Starting staggered hatching adventure

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Yesterday, I found my Buff broody sitting in the entry way of the broody box, not in the back where I put the box stuffed with hay to hold her nest together. I looked and she had tipped the box over and dumped the eggs into the front of the box. I dumped the straw out of the box and formed it into a nest in the back of the box. Broody did NOT like this. She started running all around the run I have her isolated in, "bock"ing her head off. Like I was trying to steal her eggs. I checked the eggs over and one of the Cornish eggs had a large dent in it. It wasn't leaking, but with these eggs being broody hatched, I didn't want to leave it. I also found a fairy egg, which I removed as well. I moved the 11 remaining eggs and put the broody in the box and shut the door. She squawked for a minute, until she found the rebuilt nest and started clucking contentedly and settled in on the eggs and has stayed there since.

Last evening, we moved the birds off their winter area to grassy pasture and I found a broody Dominique in one of the nest boxes. I think she is my "bad broody" from last year. This was before I banded them so I can't tell this Dominique from her 2 sisters. She isn't mean like she was last time (last year she tried taking chunks out of my hand). This year, all she did was growl. In fact, she sounds more broody than the buff broody. Last night I moved her into a broody box with fake eggs in the same run as the buff and she made no complaints. Today, she was up and at-em, but walking around fluffed up like a turkey, making broody "bock, bock, bock" noises and picking stuff off the ground and throwing it over her back. This is the behavior that makes me think it is the same bird, and not sitting on the fake eggs in the broody box. I let her out of the broody run because she was going into the other broody box and harassing the buff who is on real eggs. I am in the process of building a dual broody run that will house two mamas while sitting on eggs and for the first week, but I don't currently have a free 5x5 PVC run to put just her in. We'll just see if she settles to sitting like a good broody and I'll see about changing my mind and letting her hatch babies.
 
Well, my broody seems to not be as broody as I thought. I had 8 cornish eggs and 3 unmarked mixed flock eggs in the nest, but now there are 6 unmarked eggs and 5 cornish eggs in the nest....... hmm... She is still sitting most of the time but I'm thinking about pulling the eggs out and giving her fakes until she stops laying.

In other news, I had 4 chicks hatch out of 5 eggs I hatched. But one of these things does not look like the other. No wonder why one of those eggs was so much smaller than the others. I think it came from Molasses, my avatar, crossed back over one of his BSL daughters since this chick looks EXACTLY like Molasses did as a chick.
IMG_7571.JPG
 
Well, I've lost my broody hatch. She had been off the nest a lot today so we took the eggs and candled them. They looked scrambled. I think the tumble weed ride they went on did them in. So, after next week's hatch, we'll have a two week gap between hatches. We let her go back to the rest of the flock. Darn.

We also did some major chicken reshuffling today. After we shifted our main flock down to a new spot on pasture, we moved my Cornish trio into the broody containment. We moved 2 month old Cochins out to the 80sqft tractor the Cornis used to be in. We moved my first two hatches out to the stationary coop the Cochins had be living in, and the babied that hatched this week are in the wading pool brooder in the house with Tiny (the bantam Cochin from the first hatch). After this last batch hatched I moved the older chicks into a VERY large cardboard box on Thursday night so we could have the brooder for the new babies. It worked out well enough.
 
Bummer!
Did you let her sit for time after moving her before giving eggs?
I think she was a first timer?
 
aart said:
Bummer!
Did you let her sit for time after moving her before giving eggs?
I think she was a first timer?
Click to expand...
Yes, I let her sit for 3 days after we moved her. Definitely a first timer. It wasn't entirely her fault though, her eggs went for a tumble twice. Once when my i'll conceived nest box inside the broody box tipped and once when the wind blew her and her box over. I need to consider how to build heavier boxes than just totes with doors.
 
Redhead Rae said:
I have upgraded the two cheapo Chinese incubators with Incukits! I'm very happy with the results.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...low-topped-model-with-the-incukit-mini.73820/
Click to expand...

I started that exact same process, but didn't buy the fan kit, and I may have fried the control board when I tried using a computer fan with the wrong draw. I didn't know any better at the time! Lol
I still have the guts, so maybe you've inspired me to try again.

Oh, the insulation that you put on the top, I used around the whole box. It seemed more stable than the styrofoam, so maybe something for you to consider.
I also took a sharpie marker to the tops of the channel grids to see my water! WP_20150328_004.jpg WP_20150302_002.jpg WP_20150328_001.jpg
 
WVduckchick said:
I started that exact same process, but didn't buy the fan kit, and I may have fried the control board when I tried using a computer fan with the wrong draw. I didn't know any better at the time! Lol
I still have the guts, so maybe you've inspired me to try again.

Oh, the insulation that you put on the top, I used around the whole box. It seemed more stable than the styrofoam, so maybe something for you to consider.
I also took a sharpie marker to the tops of the channel grids to see my water! View attachment 1344642 View attachment 1344643 View attachment 1344645
Click to expand...
If nothing else, you could use it for a "pre-brooder" with lower humidity to dry off the chicks.
 

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