TJAnonymous
Enabler
I've been having all kinds of broody issues this summer. This could all be solved if I had a way to shut the broodies in a crate with their eggs, but I don't. At least not right now.
Starting a month ago, I had 4 Black Australorps, all 1st time mothers, sitting on 4 nests. Three are ground level nesting boxes. One is not. The 3 ground level broodies have been playing musical chairs with their boxes and then after a couple of chicks hatched, they abandoned the rest of their collective eggs and are collectively raising their chicks.
That left the 1 lone broody. She has been trying as long as the others but her eggs haven't hatched yet. I candled her eggs yesterday and she had several who are really close. However she keeps leaving the nest for longer and longer periods but hasn't exactly QUIT brooding yet. I went in the coop today to check because she left the nest again. Except while she was gone, I had an egg eater who raided the nest. She had consumed most of 1 egg, killing the chick inside who was fully formed. There were 2 more eggs who were cracked. I don't know if they pipped on their own or if the egg eater opened them. They were moving and I thought I heard a peep. There is another hen (buff Orpington) who just turned broody in the past few days. She was sitting in her nest. I don't think she has any eggs because I just cleared that nest yesterday morning. I took the two eggs which seemed like they were pipped/open and put them under the Orpington. I have no idea if she will accept them if they hatch but I figured they were safer under her than left in the unguarded nest with an egg eater on the rampage.
There is still quite a few eggs in the BA broody's nest. Should I move them to the Orpington too, even if the BA hasn't fully stopped being broody?
I'm just worried about more chicks being killed by the egg eater. And I'm not exactly sure WHICH chicken is the egg eater or I'd just lock her up....
Starting a month ago, I had 4 Black Australorps, all 1st time mothers, sitting on 4 nests. Three are ground level nesting boxes. One is not. The 3 ground level broodies have been playing musical chairs with their boxes and then after a couple of chicks hatched, they abandoned the rest of their collective eggs and are collectively raising their chicks.
That left the 1 lone broody. She has been trying as long as the others but her eggs haven't hatched yet. I candled her eggs yesterday and she had several who are really close. However she keeps leaving the nest for longer and longer periods but hasn't exactly QUIT brooding yet. I went in the coop today to check because she left the nest again. Except while she was gone, I had an egg eater who raided the nest. She had consumed most of 1 egg, killing the chick inside who was fully formed. There were 2 more eggs who were cracked. I don't know if they pipped on their own or if the egg eater opened them. They were moving and I thought I heard a peep. There is another hen (buff Orpington) who just turned broody in the past few days. She was sitting in her nest. I don't think she has any eggs because I just cleared that nest yesterday morning. I took the two eggs which seemed like they were pipped/open and put them under the Orpington. I have no idea if she will accept them if they hatch but I figured they were safer under her than left in the unguarded nest with an egg eater on the rampage.
There is still quite a few eggs in the BA broody's nest. Should I move them to the Orpington too, even if the BA hasn't fully stopped being broody?
I'm just worried about more chicks being killed by the egg eater. And I'm not exactly sure WHICH chicken is the egg eater or I'd just lock her up....
I went out to clean the coop today and decided to check the "pipped" eggs that I had moved under the buff Orpington broody. She was still sitting patiently on her eggs but no chicks. I took out every egg from under her (much to her displeasure) and none of them were cracked or pipped... So I have NO IDEA what happened to those 2 eggs. I'm certain they were alive and moving/pipping when I put them under her. I checked under her very carefully. No egg shell pieces. No dead chicks. Although I did find ONE dead chick elsewhere in the coop but I don't know if it was one from those eggs or from the other chicks who hatched earlier and got squashed by the hens. (This chick looked squashed and was in front of their nesting box).
Not much I can do except try to get some smaller dog crates to use for next time.
