What went wrong? Maybe I'm just unlucky...

[kymmandco]

AND THEN THERE WERE 3!!!
Day 30 and yet another new chick, plus 1 very active egg.
Venus soiled her box yesterday, refusing to leave for anything.
Now I know why.
What the hell is going on with these hatchings?
The first came on day 27 followed 24 hours later with a second and now a third on day 30. This is now day 31 and expecting a fourth (and possibly a 5th or more) soon.

After cleaning Venus up and changing nest boxes, again I found another empty shell. It took a while but eventually we pulled the new chick from under her (she keeps her pipping eggs and new babies tucked between her toes on her feathered feet, clever girl). Because we can't easily see what's under her instead of a pet carrier nest box I placed her in a clear plastic storage box. Now I can see everything (well almost) under her. Will definitely do this again and recommend it to everyone that wants to see what goes on under your chickens.

I also removed all but 1 of her eggs for water candling (they were a mess too).
4 were still so I put them in the incubator just in case and one bobbed about all over the place so I quickly replaced him back under Venus.
There is another egg under her that I missed (she has so many hiding places, lol).
To think I was ready to ditch these eggs a week ago, and the incubated eggs I cracked and discarded, were they good after all?
They were all fully formed at different stages if yolk absorption. Did I kill them???

I'm leaving Isabella well alone until at least day 30 (or all her eggs have hatched). She's on day 24 with no sign of movement. I was going to remove her eggs today or tomorrow, but now I know better.
This is my first set of hatchings and to think just 3 months ago, never even considered keeping chickens.
We don't even like eggs that much, lol.
What an experience!!!

All the posts I've read, answers I googled etc all tell me Bantam eggs hatch from 19-21 days and recommend discarding after 24 days.
Well I've got Bantam chickens, laying tiny Bantam sized eggs and my first didn't hatch until until day 27. Day 31 and I'm still waiting.
Baby #4 I'm definitely expecting today. I haven't checked yet, maybe he's already here.
The 5th I'm not sure about, but am hopeful as he's resting on her foot too.

I even think I saw one of the 4 incubated eggs moving too, maybe all 8 good eggs will eventually hatch along with the potential I left under just in case.
I originally set 10 eggs under her on August 15th.
Day 17 I candled all and discarded 1 clear/early dead and found 1 not so well developed which I left under just in case.

Day 25/26, I water candled and saw 3 moving (???) so put all eggs back in the nest. Since then they just keep coming.
If you read this, please share and let others know. I see 100s of potential chickens being discarded. (if you don't want to clean up the mess of exploding eggs, incubate in individual paper towels to contain either chicks or splatter, but PLEASE give these late developers a chance.

I'll keep updating.
Even if no-one reads this at least I can look back on it as my personal chicken diary for next time.
Take care and good luck with your hatchings.
Kymm.
P.S. Here's a pic...

 

[bbelflower]

Short story long, lol!
Actually I'll try to keep it short, but you can read the LONG story here in my original posts...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/posts/by_user/id/361647

So here's the update...
Out of 40 collected eggs only 6 were fertile and out of them only 2 hatched.
All others died in late development but I don't know why. All were active before going into lock down (I water candled them all on day 16-18 and saw lots of bobbing).

I increased the humidity from 45% to 65% and left closed until I got worried on day 21 for the first egg passed.
BTW after emptying the incubator of all other eggs leaving just the 6 fertile eggs in there we had a gap of 5 days between hatchings.
The first was to be hand reared by my daughter and the other 4 we hoped we could slip under Sophia who has been brooding on ping-pong balls for 2 weeks.
A long shot I know, but the plan was to put the first 2 under her as day olds along with the other 2 eggs to hatch under her, but there's no need to worry about that now as we only ended up with the last 2 hatching.

The first pipped at 3pm, did nothing for about 9-10 hours and then must have gone into fast forward hatching and full of life at 2:25am Friday morning. We left him/her until morning before transferring to the brooder around 8am. That was when I noticed the other one had pipped.

The second was a worry from start to finish. He pipped in the center of the egg and started zipping up towards the tip of the egg. After several hours hitting the same spot and getting nowhere I decided to help. There was no way he could have got out himself and was completely exhausted just lying in his egg for several hours after hatching. He had been shrink wrapped, which may have been due to my opening the incubator to get the first out, maybe also getting disorientated as the first continually knocked into the other eggs rolling them all over the place.

