Quitters all the time

[jessejeanne]

Hi there,

I’ve been having issues with quitters in my hen’s eggs for a third time now.
We have a mixed flock with bantam Barnevelders and a Belgian chicken breed, our rooster is from the bantams.

When my barnevelder became broody on eggs from both breeds, they all developed very well.
Sadly, it was a staggered hatch, because of my lack of knowledge, and when the first three hatched, she left the nest and all the other chickens sadly died since I didn’t know what to do. I cracked two eggs open, and they probably would’ve hatched if it wasn’t a staggered hatch.

My Belgian chickens both got broody afterwards, one in July and the other in October, they also sat on eggs of both breeds, but this time their own baby chicks were quitters. Both times, their own babies did not survive, my bantam ones did.
This time, my Belgian chicken is broody again, she was sitting on 10 eggs of herself only.
I candled them, noticed growth, but again after 10-15 days, almost all of them died. Their shell is thicker which makes it harder to see the development.
Somehow she managed to also get some of my bantam chicken eggs, and as expected, I have 3 of the 5 eggs who are developing so well.

I tried looking it up but i can’t seem to find anything that could cause issues with cross-breeding chickens.
My bantam chicken left the nest just for 10 minutes, my Belgian chickens tend to leave it for 20 minutes or even longer. Could this also be a cause?
How come the bantams seem to be stronger than the mixed ones? Genes?

Does anyone else have experiences with this?

 

[Kiki]

What exactly do you feed your flock?
Do you have any disease in your flock?

 

[jessejeanne]

What exactly do you feed your flock?
Do you have any disease in your flock?

They are free range chickens and I give them a garden mix which contains grains, corn, chickpeas and sunflower seeds. I sometimes give them oatmeal or mealworms as a snack. We have lots of insects in our garden and they tend to eat a lot of grass as well. No sickness except that they had coccidiosis when they were younger, but that has been a year already.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Are they with other birds? Ive never had luck keeping broodies with the rest because other chickens will roll and break eggs

 

[jessejeanne]

Are they with other birds? Ive never had luck keeping broodies with the rest because other chickens will roll and break eggs

It’s only a flock of chickens. I had a few broken eggs lately but that was simply because they were laying in the wrong places. My broodies protect their nest very well and I have breeds that are known to be friendly and good mothers. I have a flock of 12 chickens and got 3 hatches last year. What kind of breeds you have? Maybe it’s the nesting boxes?