Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[laughingull]

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sorry didn't see stonys post, if that has happened to them then maybe wait for a couple more days, Ours usually hatch on time.

My Sumatra's usually start to hatch on day 19. But this last time with a broody it started on day 21, late in day 21. With incubated eggs, I've had some hatch on day 19, and at the lastest day 25. It only happened on day 25 once, but I'll say this. I was JUST ABOUT TO THROW THE EGGS OUT! The last one I took out, I noticed a pip. I promptly put them all back, and most of them hatched that day. The rest were dead in shell for whatever reason.
But to shorten this some, I commonly have them hatch between day 19 and day 23.

Thanks Stony- I will let her go to day 25. Also thanks Miss Lydia- unfortunately looks like the feed store is out of baby chicks (closest thing they have are 3 week old bantams- probably not what my hen or I have in mind). They said they might have more later in the week.

 

[stonykill]

Throw her 1/2 dozen Miss Lydia.

Whats a few more chickens?

 

[Miss Lydia]

you know I probably could dh hardly ever goes into the coop so i could just go out one day and say well golly look what just came home with 6 chicks,

 

[stonykill]

hey, I haven't told my wife we have 58 chickens. She see's them all the time, but has never counted them.....I'm pretty sure anyway.

Maybe the bribery of building her a nice pretty duck estate helped

 

[Miss Lydia]

A duck estate? wow got pictures? i wouldn't mind having one of those since I have ducks too

forgot to say hope your hatch goes real good starting tomorrow!!

 

[stonykill]

lol, we are calling it an estate. Inground pool, cute lodging, chain link fence.

3 days of landscaping. 3 days building the coop. But I got to use my Front end loader and my backhoe.... so it wasn't so bad

 

[Terri O]

Look what I found today!

Under this!

She was pretty mad when I lifted her off! There are 9 so far and a few eggs left to go! I also found a white guinea and a yellow chick hatched under the mom with the duck sharing the nest! 3 species out of one nest--yeah! Should be a fun week! Terri O

 

[laughingull]

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What kind of a hen is that? She is lovely (and her wee ones adorable!)

 

[Sudsy Chick]

TerryO - super cute chicks! pretty mama too

stonykill - love your duck estate!

Miss Lyda - glad your mama is still doing well. Wish I knew more to guess at what may be the cause!

Had a fun rainy day today...building a second larger coop big enough to house the new & old peeps! It's a craigslist project - which is an interesting story - will try to document later in the coop section.

You may recall I've been unsucessful candling our Americauna eggs. Today when I checked on the eggs when mama was out - she had two sort of seperated from the others but not completely kicked them out of the next (which i know is possible because she drags new eggs into the nest!) The color is not as vivid blue as all the other eggs under both birds. I took a picture hoping to see what you all think! I left the eggs exactly as she did...and the eggs I'm worried about sit at her back end (she has all the rest under her breast.)

Thoughts? Is there another test I could do on these eggs? Does the float test work at this point?

TIA

 

[Miss Lydia]

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love the estate, real nice house too and your ducks are adorable!!


TerriO, how precious, didn't you know about this nest or was it a surprise? and a guinea and duck thrown into the mix how sweet. You hen looks like my Brahma hen is that what she is?

and dawng I tried the float test on the Brahma eggs my hen was sitting on and they all floated just like it said they would if they were viable and they weren't, so it would be worth a try I guess maybe I wasn't doing it right. When is her hatch day?