Three broody hens attached to one peep, four in a brooder and six eggs in a temporary incubator.

[Shaw Stine]

It all started last Sunday when I heard the first peeps from the coop, boy were we excited, proud, and over joyed. The stress and anxiety was finally over, I was so excited to see my girls taking care of there babies, taking them out of the nest for the first time, showing them the food and water, and introducing them to the great outdoors. As I sat on my back deck listening to the peeps and gentle talking of my hens I thought yep my girls figured out how to share the nest. They did so good rotating on and off the nest and taking care of the eggs, boy was I wrong! As my daughter and I sat there straining and wondering if what we are hearing is peeps or just birds in the tree, we hear definite peeps and they are loud, my mom instinct kicks in and I tell Emily they should not be that loud so we go to look and sure enough they kicked two out of the nest! One little guy all dry and running around and one still wet and looking half dead. I scoup them up take two fast pictures and make a fast call to give them back to there momma's. Over the next few days I am on baby watch. As I sadly had to take four babies from them due to either them kicking them out with visible missing feathers and peck marksView attachment 1125531 to abandoning one in the run with the roosters where they stomped him until my daughter could save him. I did take one right out of there nest because he was yelling real loud and when I went to look he jumped out at me.View attachment 1125544 View attachment 1125545 I did see one more but it was tucked up under Terrible Tina, and yes, her name fits her so I was not going to reach under her. About an hour later of running to the garage to check the peeps in our very temporary brooder which only consisted of left over chicken wire made into a ring with pine shavings and a light to the yard to see what hens have come out so I could see if the peeps and eggs where okay. I noticed they where all out and very aggressive I noticed why in a few minutes. There on the ground running in and of the legs of all three mommas was a little puff Ball. View attachment 1125551 Again I was overjoyed my momma's are figuring it out! But what about the other eggs!! So there I sat for the next thirty minutes beside my chicken coup speed searching how to build a temporary incubator and contemplating are the eggs any good. Everyone says lock down after day 18 but I couldn't just let them die. So I broke the golden rule and placed them in my sweater and went to the garage to candle them. We did have a baby chick in the nest that never made it out of his shell though. He pecked all the way around but never popped out. As I sat in my garage I placed the eggs between my legs to keep them warm. I have found the best way to candle the eggs is just with your flashlight on your cell phone, you can see so much more. So I candled them and held my breath, and low and behold all six eggs had babies moving. You could tell this set was to be a later hatch because the air sack in my opinion was only looking to be day 18 or 19. So now day three of our temporary incubator a baby has hatched! Our temporary incubator is a fish tank with a heating pad with pine chips over it, a cup of water for moisture and towels over the top to hold in moisture and heat. The temp does range from 80 to just below 100View attachment 1125555 so I have found in this crazy sleepless week that you have to be quick and take chances. I wouldn't have changed a thing through this roller coaster ride because my husband, daughter and I have some great memories. So now as we wait for more babies to hopefully hatch I would love some suggestions on how long do I keep the babies in the incubator and the brooder and the best way to introduce the babies to the flock. Thanks for listening!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

You have discovered that many brooding hens do not share well. The often become competitive for the chicks or see the other chicks as threats to their own.

It is wisest to separate brooding hens for this reason so that they can't squabble and compete and kick each other off the nests and eggs and chicks about.

Your incubator temps are varying too much. You may have some developmental problems. Hopefully the eggs will hatch. I recommend keeping a tighter control on the temps if you can.

Because of the free for all that this particular flock has, I personally would brood the chicks outside of the hens and then reintroduce them together as young pullets, perhaps at 8 weeks of age.

You've had a bad introduction at this point with a lot of mad, angry, hormonal hens.

The other alternative is to separate your best brooding hen, place her in an isolation brooder with enough space for some grow out, then put those babes with that hen, at night, scooping them under her tail. Watch and wait to see if she will accept them. If she does, then allow her to brood them.

I find 3 to 4 weeks of age a good time to reintegrate momma and babes in a flock that might be hostile. Younger than 2 weeks of age, the small fluffs often get trampled as the hens fight. Older than 4 weeks, momma has often lost maternal instincts and fledged them.

The best scenario is a loving brooding momma looking out for the chicks and introducing them, protectively, to the flock, when they are old enough to be mobile enough to move if some battle happens.

Some flocks simply do not integrate chicks well. In my personal flock philosophy, I got rid of those aggressive hens, have a very loving and protective rooster, so that hens and chicks can integrate without drama or trauma.

Wishing you the best on the little ones brooding/hatching.

My thoughts.
LofMc

 

[Shaw Stine]

