Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Sydney Acres]

I've not a tried messing with the internal portions of the egg in the bator, but perhaps you could do a search to see if there's info on it. My experiences with the bator have been mixed and that's one reason I prefer to let the broodies do the work now. They seem to manage heat and humidity way better than I can.

Totally agree, broodies are superior in so many ways. I hate hatching chicks in the incubator, but had some unique circumstances this year that required hatching every egg produced by an old flock, and the eggs were so fragile that even the most careful broody would have broken them. So eggs from the old flock were set every single week, plus some "companion" eggs from a single hen of the younger flock (in case only one egg from the older flock hatched, I didn't want that chick to be alone). When the eggs from the older flock candled clear at day 10, which they did every week, the companion eggs were moved to a broody to hatch out. This worked out great until I decided that there was probably no hope for the older flock's eggs, and decided to do one last incubation of the season. I put several eggs from the same hen under a broody, plus several eggs from different hens in pedigree cages in the incubator, with the plan to hatch out in the pedigree cages, leg band the chicks as soon as they dried and graft them onto the broody. Then one week into incubation the best hen from the ancient flock laid two eggs in the same week, which hadn't happened in at least 2 years, and the second egg I collected when it was still warm. How could I not try to hatch these two eggs? So I put them in the incubator, along with three companion eggs from my best hen in the younger flock. And of course the older flock eggs candled clear, and the younger flock eggs looked great on day 10, but now I had staggered hatches in the incubator. I should have taken the 10 day eggs out to the broody until the other hatch was over, but didn't think of that at the time. Lesson learned!

 

[bobbieschicks]

Totally agree, broodies are superior in so many ways.  I hate hatching chicks in the incubator, but had some unique circumstances this year that required hatching every egg produced by an old flock, and the eggs were so fragile that even the most careful broody would have broken them.  So eggs from the old flock were set every single week, plus some "companion" eggs from a single hen of the younger flock (in case only one egg from the older flock hatched, I didn't want that chick to be alone).  When the eggs from the older flock candled clear at day 10, which they did every week, the companion eggs were moved to a broody to hatch out.  This worked out great until I decided that there was probably no hope for the older flock's eggs, and decided to do one last incubation of the season.  I put several eggs from the same hen under a broody, plus several eggs from different hens in pedigree cages in the incubator, with the plan to hatch out in the pedigree cages, leg band the chicks as soon as they dried and graft them onto the broody.  Then one week into incubation the best hen from the ancient flock laid two eggs in the same week, which hadn't happened in at least 2 years, and the second egg I collected when it was still warm.  How could I not try to hatch these two eggs?  So I put them in the incubator, along with three companion eggs from my best hen in the younger flock.  And of course the older flock eggs candled clear, and the younger flock eggs looked great on day 10, but now I had staggered hatches in the incubator.  I should have taken the 10 day eggs out to the broody until the other hatch was over, but didn't think of that at the time.  Lesson learned!

I've had a similar situation when my fav blue egg laying girl died and I wanted to hatch her two remaining eggs. Managed to juggle a broody clutch and bator clutch and ended up with a pullet and rooster from her. That offspring girl is still laying blue eggs and she's 3 now. The rooster, well, he was tasty.

 

[bumpercarr]

Oh yes, forgot about that detail. Learned that the hard way. Next year I'm buying a separate hatcher for staggered incubator hatches. May never use it, but don't want to go through this again.

My current incubator eggs were on days 11-14 of their incubation while I had earlier eggs hatching in the same incubator, so I raised the humidity to 65% for the hatch, assuming that I could bring the humidity down quite low afterwards to make up for it (which may or may not be true -- clearly I didn't preplan this properly). Well, we had a huge rainstorm plus nice temperatures right after the hatch, so the ambient humidity stayed around 70%, and the incubator couldn't get its humidity below 30-35%. So now I've got three eggs in the incubator on day 19 with air sacs a week behind normal, and the eggs have only lost 8% of their weight instead of the usual 11-13% by this time. The embryos are moving, but there's lots of water visible around the embryos. I've stopped the egg turner, and have set the eggs upright so that if a chick pips internally and keeps its mouth in the airsac, then hopefully the airsac won't flood and drown the chick. I've also left the humidity low to hopefully evaporate more water from the egg before it pips, and hope that the extra water in the egg will be enough lubrication to allow the chick to rotate and zip, even though the incubator humidity won't be as high as recommended for hatching. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I don't hold out much hope for these three chicks, as there's a lot of water visible in these eggs. I've thought of draining it with a needle and syringe, and it might work, but there's just too many things that could go wrong there. Has anyone ever tried that?

Sorry, not really broody thread topics.

One thing that I have heard of, but never tried (I live in a very dry area, the highest I've ever seen our humidity is 45%) is to put some dried fruit in the bator to absorb the extra humidity. Like I said, I've never tried it.

Generally speaking, I keep my humidity at about 55% until day 18 and then push it to 65-70%. So, you might be alright with these eggs. I hatch at altitude, so there I have to use a bit different technique. Anyway, good luck!

 

[TheGeekySheep]

I'm sorry to report that my broody really is a murderous mama. I checked on her again and found a dead chick, this one's back had been torn open, no guesswork there.

Since the three others were peeping and one zipping, I put them in an incubator for a hail Mary move. I think my other eggs can survive the higher humidity for a couple days. Fingers crossed. Now I have to set up a brooder because I won't have mama to raise them.

 

[bumpercarr]

I'm sorry to report that my broody really is a murderous mama. I checked on her again and found a dead chick, this one's back had been torn open, no guesswork there.

Since the three others were peeping and one zipping, I put them in an incubator for a hail Mary move. I think my other eggs can survive the higher humidity for a couple days. Fingers crossed. Now I have to set up a brooder because I won't have mama to raise them.

Wow. So sorry. Sometimes it just happens. Looks like broody should maybe join the freezer camp when that time comes around again.

 

[TheGeekySheep]

Wow.  So sorry.  Sometimes it just happens.  Looks like broody should maybe join the freezer camp when that time comes around again.

Would seriously consider it if she weren't my best layer, lol.

 

[itspebbl]

Aww that is so sad about your broody.

What breed is she?

 

[TheGeekySheep]

Aww that is so sad about your broody. What breed is she?

A black Ameraucana. She was so fierce in protecting her eggs I was sure she was going to do a good job. Looks like too much aggression can be an issue too.

 

[bobbieschicks]

A black Ameraucana. She was so fierce in protecting her eggs I was sure she was going to do a good job. Looks like too much aggression can be an issue too.

Oh how awful. Yes I'd move them out too.

 

[TheGeekySheep]

I've got one! No pips from the others yet but plenty of peeping. Also its weird posting in this thread when it started out with a broody but now its and incubator hatch...