Hi, my name is Jan...

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WLLady
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by WLLady » Tue Jun 12, 2018 3:07 pm

i had one egg like that once and i used scotch tape to hold the shell together. as long as it wasn't leaking liquid.....it made it.....but i checked it every day to make sure that membrane was still intact and nothing was leaking out.
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windwalkingwolf
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by windwalkingwolf » Wed Jun 13, 2018 1:38 am

WLLady wrote:
Tue Jun 12, 2018 3:07 pm
i had one egg like that once and i used scotch tape to hold the shell together. as long as it wasn't leaking liquid.....it made it.....but i checked it every day to make sure that membrane was still intact and nothing was leaking out.
Yep! I've done that too, with eggs cracked that badly, and had them make it. I've also done it and watched dark lines of fungus or bacteria form around the cracks, and when that happens, it invariably results in a dead embryo. The trick seems to be to make sure the tape is tight to the egg--no gaps or crimps or folds. If the egg loses moisture out of the crack, and it condenses on folded or gapped tape, you're in trouble.

Speaking of trouble, I seem to be setting myself up to be over run with babies. In the past month, my hens have been going broody one after the other after the other, some on top of each other within days of hatching. I've been separating these usurpers into their own spots with their own eggs, because "last minute mamas" often get confused, lead chicks away from main mama, and abandon them. Ones that have been co-sitting together for a while, I leave together. I stopped counting broody hens at around 13 hens, now I have at least 18 either with new chicks at heel, or still sitting on eggs. The latest to go down, is an older EE hen named Blue. Blue decided to lay an egg in a broodys nest yesterday, the broody (her name is Nurse) is currently hatching, and EE Blue went "OOH, BABIES!" and has been with Nurse ever since. Blue never left Nurses' nest, and laid an egg again today, but was still stuck tight and talking to Nurse's babies tonight, so I gave her a cage with new eggs of 'her own'. Which she settled happily upon and growled at me. And with that broody transplant, I am officially OUT of coops, storage tubs, milk crates, nest boxes, shelves, floor corners, cat carriers, dog cages, and cardboard boxes to put all the sitting or brooding hens in.
The geese have 9 babies on the ground and one or two more to hatch. April's growouts are running loose, sink or swim. May's chicks and ducklings are in a cage still but allowed to range for several hours a day. May poults are still in the house along with May and June ducklings. June poults aren't doing well, but I just managed to transplant the week-old remainders onto a broody hen and expect them to do better now. Just had three more ducklings hatch, and stuffed them under the hen too. Hen is a very happy hen, and thinks I'm the baby stork and her new best friend.
I have two sets of two hens co-parenting chicks successfully right now, and another pair about to give it a go, but they've been sitting together almost the whole time, unlike Blue and Nurse. I have three (single) hens with babies at heel, and two more hatching.
All along, I've been incubating eggs myself, and with so many broodies, hatches have been serendipitously lining up, so I've been able to stuff my chicken babies under hens along with their own chicks. If Blue sticks it out, she'll have 20 kids or more LOL.
Not having to brood chickens in the house is great, but also nerve-wracking...I spend a good portion of each day running around outside, fussing and fretting, counting little heads.
One of the starlings nesting in my silo, has learned to make the "lost chick in distress" noise, and I swear it does it just to keep me dashing around like an idiot to find the lost baby. When it does it, at first the brooding hens would all congregate at the silo, but quickly realize the ruse and wander away. Now they don't even bother to go check, but I do, every time. Just in case. I think it's laughing at me.
Betty (Bitty), my tiniest and also second oldest home-bred hen, just started laying for the season a week ago...but is already starting to make the chucking noise that they make when the broody hormones begin.
I think I may go mad.
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Happy
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by Happy » Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:33 am

Your place sounds like a chick wonderland! You need to charge admission lol
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WLLady
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by WLLady » Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:20 am

but isn't it fun to watch all the babies and mom....(okay, babies and moms) wandering around doing their thing the way they were meant to?
4 of mine are broody and screaming banshee mad poof balls in the barn right now and i have half a mind to just let them do. except i just loaned my big dog crate to a friend that got a new puppy (i refuse to go back and see puppy to get a photo because puppy is TOO CUTE and made me want a puppy and well, REALLY want a puppy....)...and the other ones are carefully stacked out of the way and buried by all the stuff that SHOULD be in the shed that burnt down. gah! we might end up having to "invest" in a junky pre-fab bought 8x12 in the meantime until we figure out what we are doing....sigh.
i just don't think i can get a builder (and permits) in fast enough to get one done this summer.
we had company the last 4 days or so, DH's nephew and his girlfriend, and they LOVED the chickens. she immediately picked up on the different noises the broody moms made, and helped move chicks from the brooders to the barn, and then had to watch them for about an hour to make sure they were settling in okay, and why is the one turkey always standing on TOP of the brooder and making noise? (head turkey poult....ruling the roost!). and wow they can drink at 1 week old? and spray shavings 8 feet already! i don't need any more chicks/poults (of course need/want are 2 different things). i have tons of grow outs for people promised - like tomK and www i think you wanted a couple white layers yes? and of course my project birds, i have yet to get a nice silver welbar boy.....so that's on the list....not stopping till i get one of those!
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Happy
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by Happy » Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:01 am