It took many hours for the second chick to start to walk, and had turned up toes and seemed to be fitting and sleeping alot. 2 days later though and he's fine, toes straight, steady on his feet, no more twitching (I think maybe shock was to blame, as his hatch was very quick and traumatising for such a little one) and much more active, although still a little less active than the first.

Saturday night we tried to put both chicks under Sophia, she rejected them.
The first was almost 2 days old and the second 13 hours younger. The first was placed under first, and all seemed to be going well, we watched for about 40mins and thought we'd introduce the second, he ran out in front of her and she attacked it. We saved it and after a few minutes tried again making sure he went under her after removing 4 ping-pong balls to make more room.
We again watched for over an hour and thought maybe she was getting used to the new noises from under her but then she started pecking through her wings at every peep until the little one popped his head out and then she attacked it savagely taking both my daughter and I to save it.
We left the first under and brought the nest box into the living room so we could watch all night, early next morning when the chick popped out again, Sophia grabbed, bit and pecked the chick so we had to remove it too.

Now we have 2 little chicks to hand rear.

Anyone have any advise as to how we do this?
I've only had chickens for about 10 weeks and although I've read just about every book, BYC post and scanned Google for answers to my questions am still very unprepared for any of this.
A total nightmare from start to end, but now I'm a converted chicken lover and just want to find a happy ending.

One more thing...
The friend who dumped her chicks and then hens on me wants to take the chicks when they are 6 weeks old.
She wanted and I agreed she could have 1 chick from each of her 4 hens, (the ones we had incubated that were to be raised by Sophia), but only 2 hatched and Sophia rejected them.
Here's my problem, I and my children have now become very attached to these little ones, they are all we have left of our small flock and now have to hand rear them. Bottom line is, we don't want to give them away, especially as we now have to raise them ourselves.

Should I just cut my losses and give them away keeping my promise, or keep and raise them?
I've spent an awful lot of money, put in time and effort which was hard on top of everything else I have to get done, leaving little or no time for myself and my family.
My coop is now much too big (houses 20-24 hens with 8 nest boxes) and the new enclosure is 3mx6m (10fx20 feet) plus the gravelled area under my 12foot trampoline). A hell of a lot of space for 2 chicks.
I never planned on keeping the 4 (now 3) hens.
They are over 2 years old, don't really lay many eggs and I've learned that Bantams always go broody and wasn't planning on breeding much. This was a fluke and very educational and interesting experience that ended in too much heartache for me to bear.

YES, I do plan on keeping more chickens in the future, starting Spring next year I plan to buy some chicks and just enjoy watching them grow.
I forgot to mention that one hen died, and the other 2 have fertile eggs under them but one has gone over with her 8 and the other is due on Saturday with 4, but due to bad weather, constant moving to separate them and keep them safe from any returning predators I fear none will hatch. Day 23 for Venus and 16 for Isabella. Please pray some of these babies make it.
If you read my other posts from the link above you'll understand me and my story better.

Up to now though, we only have the 2 chicks, and breaking 3 hens from their broody should their eggs not hatch to worry about.
Need advise on breaking broodies without hatching eggs now too.

Summary/questions:
How best to hand rear chicks?
Should I give them away and break my families hearts again?
How do I break a broody hen? Don't suggest hatching eggs as they have sat long enough, the weather is getting colder and colder and I really can't go through all that stress again right now.
Maybe I could just keep tipping them out until they go back to their roost. Would be nice to have a few extra hens in the coop over Winter so I don't have to change coops again and everyone can keep warm together, not that any of the hens or pullets like each other which is why I separated them in the first place.
Venus and Sophia are in my dogs kennels and Isabella is in a nest box in the big coop she's sharing with the surviving pullet, but they don't get along so I may need to rethink that when Isabella breaks her broody (actually all 4 chickens are in individual pet carriers inside these housings including Charlie to help keep her warm at night (poor thing is all alone in this world).

I look forward to any replies.
Thanks in advance.
Kymm.

