Spooky Broody!

[oldhenlikesdogs]

That's a lot of chicks.

 

[KDMdesigns]

lol every broody hen experience can be different for sure... Sounds like she's been very committed, yes I detest when the rest of the girls peck on the broody as we are experiencing here also.. Been harder with this one since flock is a little bit more than last summer's experience but this hen has also committed and focused on her clutch I have given her.. Let's see!! I look forward to seeing your chicks also!

Well from my broody, the 3 chicken eggs hatched 2 days earlier than expected and/or timed, so I now have three fluff balls... Still counting down to Wednesday when the duck eggs are expected/timed to hatch..
how exciting!!

 

[MigraineMan]

Well, we threw-in the towel on Miss Broody's clutch. We were down to three eggs. One rattled, one had a detached air sac, and the third just looked developed-but-stalled. We didn't do an eggtopsy, and opted to bury the eggs in the event they were funky. That was prudent, as one egg "popped" as we were covering them up.

Don't know what the failure cause was, but I suspect that Miss Broody had pushed all of the bedding out of the nesting box such that the eggs were in direct contact with the floor, and thus were not being maintained at temperature. Maybe.

Kelly (broody #2) is parked solidly on her clutch of 9 eggs. Hopefully we will have better luck with those. We are considering an early move to a private area so she won't have to deal with competition from the RSLs who want to lay in her nest. We have a space in the enclosure with the Wyandotte teenagers that should work, and I have every confidence that she will be able to keep the teens off her nest.

 

[ronott1]

Well, we threw-in the towel on Miss Broody's clutch. We were down to three eggs. One rattled, one had a detached air sac, and the third just looked developed-but-stalled. We didn't do an eggtopsy, and opted to bury the eggs in the event they were funky. That was prudent, as one egg "popped" as we were covering them up.

Don't know what the failure cause was, but I suspect that Miss Broody had pushed all of the bedding out of the nesting box such that the eggs were in direct contact with the floor, and thus were not being maintained at temperature. Maybe.

Kelly (broody #2) is parked solidly on her clutch of 9 eggs. Hopefully we will have better luck with those. We are considering an early move to a private area so she won't have to deal with competition from the RSLs who want to lay in her nest. We have a space in the enclosure with the Wyandotte teenagers that should work, and I have every confidence that she will be able to keep the teens off her nest.

I hope the second broody hatches chicks for you!

 

[MigraineMan]

This evening, we implemented Operation: Downtown Apartment.

We relocated Kelly and her clutch of green-dotted eggs to a nesting box located in the garden tractor, complete with a roving band of juvenile delinquents (aka "the Wyandotte teenagers.") Initially after relocation, she sat in the box ... unsure of her new environment. After about 10 minutes, she was up and moving around, scratching at the dirt in the new digs. The teen roo decided he would attempt to assert his authori-i-tay over the new resident, and pecked at her. She didn't take crap from him, and pecked him back rather severely. While I appreciate his enthusiasm, that was an ill-advised action against a bird 4x his size.

Hopefully this will give her some privacy to manage her clutch without intervention from the other hens. I checked on her at 10:40pm this evening, and she was sitting contently on her eggs.

You can see the Wyandotte teens sitting opposite her in front of the black tub.