PlymouthBR broody hatchalong.

[L1sa]

Day 6

So much can happen in 1 day of broody hen hatching!

I went out this morning and her 6 eggs were reduced to 3. There was just no evidence of any of the other 3! After poking about a bit, I managed to find one of them pushed away and buried in bedding, freezing cold but there is just no sign of the other 2?? So the one I found was one of the ones smothered in dried egg goo from the other night, so I'm guessing she knows what she's doing. I did crack it open to have a look and there was evidence of a developing embryo The remaining 3 are nice and clean. However, one of the ones remaining is the one that I found outside yesterday, so I have no idea how it's going to go. If it doesn't work though, I will try swapping them out for day old chicks down the line.

 

[L1sa]

I am so cross with myself!! So I've located the 2 missing eggs... in my refrigerator! Rookie mistake! I obviously didn't mark them enough to spot the small 'F' I drew on them! I cracked one of them open this morning to discover a perfectly formed little embryo . I've felt really rotten all day!

But since beginning to write this, I thought "to hell with it" and Ive just bought the other one up to body temp and thought I'm just going to give it to her and see what happens! You hear stories of little children being part frozen and surviving!! She can always kick it out if it's not viable.

As a side note, I cracked open the one she kicked out of the nest yesterday and it wasn't anywhere near as well formed as the one from the fridge, so I'm guessing she really did know what she was doing.

 

[50-45-1]

I am sorry for your troubles.
I would suggest next time your planing to let a broody hatch eggs for you , you have a broody pen where she can sit on the eggs without disturbance from the other hens. If your hen is in the coop with general population, the likely hood of broken eggs goes up, as hens will tussle over a favorite laying spot.
Here is another sernario..
She gets off the nest once a day and when she gets back onother hen is on her hest laying an egg, so she moves to a different nest box where there are eggs, the other hen leaves as she has laid a new egg, and all those get cold as broody is in the zone on a different bunch of eggs..
I have an old rabbit hutch i use for injured chickens i need to separate from the flock , and broody hens. Once the chicks are a couple weeks old, i move hen and chicks back to gp. This works so well!
I never candle my eggs. I set the hen, mark my calender. Make sure she has fresh water in the pen every day and i leave her be.
On day 19 i usually start getting chicks. Change feed to chick starter in a low dish and a chick waterer so they dont drown. I save myself a lot of grief and worry this way and have very high successful hatch rate.
good luck!

 

[L1sa]

Thank you so much for your reply. And you're absolutely right, I need to try somthing different next time. I'm planning to build a new coop at one end of the run so that next time there will be somewhere else for any Broodies to happliy sit.

I'm still holding out hope for at least 2 chicks this time!

 

[L1sa]

Day 7

Checked on her this morning and she hasn't kicked the refrigerated egg out! Well yet anyway. All seems quiet in the coop.

Hurry up and get here 21 days!!

 

[L1sa]

Day 8

Doris has kicked out another egg overnight, that leaves me with 3, 2 blues and little Frostie. I'm holding out high hopes for the blues, but little frostie holds a special place in my heart! I didn't tell the story here when it happened, but I'll do it so now!

So when I decided to try and put the refrigerated egg back under her, from what I'd read it was important to get the egg back up to body temperature... so after a little thought of how I was going to achieve this, I came up with the solution of placing it down my bra!!!! . So there it sat imbetween ... cups for about half an hour while I was cooking dinner! Husband still having no idea I've even got fertilised eggs let alone one sitting in my bra. I'm just glad no one came up for a hug!! So I feel almost part of the hatching process for this little chickie and have named him Frostie.

 

[L1sa]

Day 9

We're back up to 4! The egg she had apparently kicked out I left in the coop and she must have scooped it back under her again! I am so confused, I have no idea if any will hatch at all. I can't candle any as i can't see through any of the shells, so it's just a case of wait and see.

I was going to be so cool this broody hatch, I was just going to let her do her thing and I would ignore it and get on with my thing. But I can't help myself!! I can't stop looking and stressing!! I am officially pathetic!!

 

[L1sa]

Day 11

All is quiet. I checked last night and candled the only egg I can actually see through (that's little Frostie) and first of all I couldn't really see anything definite so I thought maybe it was an unfertilised egg. But then tried a stronger light and I could just see a small spider web of veins, it's a lot further behind than any normal egg on day 10, but it did spend 2 days in the refrigerator!!

I really hope Frostie makes it, it would be one of those amazing survival stories against all odds! I guess the issue we face if it continues to develop is that it will be way behind the others, if they hatch we run the risk of Doris abandoning Frostie to take care of the live chicks.

 

[L1sa]

Day 13

Doris is obviously not as neurotic as me! She hops off the nest, goes for a wander, dust bathes, eats, socialises, leaves the eggs until sometimes they are cold to the touch. But then she'll be back on them Again later and they'll be all toastie warm again.

If any of them hatch, it will be a miracle! But I guess every life is a miracle and I'm pretty sure nature has been hatching eggs for a bit longer than I have!

I am so impatient! And I'm only day 13, it is going soooo slowly.

 

[L1sa]

Day 14

I've come home from work today to find 1 egg inside the nest, 1 egg outside on the floor and 2 completely missing! I appear to have had a bit of a disaster with this brood! I know for a fact that no one has collected the two missing eggs, but I did find a broken and eaten unfertilised egg next to the nest. Would she have eaten the missing two? If not, where on earth are they!!!

I candled the two remaining eggs and they are both beautifully developed. So I guess there's still a little bit of hope. But I don't know how long the outside one was outside today, it definitely wasn't there this morning when I checked. It's looking more and more likely that I'll have to get her some day old chicks instead.