Two eggs look active now, hope they pull through!!
Congratulations!!! Tomorrow morning starts day 21 with my broody, who also has 11 eggs under her. I peeked under late this afternoon, and am almost certain I saw one of the eggs moving. I hope they start hatching soon. She hasn't been off her eggs since late Wednesday. She has food and water that she can reach by stretching out her neck, and I am cleaning up behind her once a day, if you know what I mean....Went out to check on my broody hen and surprise surprise! She did her job well after all!!! She hasn't gotten off the nest yet but I saw quite a few chicks under her by just lifting her wing. I had her sitting on 11 eggs. Incubator hatches are going slow, hope I get more than 7
There was a hole the size of a quarter on one of them, and the baby was gone, but the egg wasn't cracked like it had hatched. Found the other egg, collapsed on itself, as though it had been sucked dry. Found a gap about about an inch in one place in the shed, so I'm guessing something squeezed in and got the chicks? Any idea what might have gotten them?
Well, it is so strange you should be asking this. Today I was in the barn, cleaning out a horse stall that is now a chicken pen. The barn is metal with rough cut oak boards lining the stalls, so there is a small dead space there. In one corner of the stall I have made a brooder, which is contains 38 meat chicks....red rangers, and dual purpose males. I don't know if the chicks made a noise, or I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye, but I turned toward the brooder in time to see a 3 foot long black snake come through a gap in the wood boards and drop into the brooder. Needless to say, I went nuts. I had a flat coal shovel in my hand, and I took it and started screaming like a fool, and hitting at the snake. It managed to get out of the brooder, and I penned it under the edge of my shovel, and eventually killed it. I just knew that will all of my panic that I had hurt one or more of the babies, but I guess they managed to stay out of the way of the shovel. I really think it was just coming to the heat lamp, because we are having a really cool day today, and the sun it had been in was moving and it was seeking warmth.....but I am sure it would have gotten at least one of my babies if I hadn't been there. Some predators would have come in and hurt your hen, but a snake would go after the eggs. Now whether they would literally suck the inside out of one, I do not know....though I think I remember my mother telling me about a snake doing that when she was younger. The gap it came through was no more than 3/4 of an inch. Gonna have to line the brooder with plywood or something similar.Went to see if there was any action under my broody hen, and two eggs were empty, but no chicks
