setting on 3 gift eggs, prayers please

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Oh, we're going to let Chloe try again. She is eternally broody. She's usually "counting" and "loving" invisible eggs, so I slipped a real live egg under her on Wednesday. She instantly loved it. Today, one week later, she has 3 eggs. She adores them. I don't know if those other two are hers, and nobody around here has 'fessed up to slipping her any more eggs.

Prayers, anybody? We're hoping for the best, that she gets to love a chick. The egg I gave her was Rosie's (chick will be a Rosecomb/Silkie mix)


Luckily, if we hatch another rooster, our generous relative in Wisconsin said she'd take him on her farm!

 

[mmaddie's mom]

Prayers for Chloe... Keep us informed of her family status!

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Well HEY! What's going on?! I got home from work this eve and found Chloe sitting on 5 eggs! No idea how this will work out.

 

[Elphaba2140]

Jeanne-I am excited for you and your family. I hope Chloe gets herself a bunch of chickies! My BIG (older) girls just started laying this week. I am excited about that. I can't even imagine what it will be like next spring when they want to become broody.

 

[SallyF]

Broody hens are fun to watch. I love to watch mama hens and their newly hatched chicks. Talk about warm fuzzy feelings! I wish Chloe all the best; hope she hatches several babies.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

I am informed today that Chloe is on 10 of Rosie's eggs. She "loves one in" by tucking it up into her fluff, but the tucking-in egg shoves another egg out the other side. So now she has them gathered into the back of her basket so she can fluff herself up the wall of the basket to try to keep them all covered in fluff.

Should I try candling the eggs, maybe take away any not growing yet? In the afternoon she gets out to take a jog for about 20 minutes. If I'm pretty sly....................

 

[nifty50chick]

Sly is good! Have a peek for sure!

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Right now at this very moment I am on watch dog duty! Miss Rosie is tucked in under Chloe's front fluff, laying ANOTHER fertile myrtle egg. I plan on collecting the warm wet one without upsetting Chloe too much. That would be the 11th or 12th egg. That's too much.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Dang! Missed my chance! Went out to grocery shop before the kids got home, came home to Miss Rosie all glad to see me, and Chloe fluffed up over too many eggs.

One looks a little poopy, so I picked it up and held it to the sun, looks like a big dark thing in there. Since I dont know if thats the yolk or a chick, and since Chloe became frantic, I put it back under her.

I think we'll have to fence off her nest basket, to keep Miss Rosie from putting more eggs under her. But son #2 has a good point: "But mom, they'll attack her once she gets back out!"

Or maybe, we should lock up Miss Rosie until she's done her egglaying, then let her roam the rest of the day. But that may take a lot of babysitting.

Any ideas?

p.s. son#2 says hi.

 

[Mrs. K]

I think you might have a bit of a wreck. And nothing might hatch. However it is not too late to fix it.

The thing is that with too many eggs, they do not all get consistent heat, as they get moved around. They get too cold and die. The other thing is the egg begins to develop when placed under the mother hen. Later placed eggs, develop much later, and at the end, the hen will leave the nest after about 24 hours of the first egg hatching. those later eggs will die.

I would start over, she sounds like a great hen that really wants to be a mom, and as stated, there is nothing as much fun as watching this process, and after you have a hen raise chicks, you will never go back!

I would collect some fertilized eggs, mark them with a pencil, so you know which eggs they are. If she is a standard hen, she should be able to cover well 10-12 eggs, and if you check the hatching forum, you can figure on about a 50% hatch. Then at night in the dark, I would slip her off the nest, remove all of those eggs, place your marked eggs under her, and return her to the nest, and mark the calendar for 21 days.

You can either, block off her nest so that other hens can't get into it, or move her to a separate place, but then you will have reintroduction issues. I left mine with the flock this summer, and it worked well. My nest is so small, two hens cannot fit into it. You need to check, and make sure only the marked eggs are under her (if she will let you, mine would remove your hand at the elbow if you tried to get into her nest)

I really think it would be better if you started over. The eggs need to start all together. Sometimes you will have a hen hide a nest, and everyday, she will slip off to lay in a hidden spot. Those eggs just sit there, and do not start to develop, then one day she will decide that there is enough eggs in the nest, and begin to set on the nest, only getting off once or so a day. Many chicken people have thought that they lost a hen, only to have her bring her chicks out 3 weeks later.

MrsK