NY chicken lover!!!!

[Purpletie3]

I need help identifying some of my chickens...crele orp???

 

[Purpletie3]

Any ideas on this one? Pullet??? I think she was one of my mystery eggs

 

[Purpletie3]

Pullet? Hatched from mystery egg also. No idea on breed

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Well...color me an idiot. Major broody issues over here.

My second broody (not the broody that is in the brood box in my house with her three chicks...and by the way, she STINKS)...

My second broody got a little confused yesterday. Her eggs are due to hatch early next week....Tuesday-ish. I hadn't had a chance to get out to the coop much yesterday. Late in the afternoon, as we were running out for a ball game, my daughter excitedly told me about how there was a whole bunch of eggs in the chicken coop. A WHOLE BUNCH!

Yep...the broody had left her nest. I found her sitting on two freshly laid eggs in a different box. I suspect when she got up to do her business, somebody else (a certain EE, most likely) hopped on and she's not assertive enough to take her nest back...so she found another nest to sit in.

The eggs were stone cold...and I didn't have any hope. I grabbed one, ran in and candled it with a high-powered flashlight and....very slight movement! I ran it back out, put her on her correct nest and hoped for the best.

Last night, I decided she was going to have to go over to the grow out part of the coop with the cockerels. I made a nest for her, moved her eggs (candled all 8 and all 8 were still moving, HALLELUJAH). I moved her without incident....she sat back down on the nest, no big deal...done.

This morning, all hell broke loose. She's terrorizing the cockerels. She won't stay on the nest. I realized early that this was going to be a battle...so I grabbed the eggs and put them in the incubator and gave her six freshly laid eggs, figuring if she didn't sit on them, no big deal. She's flown the coop twice (after having her wing clipped, no less) and I've found her in the regular coop, sitting on a nest of dummy eggs that I keep in there to discourage egg eating. She sat on her nest in the grow out coop for a short time and I really thought she was going to settle down but....nope. She ended up crushing one of those eggs and has been squawking and running the door that separates the two coops...and the fence line that separates the two pens. I'm kind of at a loss what to do here. I can't bring her in the house...Attila the Hen is using the box, and she's not ready to go out yet.

She WANTS to sit on her eggs...as evidenced by her return trips to the other coop, where she sits nicely on her old nest.

At this point, I'm hoping the chicks will hatch alright, and I can slip them under her at night. But I'm not really sure I can trust her.

I'm also tempted to throw the cockerels over with the big birds but I really don't think it will end well.

I could just move her eggs back to her old nest and keep a better eye on who's sitting but...it was a really close call yesterday. I nearly lost the whole clutch.

I'm open to suggestions....lol.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Do you think it will make a difference if I block her view of the other side of the coop?

And what if I just let her set on dummy eggs on the nest she wants, and then when the chicks hatch, move her and the chicks over to the grow-out side. Do you think she'll settle down alright, if her chicks are there?

I really don't know what to do with her. She just pecked the heck out of my hand while I was moving her...AGAIN...over to the right side of the coop. Despite her wing being clipped, she's still flying up over the fence and going around to the other side, flying up over THAT fence, and back into the coop.

I feel like I'm in the middle of a war with a broody! WTH?!?

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Total number of birds moved today: 0
I am too darn sick to mess with them today
They are all still in their old pens, and Khan is back on his blankie in the hatchery because he really wants to roost with the big boys - but I'm mean and won't let him...

Anconas went to lockdown - one was pipped - about 12 hours early.. My color line was looking a little sketchy though. Now my incubators are down just production birds, and I can relax a bit, maybe even start all the seeds I should have started a month ago...

Missy is still fascinated with the Muscovy nest, and sits on it every chance she gets...

Controlled chaos...

 

[PhoredaBurds]

I need help identifying some of my chickens...crele orp???

Is it possible she's a beilefelder?

 

[Purpletie3]

Is it possible she's a beilefelder?

Hmmm...did not even consider that. Thanks. She is real round like the orps... I may need a diff pic to show her a lil differently. My Bielfelder are the same age and she's very diff. Could be just a different line though.

 

[Lapeerian]

Do you think it will make a difference if I block her view of the other side of the coop?  

And what if I just let her set on dummy eggs on the nest she wants, and then when the chicks hatch, move her and the chicks over to the grow-out side.  Do you think she'll settle down alright, if her chicks are there? 

I really don't know what to do with her.  She just pecked the heck out of my hand while I was moving her...AGAIN...over to the right side of the coop.  Despite her wing being clipped, she's still flying up over the fence and going around to the other side, flying up over THAT fence, and back into the coop.

I feel like I'm in the middle of a war with a broody!  WTH?!?  

What I would do:
Leave her in the coop she wants to stay in. You won't win the war of her frantically pacing and flying back. Keep the hatching eggs in the incubator. Let her sit on a nest of dummy eggs or wherever she would like for now. When the eggs are ready to hatch, set up a pen of some sort for her, put the chicks under her at night in that pen. What Cass (a BYC that we haven't heard from in a long time) does is have a small table in her coop, wrap chicken wire around the legs to create a pen. As long as she is in a safe coop, her pen doesn't need to be predator proof, just keep chicks in and naughty chickens out. A large overturned laundry basket may also work. I wouldn't subject her to the rowdy advances of cockerels. She would be so busy chasing them, that another may attack a chick.

 

[PhoredaBurds]

Hmmm...did not even consider that. Thanks. She is real round like the orps... I may need a diff pic to show her a lil differently. My Bielfelder are the same age and she's very diff. Could be just a different line though.

Idk, just a guess. I've never owned beilefelders, just oogled at pics of them. I'm sure she'll be gorgeous, whatever she is.