Trying to recover from a complicated hatching start

[ambishop]

I have had an Australorp sitting on golf balls and store eggs for 3 days. Everything seemed great until this morning she pooped her nest. Then I let her out for a short run out while I was swapping her store eggs for 6 Fertile eggs. Now this is where things got a little out of hand. This is the first time I have let her out at the same time the others were out and I saw that a hen just laid a yolk. I think it may have been the one who was going to sit on these fertile eggs but honestly not sure, anyway it threw me off for a second as all of the other hens came over and were eating the yolk. I lost track of which hen was which as I have a couple that really look so much alike.

I picked up what I thought was the proper hen to put back on the nest and she was all freaking out wanting to get out of there. For 30 minutes I was going back and forth on which was the hen that was sitting for me and I swapped them out after about 2 hours. At this time the hen that I thought was sitting for me was in the broody cage but would not sit on the eggs. Therefore I put her in and blocked the front of the nest. I just figured I would keep it blocked for an hour or two until she settled back in.

After about 15 minutes I heard crunch crunch crunch, and the little ***** was eating an egg. I guess she was upset about being locked in the nest. I immediately pulled her off the nest and put her with the others. As a side note, I hope that I have not just gained an egg eater now, so I guess I will need to manage that one.

Anyway since these new eggs had been warmed up a bit I figured I needed to keep them warm while I try to convince another hen to sit on a nest. It will likely take a few days for me to try to be fully convinced on who will be up for the job. In the mean time I needed to keep these eggs warm.

First I made a styrofoam incubator, but was not getting the temperature where I wanted it so I now have them in an excalibur dehydrator with a bowl full of water. I was able to get the dehydrator at 99.4 which I thought was pretty good for just having a dial with 95 and 105 marked on it.

Anyway my question at hand with my long and drawn out story is does anyone have any advice on what to do now to try and recover from this challenging first day of 21 day cycle. Should I just start putting hens in the broody cage on the nest full of store bought eggs and see if I can get someone to sit for a few days. I am thinking after 2 days I would likely know if they are interested or not. I do not think I would draw this out for more than 10 days, but was hoping for a solution

Thanks!

 

[ambishop]

Day 2 in the drama.

Last night I took another hen out of the hen house to put on 4 golf balls and 2 store eggs and blocked the entrance to the nest. First thing this morning I went to check and this monkey eat an egg too. I then exchanged her for a a light sussex who I put in the nest with 4 golf balls, and no eggs. She actually did quite well for several hours and laid her own egg in there. I thought that she would go the distance for me.

This was until I noticed the hen who I had originally put back in the broody cage was ticking and trying really hard to get out of the main chicken run. She was pocking her head though chicken wire in the direction of the nest and ticking crazily. I realized in deed this was correct one and she must have been just a little freaked out about the egg exchange, and that is why she would not settle down yesterday.

Anyway I let her out of the run and she ran for the broody cage trying to get in. I let the sussex out who was happy to get off the nest, took out her egg just so that I did not have more egg eating going on and let the australorp in the broody cage. She immediately ran to the nest of 4 golf balls and covered them up. I will give it a day or two before I put the fertile eggs under her just to make sure all is well.

I think I have it under control. Note to self. Always keep them separated to avoid any mix up and drama that may result

 

[lil'turkeymama]

Wow,that is alot going on.I don't know if this will help you but I always swap eggs after dark.The hen will be calmer and if you're real slow and quiet she should keep right on sitting.It really depends on the hen,but that usually works for me.Good luck with what ever you decide!

 

[ambishop]

Thanks, I might just have to do the switcharo at night. Originally that was part of the plan but with the nest that got pooped I just figured I would put them in with the new cleaned nest.

I should have stuck with the plan. I now have the correct hen sitting on 9 golf balls, and have the nest blocked off just in case. I will give her two days to settle back in before I do the swap-out.

I only have 5 fertile eggs left, should I leave in some of the golf balls for a few days after doing the swap?

The fertile eggs seem to be doing quite well in the dehydrator with a large bowl of water next to the heating fan. The dehydrator seems to do quite well at holding a pretty constant temp. I did relocate it to a different area and had to fine tune the setting again, but pretty happy on how well it is working