San Diego Chicken meetup and Chat thread

[dfdesigns]

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SAME THING HERE!! (Except it's a White Rock.) She has herself almost flat as a pancake in that nest box... There were no eggs out there; I think she's sitting on golf balls.

I may have some fertile eggs here; I wonder if I should give her some. Does it matter that they've been in my fridge?

Dana

 

[dfdesigns]

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40 horses?!? I have three, and some days that seems like two too many...

Dana

 

[flower]

My vote is to give her some eggs to sit on, five of them. But sit them out at room temperature to warm them. I hate to see a woman frustrated and what the heck , unless you really need those eggs for eating, this could be fun.

 

[dfdesigns]

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Enabler!

One more question: how do you convince a nasty, grumpy, growling girl to let you stick eggs under her???

 

[flower]

I have a Welsummer who was sitting on eggs everytime I went to collect them and I just shooed her off and finally she stopped sitting and is laying again. I do not have a rooster for them.

 

[flower]

Just stick them under her. You are much bigger than she is...........don't be afraid of a chicken.

 

[empireranch]

Dana - I took two eggs from under my broody last night after dark. I had a flash light with me and she then got up out of the nesting box and climbed up onto the roost with the others. Unfortunately, this morning she was back in the nest when I went down to let them out. She was not very polite and I keep hearing her growl at the others when they go in to lay. I can't have any chicks as I don't have the roosting space for any more at night and I could never give them away (unless rooster). She must be getting hungry....

 

[dfdesigns]

Mine was there all day yesterday, only coming down for a brief time. (And when she was out, she still looked all puffed up.) She was back on the nest at nighttime, and still there this morning. I've not seen her get off all day.

She's not feeling too friendly, so I sure didn't want to stick my hands anywhere near her face! (Yes, I am chicken.) She has one of her own eggs, and I took her out three more from my EE. (Who knows about fertility rates around here... two roos for twelve hens.) I stuck a big feed scoop in her face, and encouraged her to "stand up" a bit. She did, and I scooted the eggs under her. (Barely.) She was thrilled, and tucked all four neatly underneath her.

My nest boxes have a small trough in front of them, so I scooped some food in there for her. She snarfed it. Now I'm off to get a clip-on waterer as I'm SURE she's thirsty - it's almost 80 today.

What else do I do? I have NO CLUE what I'm doing here... She's in one of eight nest boxes, up off the floor. I realize if this works I need to move her at some point, but can she stay where she is now?

I'm a little scared of all this. Ugh.

 

[luvanimals2]

The only thing I would do is to mark the eggs just in case she gets off and another hen decides to lay in her nest box. That way you will not get confused when there are 8 eggs in there, you will know which to remove.

Eventually, I think it is a good idea to get her into a crate or partition an area for her and her babies.

good luck

Nancy
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[empireranch]

Good idea on marking the eggs.

Anyway, my girl must have already given up and is wandering around outside in the glorious sunshine. I guess I'll see where she sleeps tonight.