Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
X2!!!

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

For the first time in 12 days, my broody was off the nest, scratching furiously on the ground outside, and "clook clooking". I saw her before I saw the nest was unattended, and raced inside. The eggs were still very warm to the touch, and she returned to them within 10 minutes.
I am so happy she had a little constitutional, had a bite to eat and a majorly horrid poo.
She still has 11 eggs, and whether she booted the 1, and then 2 more later that week, because they were bad or she just had more than she needed, I may never know, but the 11 she has are fine.
This is the day my calendar says "Candle if you are going to".
I am still completely undecided as to if I should or not. Should I trust her to remove them if they aren't viable, or should I risk disturbing her tonight and candle them???
At the moment, I a leaning towards leaving her and her eggs be, without interference.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Bright Blessings!

 

[Fuffy]

Rachel'sFlock :

For the first time in 12 days, my broody was off the nest, scratching furiously on the ground outside, and "clook clooking". I saw her before I saw the nest was unattended, and raced inside. The eggs were still very warm to the touch, and she returned to them within 10 minutes.
I am so happy she had a little constitutional, had a bite to eat and a majorly horrid poo.
She still has 11 eggs, and whether she booted the 1, and then 2 more later that week, because they were bad or she just had more than she needed, I may never know, but the 11 she has are fine.
This is the day my calendar says "Candle if you are going to".
I am still completely undecided as to if I should or not. Should I trust her to remove them if they aren't viable, or should I risk disturbing her tonight and candle them???
At the moment, I a leaning towards leaving her and her eggs be, without interference.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Bright Blessings!

Well if you candle you can get rid of any that aren't viable.

The hen will be more comfortable if she doesn't have to be quite such a pancake.

And if any bad ones were to explode, you wouldn't have goo all over the precious good eggs

Good luck

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

Thank you, Fuffy.
That is one vote for To Candle.
I want desperately to see what's going on in there....

 

[Fuffy]

Well go for it then

And tell us how you get on!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
X2 again

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

all right...Candle on...
My flashlights are pretty substandard, but at 10/11 days, they should be pretty obvious, right?
I have studied the candling pics posted on BYC, and hope I can have a true result, despite not having candled an egg since I'm 10 years old!
Thanks for the good wishes...I'm sure I will need it!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Rachel'sFlock :

all right...Candle on...
My flashlights are pretty substandard, but at 10/11 days, they should be pretty obvious, right?
I have studied the candling pics posted on BYC, and hope I can have a true result, despite not having candled an egg since I'm 10 years old!
Thanks for the good wishes...I'm sure I will need it!

 

[artsyrobin]

can anyone help this lady???
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=573232

i pointed her here....

 

[bobcart]

Given my concern about having 18 eggs under a medium sized hen and with six of those eggs from a larger breed, I decided to go ahead and candle. I was going to wait for 14 days, but did it at 13. The good news is that 13 of the eggs looked great and 2 were basically clear and 3 were maybes. The good eggs had very dark blobs the light couldn't get through and movement! They are alive! Truly amazing to think about what's been going on in the eggs and the team work with broody!

For those also starting out, I don't have the best flashlight or darkest room, but I think it is pretty clear (ahem, sorry) what's good and not. That said, there were 3 that were in between the obvious good or bad. Of those, I decided to toss two and keep one that looked most promising. Before I had labeled the original 16 eggs, another two got added a day later, so maybe those two were lagging? Looked like more than a day of development behind though. This may mean the hatch will be prolonged. I'm hopeful that this will teach me something. Now she has 14 which I hope is a little less work for her and improves their odds. When I candled I put 6 eggs in each of three cartons and then put these into a cooler I had left in the sun to warm up. I was very gentle with the eggs and didn't allow them to cool in the less than 10 minutes it took. My guess is that the cooling and jarring is more severe by broodey, so I won't have regrets about the risk of candling.

By the way, we have adopted a good sized black lab. Last week, I found a dog poop in the coop before I opened the door and it was still warm when I removed it. How could she have gotten in there??? It took me a day to figure out it wasn't the dog but the broody. I had heard that broody poops were nasty, but didn't know they were the size of a big dog's. I don't think she could even be eating enough to make these? The whole thing in mind boggling and amazing. I'm really nervous about hatch day a week from Sunday!