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

[AmyLynn2374]

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

Sorry to hear that. That's awful. They are pretty birds.
I collect my eggs everyday. I actually go out a couple times to look for eggs. Yesterday my Black Japanese Banty went broody. Now mind you my older girls are almost a year old and I have three silkies I got from my sister that are 2-3 years, and not once have any gone broody. (Which suits me just fine as I have not been interested in having a broody.) Well my jap Banty is only 5 months...lol I was done incubating for this year, apparently she has other plans. This is my first broody hen experience and I'm not sure that I am liking it...lol I'm not expecting much between her being young and first time along with the fact that the nest is where all 7 of the layers in that coop lay (and they have no intention of laying elsewhere), so they kept kicking her off to lay their eggs in there and I kept pulling out the extras. But, we will see in three weeks if anything comes of it.

 

[the poppster]

In May I had 7 hens. This picture was taken about two months ago. There were 42 in this picture, and they have hatched about 25 more since then

That photo is just great....gotta love those sweet little Silkie chickens...look like multiplying Cotton Balls...

 

[bbelflower]

Sorry to hear that. That's awful. They are pretty birds.
I collect my eggs everyday. I actually go out a couple times to look for eggs. Yesterday my Black Japanese Banty went broody. Now mind you my older girls are almost a year old and I have three silkies I got from my sister that are 2-3 years, and not once have any gone broody. (Which suits me just fine as I have not been interested in having a broody.) Well my jap Banty is only 5 months...lol I was done incubating for this year, apparently she has other plans. This is my first broody hen experience and I'm not sure that I am liking it...lol  I'm not expecting much between her being young and first time along with the fact that the nest is where all 7 of the layers in that coop lay (and they have no intention of laying elsewhere), so they kept kicking her off to lay their eggs in there and I kept pulling out the extras. But, we will see in three weeks if anything comes of it.

Good luck with your babies!!! Have you ever heard of guinea eggs are good eating? I have 3 hens and no cockerels now :-( so the eggs aren't being fertilized and I feel they are being wasted.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Good luck with your babies!!! Have you ever heard of guinea eggs are good eating? I have 3 hens and no cockerels now :-( so the eggs aren't being fertilized and I feel they are being wasted.

I don't know anyone personally that has them, but I don't see why not. One way to find out....lol

 

[bbelflower]

I don't know anyone personally that has them, but I don't see why not. One way to find out....lol

I'm going to ruin my taste for eggs. I'll have someone else try and I'll just be the chef!!

 

[kymmandco]

I think I should rename this thread, "Good News, Bad News".
At least I know I'm not the only one having so many ups and downs.

Congrats on your first broody, AmyLynn.
Maybe you'll find like I did it's so much easier when the hens are broody.
YES, it's a pain and you'll want to know what's going on under your pretty lady and worry about other hens, predators, changes in the weather and just about everything else you have no control over. So much more stress than watching the incubator levels.
BUT on the other hand, you're saving electricity, don't have to worry about the upbringing or safety of the chicks too much and the biggest bonus is that you only need to pick up that one (although very big and sickeningly smelly) dropping every day or two and can really get to know your hen.
I sat for 10 minutes 2-3 times a day talking to, treating and petting my broodies.
Sometimes they don't mind, others they heckle and growl especially after the babies are born, but you get to know them and when to just leave them be pretty quickly.

Here's a website I found interesting on different egg consumption (it's actually an incubator manufacturer, but has some cool info ...
http://incubator.com.ua/en/about-egg-benefits-2/
I know my brother loves quail eggs, hard boiled with his steak and salad and my grandad used to buy 6 duck eggs every now and then as a treat. I'm guessing all eggs are edible, just make sure you cook them through properly.
If you don't like the taste you should get yourself a new daddy bird so the eggs aren't getting wasted.

Here's my news.
Isabella hatched 1 chick on day 30 (Monday). I spent the whole weekend frantically searching for day old bantam chicks to put under her without any success (I even bought a Goldtop with 7 chicks hoping Isabella would take a couple of those, but I wasn't aware that these chickens were so BIG. They are advertised as bantam size but she's 3-4 times bigger than any of my girls and her chicks are as big as my 2 week olds at just 3 days.
Anyway, I was about to chuck isabella off the nest on Monday evening and put her to roost with the others in the coop when I heard peeping and cooing.
The tiniest little black chick you have ever seen in your life hatched later that night. I still haven't removed the other 3 eggs just in case (Venus' last egg hatched on day 34).
He's 2 days old now and still tiny, about 2inches tall.

Tomorrow though I'll have to remove the rest of the eggs.
3 days is long enough to brood. Isabella needs to concentrate on being a mum now, plus I don't want her killing any hatching chicks like Venus did because he came too late. Venus then acquired the taste for chick and started attacking her babies, now being hand reared with my 2 incubated and rejected chicks.

I'm so happy Isabella finally got a baby (I wish he wasn't going to be an only child but he'll soon have plenty of friends when he's old enough to come out and play).

Now I just need to figure out what to do with my Goldtop and her babies.
A bit of a rash buy, but she is lovely, although farm reared and not used to being petted.
We have an understanding, I provide food and she brings her chicks out to play, I think she trusts me and even comes to eat out of my fingers now (I'm not brave enough to give her my whole hand yet, lol).
We've nick-named her Chickzilla, but I think Goldie might be more appropriate now she's settled. I think she might be quite sweet, and hasn't so much as raised a heckle to my other girls. I just need to keep an eye on her and am even thinking of possibly keeping her, although not her babies. They all have the same Silkie dad so will have to separate them too incase they inbreed.
Or maybe I should simply listen to reason and sell the whole family on now.

I also bought a very handsome Lavender Pekin Bantam as a friend for my Charlie.
I really want to replace my Lavender flock so hopefully can do that in the Spring.

Everything should be sorted by weekend. I'm putting up my enclosure and arranging my fencing into sections within it.
I'm adding a nursery and everything. Just a little enclosure where my hand reared's can play and be seen but kept safe from my other birds.
At night though they will come back inside the house to roost, then hopefully by Spring they will be ready for full integration outside with the rest of the flock.
It's going to be a long, long Winter.

Again I thank you for your support and updates.
Take care and good luck with your flocks. May they stay safe and well.
Kymm.

 

[bbelflower]

Sorry to hear that. That's awful. They are pretty birds.
I collect my eggs everyday. I actually go out a couple times to look for eggs. Yesterday my Black Japanese Banty went broody. Now mind you my older girls are almost a year old and I have three silkies I got from my sister that are 2-3 years, and not once have any gone broody. (Which suits me just fine as I have not been interested in having a broody.) Well my jap Banty is only 5 months...lol I was done incubating for this year, apparently she has other plans. This is my first broody hen experience and I'm not sure that I am liking it...lol  I'm not expecting much between her being young and first time along with the fact that the nest is where all 7 of the layers in that coop lay (and they have no intention of laying elsewhere), so they kept kicking her off to lay their eggs in there and I kept pulling out the extras. But, we will see in three weeks if anything comes of it.

I've had hens and roosters for 3 years bought through different breeders and haven't had ANY broody hens yet :-(