Spooky Broody!

[Ducklover2]

 

[Reurra]

aww so sorry!!

the chick in the coop still didnt hatch so i checked it out.

The membrane was dried to it. Poor thing was exhausted. Its kinda wierd too. its got tiny knobs all over its skin! Like it stared to grow some feather but ended up as bumps instead. One eye is slightly larger too. I dint know if it will make it

 

[ronott1]

Dang it. Didn't make it through the night.
View attachment 1387547

I am so sorry!

 

[ronott1]

aww so sorry!!

the chick in the coop still didnt hatch so i checked it out.

The membrane was dried to it. Poor thing was exhausted. Its kinda wierd too. its got tiny knobs all over its skin! Like it stared to grow some feather but ended up as bumps instead. One eye is slightly larger too. I dint know if it will make it

You never know. There might be something wrong with it that caused it to not hatch

 

[Reurra]

Well i got him out very slowly but he doesnt seem to be warming up. I guess nature knows best for him. Time will tell

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Another this morning and one more on the way!! That brings the count to 12!! And more eggs under her!

Ill let her keep the one thats hatching and any others that pop out in the meantime. will her chick be ok while she sits on the other eggs? When should I call it quits if no more hatch? Should i candle the rest?

If you leave the chicks the mom will leave the nest on the second day generally and abandon the rest. I would candle for sure and keep pulling chicks if you want to hatch them all.

 

[MigraineMan]

Oooh, oooh, oooh ... me too! (looks like we have a second broody hen)

 

[Reurra]

Another 2 hatched!! Im up to 14 live chicks!

I have to sell some

There are WAY more than i expected!!

I think another one pipped last night!!

Final count on the eggs she has been sitting on?
22!!

 

[MigraineMan]

Congrats (I think.) C'mon, they're fuzzbutts ... you can't sell 'em. Just expand your coop and run a little ... I promise you'll be fine. Fuzzbutts are not a gateway to a chicken empire ... probably.

We candled the eggs under Miss Broody this afternoon. We are down to five. Four have marker dots, and are pretty solid looking with a decent-sized air space inside. The fifth wasn't marked, and was probably laid recently (we removed that one.) No stinkiness, so we put them back under her to see what happens.

The new broody - we're calling her Kelly because the dots on her eggs are green - has nine eggs. My son wants to run them to term, so we will give it a go. Our first attempt hasn't been the pillar of success, so I hope we do better on Round Two. Temperatures are generally up, so hopefully that helps. Miss Broody had dug a hole in the bedding, so the eggs and chicks would have been in contact with the uninsulated coop floor ... which I would imagine is a "bad thing." We fluffed the bedding in hopes of fixing that. I have a bottle of Nutri-Drench, and will probably zap the newborns with that as soon as possible.

While we were inspecting eggs, Kelly took the liberty to exit the coop and have a trot around the outside of the run. The Rooster was not pleased, and made quite the fuss. She dropped a deuce, had a scratch in the grass, and then went right back to the eggs when she was returned to the coop.

 

[Reurra]

Final count!!

So today I went in and checked on Mom. She has 4 more babies!!

She kicked out the last 6 eggs and I gave them a little shake, they were "splooshy" And 2 rattled. I eggTopsied and found one that had died about 5 days from hatching and another that died at about week 2. The rest were duds.

So all told:

15 Live Chicks, 1 Malformed Chick (Deceased after hatch) = 16 out of 22 eggs!!
What a great Mom!!