I am a major animal lover as too are my kids. If YOUR time, effort, money and love are raising, worrying and handling them all alone KEEP THEM!! You, as I know I do, have a bond with these babies that you've helped hatch, I helped hatch 2 guineas out last night so I can totally relate.

She too should understand even though there was an agreement in giving back some IF the Moma hatched them.

She didn't YOU did so I'd say sorry and she can have some of another one or something. Hope she understands your feelings.

Best of luck

 

[kymmandco]

Hi bbellflower,
Up until last year I never had time for animals.
It's not that I didn't like them, more I knew I couldn't look after them as well as a growing family so it would not have been fair in them to keep them.
Last year my youngest turned 7 and I have more time at home so I got 2 dogs. We already had rabbits, but that was NOT my choice, just ended up being my responsibility, lol.
Now because I spend a lot of time with my animals and hopefully setting up a pet stuff online business, my family keeps on growing.
I really didn't ask for any of this, but am really starting to love it, lol.
Now my kids want an hamster, a miniature pig and a couple of pigmy goats.
No! NO! and NNOOOOO!

BTW, I told my friend and she was actually quite relived I think.
According to my God-daughters these chickens have been causing lots of arguments.

These birds are such amazing and wonderous creatures.
I'm keeping ALL of them, lol.

For such a newbie I've had experience of a lifetime here.
I could kick myself for the mistakes, but seems it's all working out and I know better for next time.

Thank you for your reply.
Kymm.

P.S. I just made another post you might like...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...l-hatching-out-stop-discarding-eggs-too-early

 

[bbelflower]

Hi bbellflower,
Up until last year I never had time for animals.

It's not that I didn't like them, more I knew I couldn't look after them as well as a growing family so it would not have been fair in them to keep them.
Last year my youngest turned 7 and I have more time at  home so I got 2 dogs. We already had rabbits, but that was NOT my choice, just ended up being my responsibility, lol.
Now because I spend a lot of time with my animals and hopefully setting up a pet stuff online business, my family keeps on growing.
I really didn't ask for any of this, but am really starting to love it, lol.
Now my kids want an hamster, a miniature pig and a couple of pigmy goats.
No! NO! and NNOOOOO!

BTW, I told my friend and she was actually quite relived I think.
According to my God-daughters these chickens have been causing lots of arguments.

These birds are such amazing and wonderous creatures.
I'm keeping ALL of them, lol.

For such a newbie I've had experience of a lifetime here.
I could kick myself for the mistakes, but seems it's all working out and I know better for next time.

Thank you for your reply.
Kymm.

P.S. I just made another post you might like...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...l-hatching-out-stop-discarding-eggs-too-early

Love your story! Here's a product of incubating vs throwing out guinea eggs that weren't in their supposed timeframe of 28 days. We kept them a little longer after candling them and seen movement. Out of 21 eggs 19 made it!!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Love your story! Here's a product of incubating vs throwing out guinea eggs that weren't in their supposed timeframe of 28 days. We kept them a little longer after candling them and seen movement. Out of 21 eggs 19 made it!!!

How late were they?

 

[bbelflower]

How late were they?

34 days and sweet as ever!!

 

[kymmandco]

I posted this on my other thread, but thought I'd keep this one updated too.
Thanks bbelflower and AmyLynn1274 for your comments and Ovations (I'm new in here so didn't even know what an Ovation was, lol).
Congrats on your 19 out of 21 miracles. I'm never discarding another 'good egg' until at least 30-35 days.

Day 33 and some sad news.
9:30 am very noisy and active chick pipped.
Poor Venus flipped and jumped out of her box.
I saw the chicks little face through a rather large hole (I now know it wasn't a normal pipping).

Very quickly I got Venus back in the nest, she pecked the egg a couple of times and then rolled it back under her.
I thought this was normal so just kept an eye on her awaiting hatch.
At 3pm the egg rolled out from under her no further along than earlier so I thought I better help.

Venus was NOT happy that I took her baby and think she now mistrusts me, but I will earn that trust back with lots of love and treats tomorrow.
I had a fleece covered hot water bottle and cup of cooled boiled water ready, grabbed the egg and quickly checked for signs of life. Nothing!
Using my fingernails I removed the shell and membrane from the chick and tried to will life back into the poor little thing, but failed.
He was black and yellow, with such pretty black eyes.
I wish I had helped earlier and been able to save his precious life.

