NY chicken lover!!!!

[mswendeu]

Hi all we are new to raising chickens and ducks. We have a brood of different types of chickens. RIR, Cornish X, and a few others.
And one Khaki Campbell duck left, my other Campbell went missing. My chickens are laying brown eggs, and a couple white eggs. But, my KC is currently sitting on a nest of eggs. I added a few that she kicked out back into the nest with two brown eggs but, she kicked them all back out. I put our chicken coop over the top of her because she is outside on the side of our barn in some overgrowth. This is like I said our first time. I really want to see what comes from her. I have read they can be mean to them. Worried about that if they do hatch. I found her nest and she was already sitting on Sept 26 th. I don't know how long she was sitting on them before that as I was out of town for almost two months before I found the nest. But, here is the nest and her.








And one of the eggs I candled earlier today. Not sure which eggs those are but, I think that it might be a white chicken egg. Can't remember which ones in the sequence. I didn't get any eggs from under the KC because she didn't move from there in that time. I only candled the one's that got kicked out and about 33 eggs from where my RIR was sitting on them next to the barn door.

Wondering what everyone is thinking? And if they can give me some insight on what to do. Thanks for your time in advance. Wende

 

[Cass]

Hi all we are new to raising chickens and ducks. We have a brood of different types of chickens. RIR, Cornish X, and a few others.
And one Khaki Campbell duck left, my other Campbell went missing. My chickens are laying brown eggs, and a couple white eggs. But, my KC is currently sitting on a nest of eggs. I added a few that she kicked out back into the nest with two brown eggs but, she kicked them all back out. I put our chicken coop over the top of her because she is outside on the side of our barn in some overgrowth. This is like I said our first time. I really want to see what comes from her. I have read they can be mean to them. Worried about that if they do hatch. I found her nest and she was already sitting on Sept 26 th. I don't know how long she was sitting on them before that as I was out of town for almost two months before I found the nest. But, here is the nest and her.








And one of the eggs I candled earlier today. Not sure which eggs those are but, I think that it might be a white chicken egg. Can't remember which ones in the sequence. I didn't get any eggs from under the KC because she didn't move from there in that time. I only candled the one's that got kicked out and about 33 eggs from where my RIR was sitting on them next to the barn door.

Wondering what everyone is thinking? And if they can give me some insight on what to do. Thanks for your time in advance. Wende

My first thought is you are holding the egg upside down and the air sack might rupture before hatching. Turn the egg over so the air sac (big end) is up when candleing or handling the eggs you are trying to hatch.

My second thought is that any egg a chicken/duck has taken out of the nest for any reason has never hatched if I shove it back into the nest. They just seem to know.

Duck eggs take longer than chicken eggs to hatch. 33 eggs is a LOT of eggs for one bird to keep warm. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a very low hatch rate. (Heard a story about someone who let a hen sit on 27 eggs,for reasons I never did understand, and only 9 hatched. She said that her hen was a lousy mother. I say she was a lousy chicken mother for not marking a reasonable amount of eggs for one chicken to brood and remove extra eggs daily, giving the marked ones a better chance of hatching. AND who wants 27 chicks anyway? Tooo many mouths to feed until you find out gender)

As with any forum answer/reply--- take the parts that ring true to you and leave the rest of the info on the page.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote: I guess it is for my convenience... I have one heated water dish for everyone in the winter ...
I dont like them in the chicken coop coz they are too messy .. they make mud water in the chicken water
They would have no problem with it ..they will go in there at night if I am not there to make sure they go in their pen
.I dont want to carry water out for them to swim in outside ..we dont have a pond ..we do have a stream ..but it is a lot farther than I want to shovel .
My son wanted them ..he hasnt taken care of them since they left his room ...so its just extra work for me ..
I like them ..But .dont like them chasing my small broody Sumatra hen ..
they have stopped squabbling with each other since I am giving them layer again ...I dont think they were getting enough protein with just scratch

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote: it also depends on where the cable comes in down in the cellar ...you may not be able to switch it ...if you dont have enough cable
It is not hard to disconnect ...or drill a hole

 

[Gramma Chick]

Hi all we are new to raising chickens and ducks.it




And one of the eggs I candled earlier today. Not sure which eggs those are but, I think that it might be a white chicken egg. Can't remember which ones in the sequence. I didn't get any eggs from under the KC because she didn't move from there in that time. I only candled the one's that got kicked out and about 33 eggs from where my RIR was sitting on them next to the barn door.

