Well 3 Houdan males, I watched one day and the alpha one was mounting one then trying to beat him up, as well as the other roo. I removed the nastiest one. Then one started in on the other, so I removed the next poorly behaved one. The first one would not let up!
The other two, well the nastiest one was trying to kill the other one so now all 3 are separate. They were hatched together.
Emily, the black Rock, is sitting on a nest tonight on zero eggs. She got serious real fast, unlike Nugget, who clucks and flares for two weeks before she decides to walk onto a nest and stay; but, at least when Nugget sticks, she really sticks...until the kids are of mating age, almost, LOL!
After checking under Dottie on a whim (today was Day 19) and finding a partially crushed egg with chick inside, yolk and goo all over, we removed it and thought it was a goner-it is Caroline's chick. Laying it out on a towel in the sun, we saw that she had smushed the yolk sac back out of it and there was lots of gooey membrane attached, but thankfully, the intestines were still in the chick as far as we can tell. Since it was breathing okay, we snipped off the yolk sac from the body, no bleeding happened, and it's in a plastic container under a light in the livingroom, waiting for the umbilicus to close off entirely and to see if it can get to its feet. Had to clean her off, get some nest material out and wash off the remaining egg, which was unpipped, but chirping.
First time broodies, grrrrr!
She still has the one Delaware egg left and we are a bit nervous as to how she is going to handle that. Checked on her a little later and she had rolled the egg out of the nest, over a 4x4 and onto the floor so she could get some water, just took the egg with her. I checked to see if she had cracked it and it was pipped! She acted like she wanted to go back on the nest, so we put the egg back and she went back.
Later, she was off again to poop, leaving the egg again, I cleaned that out of the floor, she went back. Again, I check on her and she's rolled the egg onto the floor again, so we remove the 4x4 and spread out her nest. So, now we are having to go out and check her every 15 minutes so she doesn't do something weird and hurt the Dellie baby and hope she will mother both of these, if Caroline's baby even survives.
ETA: Looks like Caroline's baby is going to make it! Bad news is that Dottie tried to crush Ellie's, too! I got to it and it's alive, but it's navel was greatly enlarged and some innards pushed too far out so we tried to glue it like SuperChick. Not sure it will work and it's still laying on its back.
We took Caroline's chick out to Dottie. She is not acting like a normal broody at all; she isn't clucking to it, she is flaring at it and hostile, so rather than risk her killing it, we took it back in the house, set up a box as a brooder and hopefully, the pure Dellie will make it and it will have a friend. Nugget wouldn't take it--she stepped onto her nest at roost time tonight to settle down to brood, but she knows she hasn't been sitting, so knows that is not her baby and refused it or I'd let her raise them. Guess I'll throw Dottie's behind back in the coop, clean out the broody pen for Nuggs and give her eggs tomorrow. Now, what to do with one or two chicks?
Here is Caroline's baby, the DelaBrahma. It has a pea comb, but NO feathers on the legs!
First time broody girls are not to be trusted, are they?! Darn girls..... some just wanna sit but don't want to raise the kids! I have had it happen also.
Unceremoniously toss Dottie's bad butt back in their with Isaac! Silly girl. Hopefully it was a first timer's confusion and maybe she will actually be a good broody, if she goes broody again.
Here is the First Ever in History....baby of Snow. Snow is Cyn's Splash Ameraucana, daughter of Charlotte. The baby daddy is Isaac of course. LOL
Here is the newest Politician Chicken...June and Isaac's baby with Snow's baby
Snow isn't Charlotte's daughter, though. Snow and Nora were hatched from eggs out of a Cree flock in California. Lynn (henhaven) sent me eggs she got from her friend, bless her generous heart.
The pure Dellie died. There was no way to save it. Caroline's baby seems to be fine, but now, I have single chick in a box in the house, Dottie is so confused but is back in the main flock, and Nugget has just been placed in the broody pen with a clutch of eggs. Poor Dottie, she just was so completely befuzzled by the entire hatching thing and those intruders that were coming out of her eggs.
Guess I'll have to rehome this single DelaBrahma chickster. I've only kept one of Caroline's kids before, but if I recall, she throws a few more females than males. This one's legs are not particularly large, either. I have another egg of hers under Nugget.