Another lesson learnt.
Always remove remaining eggs 3 days after the FIRST hatch.
Her chicks are now 5, 4 and 2 days old and already out exploring so I guess late comers would be left behind anyway.

It's true 3 days after the first hatch, the mother, no matter how good a mother she is will kill any late comers.
I removed the last egg and it was very under developed so did an eggtopsy. Very juicy embryo about 14 days.

I still have 2 eggs in the incubator, the other 2 were early dead. The remaining 2 seem lifeless but I'm not giving up in them yet. Will water candle them again tomorrow if no development. They were still 2 days ago so not very hopeful, but all 3 surviving chicks are miracles, so I know they do happen.

Also, there are still no signs of life under Isabella on day 25. Water candled today and all very still and lifeless.
Off to market on Saturday for a couple of day olds I think, but as I said before, miracles do happen. Only 3 of Venus' eggs moved and only slightly around the same time and 4 made it to hatch point so will give her a couple more days at least.

Hopefully I will update with happier news soon.
Keeping fingers and toes crossed at least.
Thanks for reading.
Kymm.

 

[bbelflower]

I posted this on my other thread, but thought I'd keep this one updated too.
Thanks bbelflower and AmyLynn1274 for your comments and Ovations (I'm new in here so didn't even know what an Ovation was, lol).
Congrats on your 19 out of 21 miracles. I'm never discarding another 'good egg' until at least 30-35 days.

Day 33 and some sad news.

9:30 am very noisy and active chick pipped.

Poor Venus flipped and jumped out of her box.

I saw the chicks little face through a rather large hole (I now know it wasn't a normal pipping).


Very quickly I got Venus back in the nest, she pecked the egg a couple of times and then rolled it back under her.

I thought this was normal so just kept an eye on her awaiting hatch.

At 3pm the egg rolled out from under her no further along than earlier so I thought I better help.


Venus was NOT happy that I took her baby and think she now mistrusts me, but I will earn that trust back with lots of love and treats tomorrow.
I had a fleece covered hot water bottle and cup of cooled boiled water ready, grabbed the egg and quickly checked for signs of life. Nothing!
Using my fingernails I removed the shell and membrane from the chick and tried to will life back into the poor little thing, but failed.
He was black and yellow, with such pretty black eyes.
I wish I had helped earlier and been able to save his precious life.


Another lesson learnt.
Always remove remaining eggs 3 days after the FIRST hatch.
Her chicks are now 5, 4 and 2 days old and already out exploring so I guess late comers would be left behind anyway.

It's true 3 days after the first hatch, the mother, no matter how good a mother she is will kill any late comers.

I removed the last egg and it was very under developed so did an eggtopsy. Very juicy embryo about 14 days.

I still have 2 eggs in the incubator, the other 2 were early dead. The remaining 2 seem lifeless but I'm not giving up in them yet. Will water candle them again tomorrow if no development. They were still 2 days ago so not very hopeful, but all 3 surviving chicks are miracles, so I know they do happen.

Also, there are still no signs of life under Isabella on day 25. Water candled today and all very still and lifeless.

Off to market on Saturday for a couple of day olds I think, but as I said before, miracles do happen. Only 3 of Venus' eggs moved and only slightly around the same time and 4 made it to hatch point so will give her a couple more days at least.

[COLOR=333333]Hopefully I will update with happier news soon.

Keeping fingers and toes crossed at least.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]Thanks for reading.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]Kymm.[/COLOR]

I too just found out what an ovation was when I had posted on someone's picture saying with the animal was thinking. Super cute thread! I get tickled all day!

BYC is MY Facebook!! Lol. Less drama too!
I didn't know a Moma would kill a late bloomer!! Even if it was coming out fine?? That's so sad! Like saying YOU MADE ME SIT HERE THIS MUCH LONGER. Hee Hee.

Well congratulations on your miracles as well. I have 2 puny ones isolated inside under a red light and the other 17 are caged outside under a light until they are old enough to fly up in trees to get away from predators. I honestly didn't know that guineas have more than one litter (she had one in the Spring too), but it was a huge blessing as daddy (the only male guinea we had) was hit and killed by a vehicle in the highway, so these are definitely little MIRACLES in more than one aspect. Have a BLESSED day!!