I may be in a similar (just smaller) situation next year. It looks like Little hatched out 6 girls and 2 boys. Girls stay and boys will IF Sherman can be ok with it (and that’s a big IF)
So...if everyone survives until next spring I will have 7 OEGB hens, 3 pure Cochin hens and a handful of mixes. Cochin and OEGB are right up there behind Silkies for broodiness. Little wants to hatch back to back to back and Stella the Cochin has already been broody twice and she’s not a year old yet. What have I done?!
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windwalkingwolf
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by windwalkingwolf » Mon Jun 18, 2018 2:54 am

Happy wrote:
Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:33 am
Your place sounds like a chick wonderland! You need to charge admission lol
OMG, you have no idea! I now have no less than six momma hens out now with chicks in tow (not counting co-sitters, I only count them as one mama), one Supermama has chicks, ducklings and poults, and is the happiest mama you've ever seen. Today, she tried to teach the ducklings to dustbathe. OMG, hilarious! Three more broody hens are hatching right now as I speak, but have not yet led babies out. A bunch more are stuck tight, and I now have two more starting to make the "chuck, chuck" sound they make right before they go broody. One girl, who is a co-parent, is laying again after only three weeks...still leading chicks around with her other co-setter for most of the day, but laying eggs and roosting with other hens at night. I expect she will want to sit her new eggs in less than three weeks. I'm leaving her eggs for now, because I love the broodies doing their thing, but really, enough is enough very shortly and I'm going to have to start discouraging them if this keeps up.
I have to wonder if it's related to bad weather--what I mean is, if there has been a bad winter, or a bad winter is coming, plants will go nuts making extra seed. They will draw stored energy they may need to make it through, to make sure they have loads of big healthy fruit/seed. I wonder if the loooong spate of crap weather of last winter has made the hens anxious to make sure their line is continued, or if we've got another bad one coming up.
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windwalkingwolf
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by windwalkingwolf » Sun Oct 07, 2018 4:58 am

The hen broodiness has continued, though not to that extreme that it was in June/July. Several have had three batches. I still have a bunch leading chicks around, and two clucky hens that have hidden nests...they HAVE to be in the barn loft. HAVE to be, because the two appear out of nowhere from the barn at supper time and then promptly disappear somewhere in the barn again, and I've thoroughly searched the ground floor. I've gotta get time to get up there and look, because it's a very dangerous place for not only new chicks, but hens as well, as raccoons, like it up there too. I have one more that just started getting clucky, and with this last one, I'm fairly certain she not only can't possibly get in the loft (she's elderly and not very spry) but that she hasn't laid an egg in a month. Her comb is pink, not red. For myself, I actually shut down incubators almost a month ago. Although I'm a hatching addict, I've had my fill of babies this year. Yes, it CAN happen!
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by Happy » Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:45 am

So if you had to guess how many babies hatched at your place this year? And what did you do with all of them? How many stayed?
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by Kbr42 » Sun Oct 07, 2018 10:25 am

windwalkingwolf wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 4:58 am
The hen broodiness has continued, though not to that extreme that it was in June/July. Several have had three batches. I still have a bunch leading chicks around, and two clucky hens that have hidden nests...they HAVE to be in the barn loft. HAVE to be, because the two appear out of nowhere from the barn at supper time and then promptly disappear somewhere in the barn again, and I've thoroughly searched the ground floor. I've gotta get time to get up there and look, because it's a very dangerous place for not only new chicks, but hens as well, as raccoons, like it up there too. I have one more that just started getting clucky, and with this last one, I'm fairly certain she not only can't possibly get in the loft (she's elderly and not very spry) but that she hasn't laid an egg in a month. Her comb is pink, not red. For myself, I actually shut down incubators almost a month ago. Although I'm a hatching addict, I've had my fill of babies this year. Yes, it CAN happen!
Wow! I have 3 more of mine are down for the count again! Is this the year of the broody or what! I spend more of my time taking them out of the nesting boxes ! Anyone have any thoughts as to why so many broody hens this year?
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windwalkingwolf
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Re: Hi, my name is Jan...

Post by windwalkingwolf » Mon Oct 08, 2018 2:14 pm

Happy wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:45 am
So if you had to guess how many babies hatched at your place this year? And what did you do with all of them? How many stayed?
If I did some rough mathstimation, I'd probably still have no clue roflmbo I stopped counting broodies at 13, there were at least 19, and several have hatched multiple clutches. Only one hatched nothing at all, but I fostered chicks under her. Everybody hatched between 1 and 13 chicks, and I stuffed babies under ones with lower numbers so that everybody ended up with 10-13. I myself incubated at least 120. There were multiple losses due to a stupid meat hen and an elderly muscovy drake...I thought it was rats or snakes or maybe our resident crows, until I caught the fat :sSig_censored: s tossing little babies down their pie holes like grapes, and locked the offenders away. Cheryl the hen I got from @Killerbunny is a bit of a loner, and had the best survival rate of her babies, with seven left...Everyone else lost most of them, and in two cases, ALL of them. My best guess is somewhere close to 400 chicks hatched this year, and there are still at least 75 new chickens out there. Most of them are pullets. :help:
Most of the boys will go in the freezer when grown out, and most of the girls get to stay at least over winter. I will decide in the Spring if any of the girls will be going in the freezer as well. One of the girls hatched last Spring, is currently broody :gaah: Figures, eh? Just when I should be getting some new pullet eggs to make up for the older ones slacking off, the girls go "No eggs for you! Come back one month!"
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