Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

I don't believe any hens are fooled by fake eggs.

My hens only kick out dead eggs in the last week.
Thats why I tend to another opinion. I think broodies can be fooled in the first two weeks. But they must have an internal clock when they should start to notice/hear something inside. Like a mother feeling her baby. She notices when it is not moving (anymore).

PS Katrientje is moulting too. Moulting season has started.

 

[fluffycrow]

I wonder What kind of a session you did as mediator!
Look inyo my eyes?

I hope so much to see some fluf next week and Fret being agile enough to be an excellent mother.

Acrobats
View attachment 3605839

After 2 weeks with lots of rain, the weather here is finally the way it should in summer. 27C and .

My Greek heart is slightly hurting. 27°C for summer weather is COLD

 

[fluffycrow]

My hens only kick out dead eggs in the last week.
Thats why I tend to another opinion. I think broodies can be fooled in the first two weeks. But they must have an internal clock when they should start to notice/hear something inside. Like a mother feeling her baby. She notices when it is not moving (anymore).

PS Katrientje is moulting too. Moulting season has started.

Cruella threw out her infertile eggs while she was brooding as well. But the non-broody hens only seem to throw out the fake eggs

 

[Perris]

When I lifeted Fret off her nest and put her down to eat she had a bad limp.

I see this sometimes and I think it can be explained as just a bit stiff after a long spell sitting. The next two quotes encourage me to think that's what was going on with Fret

Fret got the rat even with her limp

She was quite capable of digging a dust bath and having a bit of a forage around my plot.

My eldest offered me their spare room

Yay!

and might not want to leave

Talking of which, any news on your move to a new place closer to the allotments?

I don't believe any hens are fooled by fake eggs

Some are. Eve has been sitting on 2 golf balls, 1 plastic white egg, and 1 rubber brown one, on no nesting material at all (!) since 28 July. I was trying to break her before this as Janeka was already sitting, and stopped chasing her off for fear she would interfere with Janeka and wreck that clutch. I feel really sorry for her now, as she has been pretty diligent with the fakes, carefully gathering them under her when she comes back from her daily ablutions, while they roll around freely on the smooth plastic bottom of the box. If this can be explained by something other than her thinking they're real eggs, I'm listening...

I found that if any egg from a breakage is left in the nest, the ants move in.

On the ground or with wood maybe, but perhaps harder with plastic coops? An egg got broken in Janeka's clutch towards the end of the first week, and I didn't see any ants, including when I cleaned it all out after she'd taken the chicks off for foraging 101.

 

[fluffycrow]

I see this sometimes and I think it can be explained as just a bit stiff after a long spell sitting. The next two quotes encourage me to think that's what was going on with Fret




Yay!

Talking of which, any news on your move to a new place closer to the allotments?

Some are. Eve has been sitting on 2 golf balls, 1 plastic white egg, and 1 rubber brown one, on no nesting material at all (!) since 28 July. I was trying to break her before this as Janeka was already sitting, and stopped chasing her off for fear she would interfere with Janeka and wreck that clutch. I feel really sorry for her now, as she has been pretty diligent with the fakes, carefully gathering them under her when she comes back from her daily ablutions, while they roll around freely on the smooth plastic bottom of the box. If this can be explained by something other than her thinking they're real eggs, I'm listening...

On the ground or with wood maybe, but perhaps harder with plastic coops? An egg got broken in Janeka's clutch towards the end of the first week, and I didn't see any ants, including when I cleaned it all out after she'd taken the chicks off for foraging 101.

Maybe Eve wants babies so much, she's in denial ?

 

[TropicalChickies]

Strip the nest out being very careful of the eggs. I usually put the eggs on the ground so the hen, but more importantly sometimes, the rooster can see them.
I've ahd roosters go for me when stripping out a nest where a hen is sitting. If they can see the eggs while they get stressed it seems to relax them enough not to try and defend them.
Don't wash the eggs. Clean as best you can without washing. Washng can remove the protective bloom on the eggs which hepls keep bacteria out.
I pick what I can off the hens belly and then chuck them in a dust bath.
Try to rebuild the nest with a good dip in the middle and return the eggs.

Ok, thank you. That's pretty much what I did. Lucio was off with the other hens foraging in the forest when I cleaned out the nest so I didn't have to deal with him. I put Dusty under a big wicker basket with the eggs in front of her while I cleaned. I wiped the goo off the eggs with a dampened rag -- they weren't too bad -- put fresh sand and soil in the nest and put Dusty and the eggs back. I was more wondering if I should bathe her, but didn't want to get her too wet. I wiped her belly off anyway. She did take a good dust bath after the incident. This morning she still smells a little eggy but I guess that will wear off with a few more dust baths.

The eggs I chose for hatching are all good strong shelled eggs so must have been quite a scuffle.

Rusty -- the instigator of the break -- is a jealous terror. Yesterday, Lucio finally noticed how pretty young Frida is (now that she's laying) and was offering her treats all morning. Rusty attacked Frida no less than three times, that I saw.

 

[Shadrach]

I've never heard of non-broody hens kicking eggs out of the nesting box due to them being infertile

I've had hens do this; that or eat the eggs.

 

[fluffycrow]

I've had hens do this; that or eat the eggs.

I've had plenty of egg eaters, but none that specifically target infertile eggs. How would they know? There isn't any development, and they're not brooding on them, so it doesn't make sense to ditch them

 

[TropicalChickies]

One more thing about nest cleaning. I found that if any egg from a breakage is left in the nest, the ants move in.

Me too. Ants. Lots of them. But I live in bug heaven. I shoveled out all the soil and sand until I couldn't smell egg anymore, put down some dry rice hulls (absorbent) and clean sand and soil over it. All of the ants here bite and I don't want a broody sitting there all tranced out being ant food.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I'd make a deep dustbath in an appropriate sized box and keep it ready for when she comes off for food and water, then put it very close by her, and perhaps she'll use it after she's eaten and pooped.

She took a dust bath after the incident. The dust bathing station is right behind her nesting area. She usually visits it twice a day. She's obsessive about dust bathing and doesn't even shake off most of the dirt before she goes back to her nest. She just sits there like Pig Pen from the Charlie Brown cartoon. I'm thinking perhaps because she's frizzled, she used the extra dirt to help maintain the humidity in her nest. Or keep bugs off her while she sits. Or she just likes being covered in dirt.

Only Dusty knows.