 

[kymmandco]

Hi bbelflower.
For newbies we seem to be doing okay. As long as we keep learning (not just from our mistakes), I think things will work out.
Guineas and Bantams must be alike.
Bantams are known for being broody though (another thing I didn't know before, lol).

My pullets and roos were hatched under Venus and Charlotte in the Spring too.
Venus took on all 9 when Charlotte go some foot disease.
Apparently that was when the 2 hens had a falling out. Charlotte wanted her chicks back.

I thought Charlotte's eggs didn't hatch. These were all previously a friends birds so I didn't take notice of which hen did what, lol.
Then my friend got bored/over run (I honestly don't understand why she dumped them on me in 3 packages).
First 7 roos, she was keeping the 2 pullets, then 3 of my roos turned out to be pullets so she brought me the other 2 (package #2~)
NO, I didn't want any of them, but was told the alternative was to have them all culled (why bring life into the world if you can't keep them???. Then after I looked after her 4 hens while taking a 17 day trip to Florida and knowing I had fertile eggs from them decided not to take her hens back, and just wanted one of each hen's chicks instead.

Then tragedy struck!!!
I lost Charlotte, all 4 roos and 4 of my 5 pullets to a fox/cat last month , so you're right this really is a double miracle.
Okay, it's been a rollercoaster of an experience, but at the end of the day, I think I want to keep riding this train.

Sorry to hear you lost your daddy bird!
I wish you well with your miracles and hope the puny ones soon get big and strong enough to join their siblings.
Keep me posted with their progress.

Take care.
Kymm.
P.S. I think I sent you an ovation back. It's the 'like' button, yes?

 

[bbelflower]

Hi bbelflower.
For newbies we seem to be doing okay. As long as we keep learning (not just from our mistakes), I think things will work out.
Guineas and Bantams must be alike.
Bantams are known for being broody though (another thing I didn't know before, lol).

My pullets and roos were hatched under Venus and Charlotte in the Spring too.
Venus took on all 9 when Charlotte go some foot disease.
Apparently that was when the 2 hens had a falling out. Charlotte wanted her chicks back.

I thought Charlotte's eggs didn't hatch. These were all previously a friends birds so I didn't take notice of which hen did what, lol.
Then my friend got bored/over run (I honestly don't understand why she dumped them on me in 3 packages).
First 7 roos, she was keeping the 2 pullets, then 3 of my roos turned out to be pullets so she brought me the other 2 (package #2~)
NO, I didn't want any of them, but was told the alternative was to have them all culled (why bring life into the world if you can't keep them???. Then after I looked after her 4 hens while taking a 17 day trip to Florida and knowing I had fertile eggs from them decided not to take her hens back, and just wanted one of each hen's chicks instead.

Then tragedy struck!!!
I lost Charlotte, all 4 roos and 4 of my 5 pullets to a fox/cat last month , so you're right this really is a double miracle.
Okay, it's been a rollercoaster of an experience, but at the end of the day, I think I want to keep riding this train.

Sorry to hear you lost your daddy bird!
I wish you well with your miracles and hope the puny ones soon get big and strong enough to join their siblings.
Keep me posted with their progress.

Take care.
Kymm.
P.S. I think I sent you an ovation back. It's the 'like' button, yes?

Thank you Kymm!!!
Well today I tried introducing them to their siblings BUT Moma went crazy on my babies and started pecking their heads like GET OUTTA HERE, so I rescued them back and put them back in the house.

They are just skittish now of even me,

mean Moma!!!
So sorry for your loss. I recently just lost one of my D'Uccles (miniature chickens) to a fox/cat that was sitting on 21 eggs!! Truely heartbreaking. She was found with no head, one leg & all of her meat taken. I bawled. They are just the cutest little things and I just hated seeing that! For some reason she was the first and ONLY broody hen I've ever had! So my chances of any babies I guess is gone. I collect our eggs every day so I guess it really doesn't give my hens the opportunity to be broody. Hmm something I should research I suppose!! Have a wonderful evening.

Betty