Wondering what everyone is thinking? And if they can give me some insight on what to do. Thanks for your time in advance. Wende

it looks like something is growing in that one to me

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all. Had some heavy rain come through last night. Sunny out today so hopefully it will dry out stuff. The silkies are still getting used to each other. The girls are being somewhat witchy. I will have to let them out to stretch today. Have to get feed today as well.

Gramma--sorry to hear about your ducks. Its too bad that your son has no interest in them any more. Scratch is really just chicken candy. I dont give much to my cheeps as I find they dont lay as well if they get too much.

Mswendu--if your hen has kicked eggs out it usually means they are no good. Mommas know these things. I dont know how. Yours is sitting on an awful lot of eggs. You may want to take some away so she has a successful hatch.

Rancher--you can move the cable if you have enough to do so.

Off to deliver eggs and be domestic. Oh yeah...and get some feed for the raptors.

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

I guess it is for my convenience... I have one heated water dish for everyone in the winter ...
I dont like them in the chicken coop coz they are too messy .. they make mud water in the chicken water
They would have no problem with it ..they will go in there at night if I am not there to make sure they go in their pen
.I dont want to carry water out for them to swim in outside ..we dont have a pond ..we do have a stream ..but it is a lot farther than I want to shovel .
My son wanted them ..he hasnt taken care of them since they left his room ...so its just extra work for me ..
I like them ..But .dont like them chasing my small broody Sumatra hen ..
they have stopped squabbling with each other since I am giving them layer again ...I dont think they were getting enough protein with just scratch

I'm sorry that your son isn't helping out with "his" ducks. I use a different set up for my ducks then I do during the summer. During the summer they have their kiddy pool in the run and little pond that I dug as well as a large 30 gal tub to swim in. In the winter I use the big black rubber tubs for them to use. They do usually get in and clean off, but it isn't to much work (well I think so) I take out 2 five gal bucket of warm water in the morning. Then I take out more in the afternoon if I need to, then at night I dump them out, beat out the ice and leave them upside down till morning. The chickens tend to drink from them too. I go out during the day to break any ice that builds up.

This is last winter before I busted the plastic tubs and got smart and switched to the rubber tubs. I think that I may have to get one more for this year.

They are probably chasing you hens cause you have all males and with their hormones going they want to do their thing on anything that they can catch. Drakes are MUCH more randy then roosters. My boys will squabble with each other over the girls so that might have something to do with their disagreements. They may be sexually frustrated. As for feeding them, I give my duckers what my chickens get. With mine all being in the run they all eat each others food any way. Once I get them their own hoop coop, then I may try them on their own duck feed...Had to put the hoop coop off for a little while cause DH wanted to put his plow truck on the road.

 

[Kinmera]

Anyone in the WNY area have silkies or cochins? I'm going to be in the market for about 5 girls and 1 boy of those to breeds combined this spring. I'm going to create a nesting coop using those 2 breeds specifically. I'd prefer silky hens and a cochin roo. They dont have to be any super high quality - just want broodies =)

 

[wny egger]

Anyone in the WNY area have silkies or cochins? I'm going to be in the market for about 5 girls and 1 boy of those to breeds combined this spring. I'm going to create a nesting coop using those 2 breeds specifically. I'd prefer silky hens and a cochin roo. They dont have to be any super high quality - just want broodies =)

i have a friend that has cochin bantys ..i think just roo's tho ..she lives out in maplesprings..pm me if you want ..i'll try and reach her today and see what she has left..

 

[Kinmera]

I know maple springs!

I don't have a place to put them till spring. I'm getting ready to pull everything inside for the winter now. In the spring when things move out into the tractors I'll have an extra small coop or 2 for nesting purposes. If I found some now they'd have to be super super cheap/free. And all I have space for would be girls. I'm not upsetting my current banty wyandotte roo.