Sad story and a question.

[kimice]

My rooster Barney was eaten by my dog yesterday... I take full responsibility though. Yesterday I was leaving my house to run up the road. Earlier I had let the chickies out of their pen to free range a bit that morning. When I was walking out to my car to put my daughter in her seat I thought to myself "Should I go put the chickens away?" I decided not to. I was only running up the road for a few mins. I returned home about 45 mins later to find feathers all over my yard. My heart sank and I immediately knew what happend. I heard the chickens fussing down at the barn and quickly ran out there. I prayed on the way out that all of these feathers weren't from one of my girls. When I looked inside the coop all of the girls were there, but no Barney. The girls were very upset. They keep looking at me and following me like I'm going to bring him back to the coop. It is so sad. He was an great rooster and took care of his girls.

The though hit me this morning that maybe I can hatch some of his eggs. I just ask google and read that the hen stays fertilized for up to 3 weeks! I have never tried to hatch any eggs and was wondering if this is a good idea ? How long do I leave them in the nest to see if the hen will hatch them or not? Is it best just to make an incubator? How many eggs should I try to hatch? If I have any roosters in the batch will I have to seperate them from their possible mom hen? I dunno. Alot of questions I know and some kind of odd ones! lol I intend to start reading lots of threads under this catagory to get me started, but any advice would be great.

 

[chickflick]

So sorry to hear about your rooster. He probably was protecting the girls from the dog.

I don't have a lot of experience on hatching, so I won't tell you any thing since I don't want to tell you something not right. But, there's a lot of people that will answer your questions. Good Luck!

 

[seminolewind]

I'm so sorry. My dog got my beloved roo a few years ago, and since, we have not had one like him. If you don't have a reliable broody hen, I would do the incubator. If a hen is broody, and incubator is a great backup.

If you want to know fertility, crack a few eggs open and look for a tiny white dot on the yolk. If it has a halo around it, it's fertile. SpeckledHen actually has pics posted somewhere. It's easy to find. Good luck!

 

[clairabean]

Is your hen broody? If not, the eggs will go to waste.


I am sorry about your roo.

 

[LegginMF12]

I am sorry to here about your roo. If your hen(s) are not broody they will not sit on the eggs. You will need to incubate them. If you don't have an incubator or have never done it before, maybe somebody close to you has one you can use, get help from or add your eggs to. Also once a dog has killed an animal they usually continue with the behavior. You might want to try finding out if someone in your area can help you retrain your dog. With all of my dogs,when they were puppies, I stuck them in a coop with either fighting roosters (these were bred for show guys and never fought, I just can't think of the breed name) or in with a couple of broody hens. I put goggles on the dog (yes goggles! LOL) to protect their eyes and let them get a whoopin. I now have a 115 lb male pit bull who is 9 yrs old that still to this day will give the chickens the right of way to his food EVERY time. Though he is Satan incarnate when it comes to squirrles, chipmunks and rabbits.

 

[Gypsy07]

Start saving eggs, read a few threads, look for a cheap second-hand incubator and get going! Good luck!

Being new to incubating, I'd say you should set as many eggs as you can to maximise your chances of getting some chicks. If you have a successful incubation and end up with way more chicks than you wanted, you can probably give them away to good homes.

 

[kimice]

Thanks for the replies. I looked up how to build my own incubator with a styrafoam cooler on google. It looks pretty simple. They said to use a digital temperature and humidity meter. I'm going to have to price one of those, but I saw an incubator at my local feed store for about 50$. I did collect two eggs already. They sat in the nest all day and a bit this evening before I got home. It is about 57 degrees f outside. I read that you can keep them for 10 days at room temperature before putting them all together in the incubator. I hope they will be ok. I'm sure I will be posting on my progress and have many questions! As for my dog. We are not speaking right now. He is on the tie out run by the back door right now. He has never bothered my chickens when I'm out there. He goes out with me to do barn chores and walks right by them. Its just when I wasn't there. I am going to do everything in my power to prevent it from ever happening it again.

 

[Sphinx]

I'm so sorry to hear about your rooster.

9 days ago, I discovered all of my hens dead. The rooster survived, along with a "visiting" hen we had. While I gathered myself to go outside and clean up the carnage, I took my eggs out of the fridge. I hadn't planned on hatching anything til spring, but with my girls gone, I knew if I wanted THEIR offspring, it had to be now. So, I took my last dozen out, turned on my little incubator, and let everything settle while I cleaned up outside. Then, I came in and set the 7 prettiest eggs in the carton.

We're at day 9 now, and 6/7 are developing perfectly.

So, I'd say you should definitely go for it. It will be nice to have a legacy to your lost roo.

 

[ki4got]

i'd say go to a craft store and buy some fake eggs (wood or ceramic) and start replacing the real eggs with fakes, keeping the real eggs aside for incubating. depending on breeds some are more likely to go broody than others, but if she sees a nest full of eggs, she might be inclined to sit on them. (but i'd still get an incubator too)

then set the eggs when you get enough (whatever they lay in 10 days i'd say). and if a hen goes broody before they hatch, you can give her a couple eggs and see how she does with them. if she's a good momma you can sneak the rest of the eggs/chicks under her at night. there's a number of good broody threads too.

i've got 2 broodys right now, one is very reliable for sitting tight, the other keeps wanting to wander off to her original nest, but because she's not too sociable she won't let anyone else lay in the nest while she's there, so she's been relocated to another pen.

 

[jeslewmazer]

Sorry about Barney.

If you are wanting to hatch the eggs I would also say Go For It. If you don't know how good your hens are at going broody and hatching...personally I would incubate. You can candle your eggs between 4-10 days from start of incubation if you want to see whether or not the chicks are developing. Under normal situations I don't try to hatch eggs that are over 7days old, because hatch rates do go down. As for how long the hens stay fertile....I have read on here as well as other sites that a hen can stay fertile for three weeks, but personally mine only stay fertile about 3-4 days after the rooster was removed. Hatch as many eggs as you want or can get. Odds are 50/50, but lets say you hatch 10 chicks. You could wind up with only girls/boys. The more you hatch the better the odds of getting what you are looking for. Breeding the offspring with the mom is ok if they have not been inbreed before. To much or too close inbreed can cause defects and infertility in future offspring. In other words if you want to breed the offspring from the son and mom, I would suggest not breeding them with the parents. But that is not to say you can or that it would not work.

Sorry, I might be going to far in the future. This is just from my personal experience. Some information will always be debatable. Everyone here has gave you great advice.