Thanksgiving Hatchalong

[Laurel Meadows]

Yesterday morning about 9:30 our hen abandoned her remaining eggs and took her 6 chicks into the yard. We fixed up a small doghouse for her and the babies and put the food and water just outside. She had two peeping eggs, one externally pipped that she abandoned. I put her eggs in a box on a heating pad, wrapped loosely in a dish towel and brought them to work with us so I could keep an eye on them. I couldn't just let them die and we have no incubator. When I picked my daughter up from school at 2pm I brought the eggs with me as one of them was hatching, to see if she'd come back to the nest and sit on them. We got home and she was freaked out, hiding behind our great pyrenees. She had one baby left. 5 gone without a trace. We brought her back in the garage with her first hatched baby, the only one to survive. One of her abandoned eggs had hatched in the car on the way home. We gave her the eggs back and the new baby and she has immediately gone full on broody again. The other peeping egg hatched last night. So she is back to 3 babies and she hasn't pooped since yesterday so she's back at sitting on her eggs. We are going to let her have the babies for a few days then we are going to take them and raise them in the bathroom like we do with all our other chicks that didn't have a mama to raise them. Last night my husband slipped some pure silkie eggs underneath her so hopefully we can ensure they are laying fertile eggs. I honestly think we will end up putting her in a broody cage to break her from being broody. She's going on 4 weeks broody right now. I'm going to get an incubator because if the silkie eggs are fertile their hatch date will be December 1st. I don't want her broody that long. She had started pooping normally and leaving the nest more often the past couple of days. Since we put her back in the garage yesterday she hasn't pooped. She's letting her oldest chick go eat and drink by himself while she sits on the eggs and new babies. Poor mama hen. I feel awful about her chicks. We've had chicks as young as 2-3 weeks with no mama out in our backyard. If I had known she would lose them all I would have just refused to let her leave the garage.

Sounds like a very traumatic day for everyone. So sorry about your losses. I hope the new babies and mama are doing well today.

You may have already considered this, but is there a way you could put up a mini run around the dog house you set up for them so that they are confined to that area and safe from predators? Just a temporary set up until the babies are stronger like a couple weeks. JMHO but I think separating the babies from her would be very stressful for both mom and babies at this point. Although I understand you feel they would be safest indoors, I'm sure you would rather see your hen raise her babies as long as you can keep them in a safe area. My suggestion is if you can get a pen set up, get those silkie eggs in an incubator as soon as you can get one. with the 3 babies there for her to care for, it should snap her out of setting. Hope you get everything sorted out!

 

[slrose24]

i just candled the half of the eggs i set 7 days ago and i did not seemuch of a differance in the air cells. granted i only did a single mark day one and a full outline today,so the cells may have grown other then where i put the mark....

the cells seems low on day one so the humidity is in the 30-40% range....i will add photos later and the results of my other eggs measuments tomorrow

what does this mean?

 

[Lamancha]

i just candled the half of the eggs i set 7 days ago and i did not seemuch of a differance in the air cells.  granted i only did a single mark day one and a full outline today,so the cells may have grown other then where i put the mark....

the cells seems low on day one so the humidity is in the 30-40% range....i will add photos later and the results of my other eggs measuments tomorrow

what does this mean?

It's OK if the air cells are small on day 1, That means they are really fresh. I wouldn't worry about how much they have grown from day 1, I think it's more important how they look on day 7, 14, and 18. Did you weigh them? Are you seeing veining and movement?

 

[Laurel Meadows]

i just candled the half of the eggs i set 7 days ago and i did not seemuch of a differance in the air cells.  granted i only did a single mark day one and a full outline today,so the cells may have grown other then where i put the mark....

the cells seems low on day one so the humidity is in the 30-40% range....i will add photos later and the results of my other eggs measuments tomorrow

what does this mean?

From what I've seen, a day 1 egg will have a very small air cell. In some eggs I can't really see them day 1, some look maybe dime sized. I've seen this pic around on byc and it's what I use to kind of gauge my eggs:

Is this about what yours are looking like at the day 7 mark?

Is your hygrometer calibrated? Sounds like your humidity levels are good to me. I'm also running 30-40% in my styrofoam unit with no water in it. My Brinsea on the other hand stays in the 40-50% range with no water.

 

[slrose24]

It's OK if the air cells are small on day 1, That means they are really fresh. I wouldn't worry about how much they have grown from day 1, I think it's more important how they look on day 7, 14, and 18. Did you weigh them? Are you seeing veining and movement?

this was the day 7 candling and the aircells seem unchanged from day one...on the other hand, there are more visible and do look to be inline with the picture provided below. i saw one blood line, many veins and a tad of movement

 

[slrose24]

From what I've seen, a day 1 egg will have a very small air cell. In some eggs I can't really see them day 1, some look maybe dime sized. I've seen this pic around on byc and it's what I use to kind of gauge my eggs:



Is this about what yours are looking like at the day 7 mark?

Is your hygrometer calibrated? Sounds like your humidity levels are good to me. I'm also running 30-40% in my styrofoam unit with no water in it. My Brinsea on the other hand stays in the 40-50% range with no water.

the day 7 mark looks similar to my eggs, but also similar to where they started out. my hydros are good..i run them against each other to test.now the edges of my air cells are also not smooth and even like the ones above. does that make a difference?

 

[rt farms]

I was notified a short time ago that finally all 29 babies are free from the shell! I'll get some pictures...there are 6 eggs left in the bator not due yet, I'm still in the hatch!

 

[Laurel Meadows]

the day 7 mark looks similar to my eggs, but also similar to where they started out.  my hydros are good..i run them against each other to test.now the edges of my air cells are also not smooth and even like the ones above.  does that make a difference?

I had to look back in the thread to see what you have... Local eggs from a friend's farm hopefully were nice and fresh and shouldn't have a big air cell like lamancha said. Were the cream legbars shipped eggs? Sounds like we should definitely see a picture of the eggs you have a concern with so we can help you better

 

[Lozuufy]

I was notified a short time ago that finally all 29 babies are free from the shell! I'll get some pictures...there are 6 eggs left in the bator not due yet, I'm still in the hatch!

Congrats! Looking forward to pictures!

 

[rt farms]

Little egger plymoth x

mr. Puffy cheeks

funny dots

what is wrong with her feet?