The Old Folks Home

[Beer can]

I was quarring bluestone with a buddy. His mom drove up and told us what was going on, got down to her house just as second plane hit. Spent a couple hrs watching the chaos. We decided to go back to work, his cousin had a crap fit over us going back to the quarry. I said, you heard the president, he said don't let the terrorist's win, don't let this stop our lives. It was quiet in that quarry up on the mountain, couldn't hear the road or civilization to begin with, then no planes for a week, it was kinda eerie, no planes, dead quiet.
I was still in in-active reserves and really wanted to go active army, sometimes I regret not going. Had three close friends in Iraq two in marines one air force, they made it back, many didn't, a few from our area didn't.
Latter that night after the towers fell friend I worked with dug out a vhs tape and played it, him on the towers with his cousin.
My wife's cousin worked there, secretary in a law office, she wasn't at work that day.
Neighbors to wife's uncle, twin girls moved and worked there, one went down with the towers, other didn't have to be to work till later.

 

[Bunnylady]

Nobody ever told the hens about "lockdown." I believe it was invented to keep newbies from practically living in the incubator when the eggs get close to hatching.

I haven't had tons of broodies, but I'd be willing to bet that the hens continue to turn eggs right up until they hatch - every other behavior that I have observed seemed exactly the same throughout the brooding process. Of the hens I have had go broody, most of them have been bantams, and I frequently been surprised by chicks appearing when I hadn't realized they had been brooding that long. I've done some oddball things to broodies; double clutched a few . . . I had one Silkie that remained setting for a few months while other hens kept slipping eggs under her. Every morning I'd go out to feed them, she'd get up, get something to eat, get a drink, walk around a bit, go back to the nest. Sometimes one of the other hens brooded with her. As the eggs started hatching, I'd check twice a day, and remove any chicks or pipped eggs. Finally I marked the few eggs she had left, and started removing any that weren't marked. When the last egg hatched, I left it with her, and having a chick to tend finally got her off that nest after 3 or 4 months of pretty much continuous brooding. Almost every egg that went into that nest wound up hatching - I wish I could do half as well as she did!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Can you build something to keep her on her nest? My nest boxes look like the below, and I built a little cage that fits into the front hole, uses a shim to keep it there from friction.

 

[microchick]

Thanks Bunnylady, that makes me a little more at ease. Some of her eggs are bantam or part bantam. Earliest hatching date late tomorrow. Chicks have other plans I guess.

Beer Can, first off thank you for your service. Because of what happened on that date to so many innocent souls we, my husband and I no longer at tall buildings the same way we once did. High rise hotels make us nervous. We try to avoid them. For that matter we try to avoid big metro area cities all together. We knew no one who worked at the Trade Towers and knew no one who lost any one close to them. Yet that day changed us the way it changed everyone, and changed America forever.

Superchemicalgirl, my nesting boxes are very similar to yours only on a smaller scale. I have the front of mine covered with plywood with dinner plate holes for the hens. I covered the entrance hole to Lil'Girl's nest with chicken wire so she could get air circulation during heat we experinced the last two weeks and created a koroplast wall to separate her from the remaining nesting box giving her some space to get up, move around, get a drink, etc. Along with some privacy.

She was determined to get some of those sunflower seeds and that was that!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I pretty much agree with Bunnylady.

Same thing with mine.

I've had my chickens for just over a year now.
I grew up with meat breeds for eating, but have never had experience with hatching or breeding etc so this is ALL new to me...lol
Disclaimer: Please take that into account.

I've had 11 broody hens; 5 of them brooded twice!

I just got done 9 hens setting at the same time. (OMG!)
I was busy in the fields and didn't get the eggs collected.
They all went broody (even though I've read they don't do that) My girls can't read I guess.

Anyway...I can't keep track of what they are doing, whether they eat or poop or get off the nests because I'm in the field.
But I did have one Silkie who was brooding in the first set get off her nest to eat one morning
One of the guinea eggs she was setting on was in mid pip.

This is the egg.
I couldn't believe she'd leave the nest at that moment. I thought "Oh no! The humidity factor!"

