The Aloha Chicken Project

[HEChicken]

Oh - and I candled the 26 eggs in the incubator and they are 100% developing! Several eggs are quite porous though so I'm not expecting them to go all the way.

One of the NH hens has gone broody in a perfect location so I'm going to give her a few of the eggs that are currently in the incubator, to hatch.

 

[alohachickens]

Oh - and I candled the 26 eggs in the incubator and they are 100% developing! Several eggs are quite porous though so I'm not expecting them to go all the way.

One of the NH hens has gone broody in a perfect location so I'm going to give her a few of the eggs that are currently in the incubator, to hatch.

Oooh, I can't wait to see these. Are you still collecting eggs or has the pen been broken up?

 

[HEChicken]

No, the pen has been broken up and one of the hens was killed by my pups two weeks ago so these eggs are sort of it. I have two other hens but the one hen is now out of the gene pool. If necessary I can pen the two remaining hens and one of the roosters but I'm hoping to get something useful out of the eggs I already have. Once it gets hot, penning will no longer be an option.

Sadly, the broody hen managed to break one of the eggs I gave her. Hopefully the rest will make it.

 

[alohachickens]

No, the pen has been broken up and one of the hens was killed by my pups two weeks ago so these eggs are sort of it. I have two other hens but the one hen is now out of the gene pool. If necessary I can pen the two remaining hens and one of the roosters but I'm hoping to get something useful out of the eggs I already have. Once it gets hot, penning will no longer be an option.

Sadly, the broody hen managed to break one of the eggs I gave her. Hopefully the rest will make it.

If you want to keep them safer, what I do is only give the hen maybe 2 eggs and then when chicks start to hatch, stuff more babies under her. Or I put the eggs under her when they start to actually pip. I do it at night. Seems to work great here! Just did that to two hens a few days ago and both accepted the "new" chicks just fine.

 

[alohachickens]

BTW, I did go ahead and splurge on the Sussex eggs on the Ebay auction. The "new" auction photos showed there were two roosters, one more spotty and one less spotty, and a mix of hens, more and less spotty. So the odds of a spotty hen plus spotty rooster matching up are pretty slim, considering how few eggs usually hatch from shipping due to the rough handling.

However, the seller sent me 20 eggs and all were in perfect condition, so she did a good job there. If I was able to get even 8 to hatch the odds of one or two having good spots would be probable.

Here's the Ebay pic from the auction for those who didn't catch this earlier:

 

[HEChicken]

If you want to keep them safer, what I do is only give the hen maybe 2 eggs and then when chicks start to hatch, stuff more babies under her. Or I put the eggs under her when they start to actually pip. I do it at night. Seems to work great here! Just did that to two hens a few days ago and both accepted the "new" chicks just fine.

That is what I usually do. (Actually, usually I don't give them any or give them eggs I know are duds to sit on). However my incubator was double stacked which meant I was hand-turning. By giving her everything in the top layer, I was able to turn on the auto turner to turn the rest of them, which means a lot less work for me.

 

[alohachickens]

That is what I usually do. (Actually, usually I don't give them any or give them eggs I know are duds to sit on). However my incubator was double stacked which meant I was hand-turning. By giving her everything in the top layer, I was able to turn on the auto turner to turn the rest of them, which means a lot less work for me.

Ahh, makes sense now!

 

[HEChicken]

BTW, I did go ahead and splurge on the Sussex eggs on the Ebay auction. The "new" auction photos showed there were two roosters, one more spotty and one less spotty, and a mix of hens, more and less spotty. So the odds of a spotty hen plus spotty rooster matching up are pretty slim, considering how few eggs usually hatch from shipping due to the rough handling.

However, the seller sent me 20 eggs and all were in perfect condition, so she did a good job there. If I was able to get even 8 to hatch the odds of one or two having good spots would be probable.

Oh awesome! I can't wait to hear how these turn out. Though I suppose it will be several months before you know for sure.....more waiting. Sigh.

 

[HEChicken]

Good news! The hen didn't break an egg after all

There are several bantams in the pen where she is brooding and the egg shell I found the day before must have been from one of their eggs. Last night I lifted her up and counted and she still has every egg I originally gave her, neatly arranged in a circle with pointy ends facing in and one in the center.

 

[aviddamy]

I'm excited! A friend brought me a dozen fertile eggs and I put them under my broody Buff Orpington. I hope she stays put the whole time.