It all started last Sunday when I heard the first peeps from the coop, boy where we excited proud and over joyed. The stress and anxiety was finally over I was so excited to see my girls taking care of there babies, taking them out of the nest for the first time, showing them the food and water introducing them to the great outdoors. As I sat on my back deck listening to the peeps and gentle talking of my hens I thought yep my girls figured out how to share the nest. They did so good rotating on and off the nest and taking care of the eggs, boy was I wrong! As my daughter and I sat there straining and wondering if what we are hearing is peeps or just birds in the tree we hear definite peeps and they are loud, my mom instinct kicks in and I tell Emily they should not be that loud so we go to look and sure enough they kicked two out of the nest! One little guy all dry and running around and one still wet and looking half dead. I scoup them up take two fast pictures and make a fast call to give them back to there momma's. Over the next few days I am on baby watch. As I sadly had to take four babies from them due to either them kicking them out with visible missing feathers and peck marksView attachment 1125531 to abandoning one in the run with the roosters where they stomped him until my daughter could save him. I did take one right out of there nest because he was yelling real loud and when I went to look he jumped out at me.View attachment 1125544 View attachment 1125545 I did see one more but it was tucked up under Terrible Tina and yes her name fits her so I was not going to reach under her. About an hour later of running to the garage to check the peeps in our very temporary brooder which only consisted of left over chicken wire made into a ring with pine shavings and a light to the yard to see what hens have come out so I could see if the peeps and eggs where ok I noticed they where all out and very aggressive I noticed why in a few minutes. There on the ground running in and of the legs of all three mommas was a little puff Ball. View attachment 1125551 Again I was overjoyed my momma's are figuring it out! But what about the other eggs!! So there I sat for the next thirty minutes beside my chicken coup speed searching how to build a temporary incubator and contemplating are the eggs any good. Everyone says lock down after day 18 but I couldn't just let them die. So I broke the golden rule and placed them in my sweater and when to the garage to candle them. We did have a baby chick in the nest that never made it out of his shell though. He pecked all the way around but never popped out. As I sat in my garage I placed the eggs between my legs to keep them warm. I have found the best way to candle the eggs is just with your flashlight on your cell phone, you can see so much more. So I candled them and held my breath, and low and behold all six eggs had babies moving. You could tell this set was to be a later hatch because the air sac in my opinion was only looking to be day 18 or 19.So now day three of our temporary incubator a baby has hatched! Our temporary incubator is a fish tank with a heating pad with pine chips over it, a cup of water for moisture and towels over the top to hold in moisture and heat. The temp does range from 80 to just below 100View attachment 1125555 so I have found in this crazy sleepless week that you have to be quick and take chances. I wouldn't have changed a thing through this roller coaster ride because My husband, daughter and I have some great memories. So now as we wait for more babies to hopefully hatch I would love some suggestions on how long do I keep the babies in the incubator and the brooder and the best way to introduce the babies to the flock. Thanks for listening!

You have discovered that many brooding hens do not share well. The often become competitive for the chicks or see the other chicks as threats to their own.

It is wisest to separate brooding hens for this reason so that they can't squabble and compete and kick each other off the nests and eggs and chicks about.

Your incubator temps are varying too much. You may have some developmental problems. Hopefully the eggs will hatch. I recommend keeping a tighter control on the temps if you can.

Because of the free for all that this particular flock has, I personally would brood the chicks outside of the hens and then reintroduce them together as young pullets, perhaps at 8 weeks of age.

You've had a bad introduction at this point with a lot of mad, angry, hormonal hens.

The other alternative is to separate your best brooding hen, place her in an isolation brooder with enough space for some grow out, then put those babes with that hen, at night, scooping them under her tail. Watch and wait to see if she will accept them. If she does, then allow her to brood them.

I find 3 to 4 weeks of age a good time to reintegrate momma and babes in a flock that might be hostile. Younger than 2 weeks of age, the small fluffs often get trampled as the hens fight. Older than 4 weeks, momma has often lost maternal instincts and fledged them.

The best scenario is a loving brooding momma looking out for the chicks and introducing them, protectively, to the flock, when they are old enough to be mobile enough to move if some battle happens.

Some flocks simply do not integrate chicks well. In my personal flock philosophy, I got rid of those aggressive hens, have a very loving and protective rooster, so that hens and chicks can integrate without drama or trauma.

Wishing you the best on the little ones brooding/hatching.

My thoughts.
LofMc

Thanks

You have discovered that many brooding hens do not share well. The often become competitive for the chicks or see the other chicks as threats to their own.

It is wisest to separate brooding hens for this reason so that they can't squabble and compete and kick each other off the nests and eggs and chicks about.

Your incubator temps are varying too much. You may have some developmental problems. Hopefully the eggs will hatch. I recommend keeping a tighter control on the temps if you can.

Because of the free for all that this particular flock has, I personally would brood the chicks outside of the hens and then reintroduce them together as young pullets, perhaps at 8 weeks of age.

You've had a bad introduction at this point with a lot of mad, angry, hormonal hens.

The other alternative is to separate your best brooding hen, place her in an isolation brooder with enough space for some grow out, then put those babes with that hen, at night, scooping them under her tail. Watch and wait to see if she will accept them. If she does, then allow her to brood them.

I find 3 to 4 weeks of age a good time to reintegrate momma and babes in a flock that might be hostile. Younger than 2 weeks of age, the small fluffs often get trampled as the hens fight. Older than 4 weeks, momma has often lost maternal instincts and fledged them.

The best scenario is a loving brooding momma looking out for the chicks and introducing them, protectively, to the flock, when they are old enough to be mobile enough to move if some battle happens.

Some flocks simply do not integrate chicks well. In my personal flock philosophy, I got rid of those aggressive hens, have a very loving and protective rooster, so that hens and chicks can integrate without drama or trauma.

Wishing you the best on the little ones brooding/hatching.

My thoughts.
LofMc

Thanks so much! It's been crazy here! Lesson learned for the future!! Not sure the other eggs will make it but it's pretty hard to judge because this is a staggard hatch

 

[Shaw Stine]

All six eggs in the fish tank on the heating pad hatched!!