The Island Project

[Lauravonsmurf]

Well she didn’t seem interested in the chicks.. so not this time around. One of the Buckeyes was dead. Monitoring the chicks, hopefully that is the only loss.

 

[Faraday40]

Is your little hen broody? You'll know if she's flattened out on eggs, not leaving the nest more than 5 min/day, and squawking at you when you fuss with her nest. Then there's broody poop. How one small bird can make such a big, smelly mess?!

If she has all those indicators, then you should be able to make her believe she hatched the chicks. It takes a little time and sneakiness on your part. If she's sitting tight on eggs (or fake eggs or golf balls, etc), slip one out and slip a chick under her. It's easiest when dark because both hen & chick are just resting. Hen stays in her nest and young chicks stays under hen to keep warm. Keep checking frequently and if it's going well, keep slipping eggs out and add a second chick in 1-2 hours. If you think the hen is doing well and bonding (You'll hear her "talking" to her chicks) then you can move the hen and chicks into the brooder. Night time works great. Slide all the chicks under hen. When she wakes in the morning, she'll think she's been there the whole time and after spending the night together, there will be some bonding.

The main reason for doing it gradually is to make sure there's no aggression. It can be confusing for a hen to transition from sitting on eggs to raising chicks. It takes about 24-48 hours for a clutch of eggs to hatch and for a hen to transition and leave the nest. Once bonded, the hen will willingly move to wherever you put the chicks. However when she's sitting on eggs, a sudden change - like a fully fluffy chick running around - may freak her out and cause her to think the chick is an intruder. Her hormones tell her to protect her "babies" which have been eggs up to this point. In most cases of broody aggression towards chicks, it's because of that protection instinct and the integration needs to be slowed down or the hen has not been broody long enough to make the switch. Newly hatched chicks sleep a lot and don't run around those first few hours. The hen & chicks feel and hear each other before they "see" each other. That's why night/darkness/ will help a both hen & adopted chicks relax - quality cuddle time - as they bond. Hope this makes sense.

It's definitely worth trying if your hen is broody, because it's far easier to have a hen do all the work!. Broody-raised chicks may not be as human-centered as ones you raise in a brooder. Yet, they are hardy and learn chicken life skills earlier (scratching, jumping up onto things, roosting at night, predator awareness, finding treats in the yard, etc). Plus, Watching a hen care for chicks is so sweet.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Oh yeah she is broody. This is her after I removed eggs…

I might relocate her tomorrow inside and go from there.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I decided to see how my second broody would react, the first hen wouldn’t settle down, she was not aggressive towards the babies just unwilling to relax. The second hen has already made a little nest in the brooding box… much more relaxed. So just leaving her to decide about being a mum. Miss our old RIR that hen upon seeing anything baby (chicks, ducks, geese) was automatically her babies in her head… she would go into total mom mode, weird thing is she never seemed broody… just baby crazy.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

One of the things I wanted to see in the project is the difference between RIRs and Buckeyes… at least hatchery line differences… I know from reading and pictures they are supposed to be very different.

So Baby Pictures…
Hatchery RIR chick baby photo (now they are pretty far along), note the chipmunk markings.

The baby Buckeyes… definitely not as strongly marked if at all. More of a slightly darker stripe or spot.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I have not weighed the new chicks… hoping to get that started this week and birds banded. First batch of eggs go into lock down tonight, but I am worried for both clutches in the two incubators… I think I will be extremely lucky to hatch just one chick.

 

[Molpet]

I have not weighed the new chicks… hoping to get that started this week and birds banded. First batch of eggs go into lock down tonight, but I am worried for both clutches in the two incubators… I think I will be extremely lucky to hatch just one chick.

Why do you think a bad hatch?

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Well the eggs seem pretty porous, last candling was not great… pretty sure 2 eggs in number 2 are no good and I cant remove them till lockdown as they are stuck stuck in the egg turner… not a good sign… number 1 eggs when I last candled them honestly only looked like had 1 growing chick, I will look again tonight. Mail order eggs can be really iffy. I’ve had great hatch rates from some sources, and miserable try, try again from others. Incubator 2 has been a pain in the hinny to keep humidity levels correct as well. So not hopeful… one chick from each incubator would be awesome, but I am not hopeful. Sigh.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

It looks like the egg in the RIR group I thought might hatch is!
Today is lock down for the RIWs as well so I transferred them quickly to the RIR incubator, I put the two I think might hatch from that group on one side of the better incubator and the probably nots on the other side. The one egg in the RIW incubator that is stuck I candled it has a hairline fracture… so mystery solved with it.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Not the best picture of the little one… but letting it rest and dry.