She was gone for about an hour, out eating and gallivanting with the flock.
I debated bringing it in to the incubator.
But I trusted her instinct and hoped she knew what she was doing...lol.
The egg hatched fine.

In fact, they all hatched fine under her.

White one's a male, other two are females. They're full size now...lol.

I've had a broody EE pick her eggs/chicks and one silly Silkie who won't stop setting on a nest with no eggs to attend her chicks.
In those cases I've intervened.

I've also had the broodies switch spots and leave a nest for about 11 hours in 9C and those eggs hatched fine.
I've also forgot my incubator open for 6 hours the day we did our taxes. Those eggs hatched fine too.
My broody left her pipping egg and it was fine. After seeing all this I don't worry much anymore.
I think what I'm getting at is I wonder if we're making everything harder than it needs to be.

Just my thoughts based on my (crazy) experiences...lol.

 

[chickisoup]

Anyone catch what the NFL did to honor 9/11 and I didn't hear of a single player disrespecting our National Anthem or flag today. Sounds like the whole organization decided, at least so far, to show some respect, and class.

Finally just heard the final "pop". I'm out of apples! Yipee!!! Final count is 28 quarts of apple sauce and I I lost count on the pints the apple butter (does this officially make me a "prepper"?) AND 100% on the seals. (insert happy dance here) Can't wait until it's a cold winter morning and we slather some of this good stuff on some warm potato pancakes with just a drizzle of fresh, real, maple syrup on top.

great news on all the broodies/hatches etc. sorry about any failures I missed. So very grateful for the nice quiet Sunday, hope everyone else's is the same.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Anyone catch what the NFL did to honor 9/11 and I didn't hear of a single player disrespecting our National Anthem or flag today. Sounds like the whole organization decided, at least so far, to show some respect, and class.

Finally just heard the final "pop". I'm out of apples! Yipee!!! Final count is 28 quarts of apple sauce and I I lost count on the pints the apple butter AND 100% on the seals. (insert happy dance here)

to those of you who do canning!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Can you build something to keep her on her nest? My nest boxes look like the below, and I built a little cage that fits into the front hole, uses a shim to keep it there from friction.

Those are some awesome nest boxes! Envious here.

 

[microchick]

Apples........I picked a bowl full today to see how ripe they were and make applesauce for dinner. They are so ready to be picked and I am sooooo not ready to deal with them. DH and I have both been fighting some summer virus the last few days that has us both feeling blah. Still looks as though the peelers and the two of us are going to be close friends for the next week. I have to admit that I'm going the easy route and freezing everything I can. Sliced for pies, apple sauce because we both like it. Still looking at several bushels ahead of us with maybe a bushel held back for eating if we can find that many perfect ones worth saving.

We have had way too much trouble with fungal infections in our fruit trees the last two years due to the wet springs. We tried spraying copper for Fire Blight and fungicides but nothing seemed to work. We will probably have to top 3 trees trying to save them over the winter months.

I spent about a half hour out in the coop keeping an eye on my broody as I puttered around. I had a little female song sparrow get into the coop via the pop door and spent forever trying to catch the little devil and show her the way out. At one point I lost her and thought she had found her way out only to look up and discover that she was sitting on the back of one of my 8 month old cockerels who was hanging around on the top roosting poll. He didn't seem to mind one bit. She flew around the coop and once again landed on Trey's back. You never have a camera hen you need one.

But I think my hen is feeling movements under her because every now and then she was suddenly standing up a bit, looking under her like "what was that?" and settling back down again. For me it's like if I can get them through their first clutch of eggs with nothing major going wrong, then they are on their own.

 

[bruceha2000]

She was determined to get some of those sunflower seeds and that was that!

Have you considered NOT doling out the BOSS until she's done hatching. It is, after all, a treat for spoiled butt chickens (like mine).

As I understand it (with ZERO personal experience), a hen will often get off the nest during incubation. They go eat, drink, poop, etc. Apparently the "requirement" for specific heat, humidity levels etc is just as unnatural as a 24 hour heat lamp providing constant 95F for a week, then 90F for a week, etc in a brooder. I can tell you that my broody raised chicks didn't have any constant temps and they were running around in 70F + temps at 3 days old. Oddly they all survived even though Zorra hadn't complied with the "rules"