~*Third Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatch-Athon*~ all poultry welcome!

[yinepu]

Well it is time to empty the Easter HAL incubator of the eggs that aren't going to hatch. Sigh. None of them hatched.

Back to the drawing board on the homemade incubator.

how many eggs did you have in there?...

you should make a coolerbator... I love all of mine.. (I have 6)...
mine hold temps perfectly and are easy to clean!

 

[chicken pickin]

how many eggs did you have in there?...

you should make a coolerbator... I love all of mine.. (I have 6)...
mine hold temps perfectly and are easy to clean!

X2 I have eggs in my new cooler bator now they are on day 4, candled this morn and I have veining. I am STOKED!!! ! can wait to get my other shelves made so I can set more eggs in it.

 

[HEChicken]

I'm not a fan of broodies either...
when they are broody they aren't laying... strike one
when they are broody I have to keep tossing them off the nest so others can use them... strike two
if they did a better job hatching eggs than I do it would be a plus.. but they don't.. strike three....

For me this year I was actually relieved when they started to go broody BECAUSE they stopped laying. I was getting so many eggs and didn't have enough outlets for them so it was a relief to have a few stop laying. Not that I've actually noticed a reduction in production yet - I still have the cartons of eggs stacking up faster than I know what to do with them - I just console myself there would be more everyday without the broodies

I've never picked a broody up and tossed her off the nest. The other hens just climb in around her and lay their egg. Then the broody grabs it and rolls it under her. At night I reach under all of them to retrieve the eggs.

I don't often let them hatch eggs. If I can move them and segregate them I do - and then they typically hatch everything that is fertile. I.e., the only eggs that don't hatch are the clears. But if they insist on staying in the next boxes, the eggs are too much at risk of being broken by the hens climbing in to lay, so I incubate the eggs for them, and give them the chicks to raise once they hatch. This works out terrifically well for me. I don't have to keep heat running, or clean brooders. And I don't have to later integrate chicks to the flock. I've never had a Mama Hen lose a chick and the broody raise chicks don't get pasty butt either. Broody raised chicks are hardier than brooder raised, and they learn to forage from day one. So for me broodies are a valuable commodity.

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
the few broodies I have let raise chicks did a bad job.. sure I had a good broody hen here and there.. but most lost at least half their chicks .. if not more (and that was with them penned... grr)

the only time I ever have pasty butt with chicks is from hatchery shipments.. some hatcheries are worse than others... never have it with my brooder chicks since I make sure they can cool down and also have water available from day 1
and cleaning brooders is just something I do if I want healthy live chicks... can't keep sending them out with bad moms... so if your broody hens do a better job then enjoy it!

I only offer extra heat for newly hatched birds .. older chicks lose the heat pretty darn fast (especially in summer)... this is Texas after all...

integrating them into the flock isn't an issue either.. since I have more than one hoop coop.. young birds go into their own coop.. older birds that are done laying go to the freezer.. meaties also go to the freezer.. breeder pens are set up when I want... flocks get moved around here and there during moults... so I'm not adding new birds into the existing flocks ever... since I don't use broodies I don't need to try to put momma back into the flock or have her penned in the coop... so flock integration is never an issue...

we get a lot of eggs when everyone is laying (that should be laying)... extra eggs go to guys in the military (free of charge).. or are used as supplemental critter food.. so we never have too many eggs here even when I am bringing in several dozen every day...

if you love your broodies and they work for you.. then great.. personally I don't like the buggers...

 

[HEChicken]

It sounds like your set up is a lot different than mine. I do have a hoop coop but it is used very temporarily. All of my birds live in one coop all the time and free-range all the time - including the broodies with their chicks. They go into a broody pen for the first few days to bond - with so many I've found that if I don't take this step, the chicks don't know which hen is their mother and vice versa. Once they're established in family groups, the mama hens with their chicks go out and free-range and teach the chicks to sleep in the coop at night, so I never have integration issues with moving hens back into the flock.

Interesting note about pasty butt. I so seldom raise chicks these days that I had never noticed the difference. I've only had a few batches of hatchery chicks and I've raised a few small batches from my own incubators but for the most part the broodies raise the chicks so I'd never noticed that it is only hatchery birds that get pasty butt.

 

[bantambury]

ONE OF MARSHIES EGGS HAVE PIPPED!!!

I went down to the coop this morning before church to check on her and she was outside.....I became nervous that she left the eggs. I came down around noon to find no broody signs, but dust bathing away. I took her and plopped her on the coop and she instantly turned her mama madness on

I thought it was odd how she was sitting on the eggs....she seemed to be standing lightly over them....I knew she was either doing so because of how hot it is outside and she didn't feel she needed to incubate them as much, or she KNEW something was on its way!

I had taken Cadbury and Woodstock back to the house to free range a bit and when I took them back to the coop I checked on marshie once again. I whistled a bit, but didn't hear anything. my sister began walking back to the house; not being amused by my egg obsession. once marshie got off the nest there was TONS of cheeping, and I screamed.....A PIP! ALYSSA THERES A PIP!!!!

so, the egg that I found had the internal pip yesterday (day 18) had finally pipped today (day 19). im guessing the extreme heat we have had boosted the growth a bit, but I still have to be very cautious in case the baby pips a vein.

I blocked the coop off from the other chickens, and put a baby waterer in there for marshie. I DONT want any birds bothering her eggs.....unlike my last pitiful broody hatch. SO tonight im moving her to the broody quarantine coop located INSIDE the run of my coop.



WISH US LUCK!

 

[chicken pickin]

CONGRATS BANTAMBURY!!!!!!!! THAT IS SUPER EXCITING FOR YOU AND MARSHIE!!!!!!

 

[bantambury]

CONGRATS BANTAMBURY!!!!!!!! THAT IS SUPER EXCITING FOR YOU AND MARSHIE!!!!!!

thanks! im super ecstatic because she is a silkie she will sure be an excellent mother! my BA hatched Cadbury ed eggy and pumpkin back in june and almost killed ed pumpkin and eggy. that's why im so skeptical of broodies now.....

you can read the brooding story of ed pumpkin eggy and Cadbury here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-story-of-pumpkin-and-her-flock

 

[Arielle]

YEah Marshie!!!!!

 

[Arielle]

I candled to day as we have all of about 1 week left and well, I'm concerned the eggs are not drying down as well as athey could / should/ oughta / coulda !! THe air cell is surprizingly small for 3 weeks and mostly under 22%RH Trying to get them to dry more . . . . if any one has suggestions . . . have thought about put a fan on them directly but then common sense prevails. lol