Red Partridge Orpington informational hatch thread

[K0k0shka]

Well, they are fickle.
She'll probably go full on once the chicks are all hatched.
Broodies can be fascinatingly loverly, but they can also be a total PITA.

I imagine the younger the broody, the closer to PITA she is than to lovely...
Mine took 3 hours off in the afternoon but went back to the nest after that and hasn't moved since. They're all asleep now and she's sleeping in the nest. Let's hope she figures this out. I might still try and give her real eggs tomorrow...

 

[K0k0shka]

It's been about 24 hours since my broody returned to the nest, and she hasn't moved from it yet... I have the coop cam aimed at her and have been checking on her throughout the day. So at least she hasn't given up completely! Maybe she's making up for yesterday's extra long break This is day 4 of her sitting now, and 3 nights. Is it safe to assume she's committed by this point, and give her real eggs? (I know there are no guarantees, but still...) The eggs are on day 13 today.

 

[K0k0shka]

Alright, it’s official. 4 days in, I gave her these 3 eggs (candled them and they look good). I pulled the 6 eggs she’d been sitting on and she only gave me a single customary peck, very lightly and politely, and let me do the swap, clucking softly the whole time. She hasn’t left the nest today, or if she did it must have been very briefly. I’ll contain my excitement for now, but I am cautiously optimistic.

Is it safe to eat the eggs she was sitting on? Some of them have spent 3 days at chicken body temperature...

 

[Newyorkrita]

I hope it goes well.

 

[aart]

Alright, it’s official. 4 days in, I gave her these 3 eggs (candled them and they look good). I pulled the 6 eggs she’d been sitting on and she only gave me a single customary peck, very lightly and politely, and let me do the swap, clucking softly the whole time. She hasn’t left the nest today, or if she did it must have been very briefly. I’ll contain my excitement for now, but I am cautiously optimistic.

Is it safe to eat the eggs she was sitting on? Some of them have spent 3 days at chicken body temperature...

I wouldn't.
Not sure I'd even open them up.

 

[K0k0shka]

I wouldn't.
Not sure I'd even open them up.

I opened a quitter from the incubator at day 7 and it was fine, no smell. Fed it to the chickens. I’ll give them the eggs broody was sitting on, too.

 

[K0k0shka]

I hope it goes well.

Thank you!

 

[K0k0shka]

UPDATE: Day 14 Candling

Day 14 was on Saturday and I candled all the eggs again. My friend's 3 dark speckled eggs that I couldn't see into last week (Welsummer hen + mixed breed rooster) all had blood rings. They all came from the same hen, which makes me wonder if there's something wrong with her... Those were the only 3 eggs I set from her, and all died early. There were two more dead eggs - one from my friend's batch, and one from my partridges - that looked like they died around the same time, during week 2. I could clearly see the outline of the chick, but there was no movement, no veins left, and lots of loose stuff settled at the bottom. The rest of the eggs are all developing. So on day 7 there were 10 developing eggs in each group, and now there are 9 in each group. Of my friend's 9, 3 are now under my broody, and 6 are in the incubator with my 9 partridges.

My air cells didn't look too bad on day 7, so I was hoping that maybe shipping was gentler this time. Day 14 though... Things have changed, and their air cells look horrible My fiend's local eggs have perfectly circular air cells right at the top of the fat end, and mine are all droopy and spilled down the sides of the egg, with weird pockets and poorly defined edges. That does not bode well for the chicks. I'm getting really discouraged. All the chicks are moving, but the eggs don't look equally "full". The incubator has stabilized quite a bit, now that there are fewer eggs in there and air circulation is better. Humidity is pretty stable around 30%. So at this point it's shipping and genetics... and nail-biting until next Saturday.

Here's one of my partridge orps:

And one of my friend's blue eggs:

Check out the local egg's perfect air cell outlines (far right), and my shipped eggs' wobbly messes (numbered eggs):

Air cells spilling down the sides:

My friend's egg with the weird thin areas that looked like (healed?) cracks has died at some point:

My broody seems to be taking things more seriously now that she has real eggs under her. I haven't seen her leave the nest, which means she must be doing it quickly and then going back in, as she should. I check on her every afternoon to pull the new eggs from under her (her friends all want to lay in her nest, of course), and to check her eggs for cracks. She's very nice to me and lets me take the eggs, no hissing or biting or anything like that. She's the one who likes to perch on my shoulder though, so we're buddies Having a close relationship with your chickens makes everything so much easier. Like how the kids forgot the run door open the other day and the chickens spilled into the yard, but all we had to do was just walk up to each one, pick her up and carry her back, no chasing or squawking or drama. I've been bringing my broody scrambled eggs as a power snack and hand-feeding them to her while she's in the nest. She really likes that.

Lockdown is technically midday today, but I have to work so I don't know if I'll get to it. I'll unplug the turner and start raising the humidity, and rearrange everything tonight (take the turner out etc.)

I'm thinking of sectioning off part of the coop so that the other chickens don't have access to the broody during lockdown and hatching, so they don't hurt the babies by trying to still lay in her nest. I'll give them a temporary nest box on the other side of the coop, and leave food and water on the broody's side. I got a chick-size feeder and waterer, too. I did my big biennial coop clean-out last weekend, shoveling and clunking around the broody as she sat, and she was cool with it. Now I have a very deep, very fluffy layer of new shavings in the coop and my kids have a question I don't really have an answer to. Will the chicks sink into the fluff and disappear? I'll make them a ramp so they can get down from the nesting box (which is just a few inches off the ground) but then what? Should I thin down the bedding? Stomp it to compress it down? I use sand in the brooder so I don't actually have any experience with little chicks and fluffy bedding... Advice would be appreciated.

 

[aart]

Might be a good idea to block the nest with wire mesh during hatching to keep other birds out.

 

[Faraday40]

Love this pic!