Ribh's D'Coopage

[Perris]

Congratulations on the hatch!

trust the mamas to know what to do.

Yes. Hatching takes different chicks in different eggs different levels of effort. Some need longer than others to break out and/or to recover. Let the hens be your guide; they will keep conditions ideal for the chicks at whatever stage of hatching.

If you hear very loud cheeps coming from a nest, an early hatcher may be getting desperate to leave, but usually the broody will favour the majority if she has to choose between go out with that one and leave the rest, or wait and risk that one dehydrating.

A clean nest I can & will do but I think I need to wait on all the eggs hatching first

Yes. Until they are dry.

dust

of any sort can cause respiratory issues

Not wanting to upset my sitters I haven't checked them as regularly

I think that's the right thing to do. Broodies are liable to be parasitized while on a nest as they are sitting ducks, almost literally. I remember once being horrified when inspecting a nest while the broody was off and seeing tiny insects crawling over the eggs. If I remember aright I moved them into the neighbouring nestbox to check if the insects were in the bedding or had come from the hen, found it was the hen, moved the eggs back and then added permethrin to a storage box dust box for the hen. It sufficed for the duration of the incubation.

 

[Perris]

This brown frog entered the free range domain of the chickens.
View attachment 3971334
He must have been there before I opened the run door.
He sat quietly for about a minute or 3 and the jumped quickly to /through the ivy hedge to the neighbors. Leaving a few hens bewildered when they noticed this creature who disappeared swiftly into ‘thin air’.

Is that not a European toad?

 

[Ribh]

Do you want to buy a few hatching eggs?

Random quote showed up... And no, I have more eggs under hens than I need.

Yes. Hatching takes different chicks in different eggs different levels of effort. Some need longer than others to break out and/or to recover. Let the hens be your guide; they will keep conditions ideal for the chicks at whatever stage of hatching.

Thanks @Perris. I lost the 1st two. Not surprised. They never seemed quite right. Wrold was upset when I removed them but she still has 2 strong healthy looking chicks & another still attempting to hatch. This is my 1st ever hatch & while I'm trying to leave everything up to the mamas I just couldn't leave 2 dead babies under her.

Yes. Until they are dry.

Good to know.

I think that's the right thing to do. Broodies are liable to be parasitized while on a nest as they are sitting ducks, almost literally. I

Mine are pretty good because they're used to being handled but even so, I tried to keep it to a minimum once they had eggs under them. I am being allowed to check the chicks without too much fuss.

 

[Ribh]

Congratulations on the hatch!

Thanks, Perris. Looks like I am waiting on the last 3. I think Wrold's last one is a quitter but I'll leave it for now.

 

[Ribh]

Wrold's 2.

 

[Perris]

If this is your first hatch, I can imagine the excitement. It never gets less in my experience

 

[BDutch]

These are ordinary poultry mites

I only know of 3 types of mites with chickens.
Red poultry mites
Northern Fowl mites
Scaly Leg mites.
What are ordinary poultry mites?

I won't use DE; its a known carcinogen.

The food grade DE is not carcinogen. It can cause respiratory problems if you let it dust in front of the nose. But otherwise there are no known health issues with food grade DE. I use it for 8-9 years now with good results to prevent bad news (no SLM, no feather lice, no worm problems, no heavy red mite infections).

The poison /medication industry always promotes their profitable products and doesn’t like it when people use natural products. I rather thrust organic animal shops than poison factories that are the cause of the decrease of bees and other insects. They are known to mislead governments with their manipulated researches. Because nowadays most poisons for animals in food production are not allowed to use, even the farmers here started to use DE.

 

[BDutch]

Is that not a European toad?

No, it’s a common frog here in NL. I looked it up with an app: 100% sure it’s a ‘bruine kikker’.

 

[Ribh]

I only know of 3 types of mites with chickens.
Red poultry mites
Northern Fowl mites
Scaly Leg mites.
What are ordinary poultry mites?

Wrong hemisphere for northern fowl mites.
Not the nasty reds.
Not scaly leg mites.
What I've got is as happy to chomp on me as on the hens & I could see them running all over the eggs. I've got to thoroughly check my clothing after handling the hens- especially seams. They're sneaky little devils.

 

[Shadrach]

A question for experienced hatchers: The girls seem to have generated a mite plague in the nesting boxes. Can I treat immediately or should I wait till the babies are bigger?

At this stage I would wait for the hatching to finish and then move mum and chicks to a new nest. A lot depends on exactly what type of mite you are dealing with. There are the well known mte types but there are thousands of types of mites and the type often dictates the treatment. If the mites live on the bird then one isn't left with many options and neither DE or permethrin dust would be my choice. I would choose a permethrin spray for the birds and a blow torch for the coop.