Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[BooBear]

Quote:
Those are some pretty eggs.
My BLRW eggs are due on 8/12/2011.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Those are some pretty eggs, but how do you candle those they are so dark?

 

[BooBear]

As promised here is Blueberry with both of her chicks.

The last egg did not make it. The chick died at the end and never hatched.

Well now it is the long wait for Rita's eggs to make it to hatch day.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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What a precious picture, and I love the name Blueberry it fits her to a T. sorry about the last chick.

 

[cubalaya]

i just found this thread and have not read all 300+ pages but cubalayas are good broodys and i want to give my oldest hen a chance to be a real mommy. i put 5 eggs under her yesterday. i am still gonna collect some eggs for the incubator and put them in on the first of aug.

 

[BooBear]

Quote:
What a precious picture, and I love the name Blueberry it fits her to a T. sorry about the last chick.

Thanks.

The 2 healthy chicks are doing well and are cute as buttons.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Welcome cubalaya, I would love to see some pictures of your birds, I know nothing about your breed. Keep us posted on the brood and hatch.

 

[Niss]

dkcrumly--I would have been due Aug 3rd, but we had a strange and unfortunate incident last night....so due date is tonight

ParadiseFoundFarm--I started Wiggens with about 10 eggs, she kicked one out and I'm now down to 0. But in my case I think I know who's the culprit, it's not the broody, and karma is a B.

So here is what I woke up to...
A LEGHORN in my broody cage. That's right folks--at first she looked very zen and I was mega confused, but when I slipped my hand in I noticed a few things--she didn't care I was poking around, the last two eggs were gone, and her right foot was at an odd angle curled up and cool to the touch. She didn't fight me when I pulled her out and checked her leg and set her in a quiet spot on the floor. When I left for work the leghorn was still sitting quietly, and Wiggens was back on her nest of nothing.

The good news--I had a wonderful conversation with QuailQT last night and tonight I'm picking up ee chicks for Wiggens to mother since she's been so hard working, it not as good at protecting and keeping them warm as she should have been (this si the 2nd clutch--first didn't hatch after 28 days and these ones wer all eaten by the leghorns). So hopefully tomorrow morning she can wake up to life as a mama hen and start raising some peeps.

The bad news--I have 3 leghorns and can't actually tell them apart, so I don't know if the one that stole the cage is the egg eater or just what she was doing in there

I also don't know what is wrong with her or how to help

About a month ago I lost a RSL the same age and I assumed it was egg bound, but dh didn't want me to check. This one was more allert than the sexlink was the am I found her (that one died later that day), and then there is the foot? oh well, wrong forum for that talk-but any help you have you can let me know.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Niss are you saying the leghorn is sick? How is she today? foot still curled? I'm sorry about the eggs, but happy you found some chicks for Wiggins

 

[Niss]

Yes, leghorn has something wrong for sure. I couldn't find one leghorn last evening when doing head counts, so at the time I assumed she was sleeping out--I have some that try to do that but the leghorns are not generally among them. When I found her in the cage this am I figured she'd been hiding there all along.
I read a little and think it may be a riboflavin deficancy (I recently added a lot of soft red wheat to the chicken's diet--hubby was buying some from a farmer friend at a good price and due to miss communication came home with over 1,600#

). I am at work, so I don't know how leghorn is doing now or why she was in the broody box this morning. I didn't see any obvious signs of trauma, so I'm leaning toward sick v. hurt. I will withhold scratch for a few days and top the feed with yeast in case that is the problem.
In the meantime I am getting excited to go pick up the chicks after work

She said they are mostly ee's she also has a mille fluer and bar rock banty, but Hubby said no more bantums. I am taking the boy with me, so if some acidentally make it into the box

I can blame it on him--he's cute and gets away with way more than I can

She also has some columbians that are a few weeks old--I would LOVE those, but I'll have to see how far on they are...I can't imagine Wiggens would accept them at that age, and if they aren't feathering out I don't want to brood them myself--I've got too much to do as is!