thanks, it made me feel better!

Brandy has another chick just hatched, so she has three and the last two are pipped. I closed up the barn for the night, though, so I won't know until tomorrow what happens.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

By the way, don't pay any attention to me. My left knee is very stiff and painful and has been for days. I have no idea what I did to it, but it's interfering with my life, dang it. Going up and down our steps is no picnic; neither is getting down on the floor to check on Brandy. I have a brace to use, but it interferes with doing that. Tom's back hurts on the opposite side from where they gave the shots and at least one of us needs to be 100%(or close enough to it).

I hope it's nothing serious.

 

[WhoDatChick]

Thanks, it made me feel better!

Brandy has another chick just hatched, so she has three and the last two are pipped. I closed up the barn for the night, though, so I won't know until tomorrow what happens.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm perplexed this morning. Four healthy chicks that seem vigorous are fluffed and doing the usual thing, but there should have been five this morning. Another chick, found dead like the first, on its back, under Brandy's right hock joint, which was precisely across its neck. Brandy has always been 100% reliable, but she broke an egg on Day 14, something no broody has ever done here, and now, two of her six remaining chicks killed after hatching. Since I wasn't there, I can't say for sure if they died and she was just sitting on their bodies, or if she outright killed them on purpose. I'm flummoxed.

Years ago, maybe some of you remember my breeder quality Buff Orpington hen, Nugget, who raised quite a few batches of chicks. Her last time, she ended up with only one fertile and took it to hatch day, but crushed the chick in the egg as it was zipping. I considered that an execution because Nugget was a very seasoned broody and it had to be on purpose that time. She passed away not long afterward so I thought maybe she knew something was wrong and she just obeyed her hormones, up to a point, but made a hen's "executive decision" and terminated that chick. I know I'm reaching here, but it really, really got to me, that a hen who had raised so many chicks successfully, never even pushed them away from her as they got almost as big as she was (I'll never forget her 15 week old son with Suede sitting next to her on the roost, LOL), would *accidentally* crush a chick, just the one chick, plenty of room under her, no reason for it. Nugget was almost 7 years old at the time, though, and I can see she might have been ready to be done with motherhood. Brandy is 3 years old, but she at her age has raised far more chicks by this time in her now 7 broods than Nugget did in her years.

So, why??? If she kills another one, I'll have to remove the others and brood them until someone can come get them.

 

[1muttsfan]

I would think that more likely than an actual deliberate act it would be accidental, maybe related to weariness. It must be hard to sit on eggs all that time so intensely, and as you know as we get older it's much harder to stick to difficult tasks. A 3-year old hen is actually just a touch past her prime, and a 7 year old would be well into her 70's, far beyond the rigours of prolonged gestation.

 

[speckledhen]

I would think that more likely than an actual deliberate act it would be accidental, maybe related to weariness. It must be hard to sit on eggs all that time so intensely, and as you know as we get older it's much harder to stick to difficult tasks. A 3-year old hen is actually just a touch past her prime, and a 7 year old would be well into her 70's, far beyond the rigours of prolonged gestation.

That's an awful lot of accidents in one hatch, though, for a hen who has done this so many times before, it seems like, Mary. I made sure I brought Brandy scrambled eggs every morning, supplemented her feed so she would keep up her strength during this time. It's so disheartening. Yeah, I realize that Nugget was pretty old, especially for a very large hen. My theory is that very large bodied hens live shorter lives, much like large dogs have shorter lifespans, in general, than small dogs, so even though Brandy is only 3 years old, she's probably an "older 3 years" than, say, an Easter Egger hen who is much smaller. That's just my personal theory. So, Nugget at 7 would be more like 90 years old, LOL. Great hen that one, got her from Jody Hinkle.

But, dang, Brandy, geez. If she does kill another one, I'll remove the ones left from her.

Oh , and MaryJo and Zara are still broody. Not happening, no way, not after this, especially, not two newbies to the game.

 

[1muttsfan]

My thought is that there are too many things to keep track of as they age, maybe exhausted and dozing off and not hearing little muffled cheeps. Or there could have been something wrong with the chicks, often chicks with defects do OK until they hatch, then they have to act to take care of themselves, and just can not do it.