Another tricky 21 days over....

[di]

....and our Buff has three little Maran babies

It wasn't all plain sailing...why would it be?
She started off with six eggs and broke one quite early on.Then the night before they were due to hatch I noticed blood on her breast feathers
My first panic was that she was injured but she'd actually squished two more eggs...this time with fully formed chicks inside
Yesterday there was one chick and two pipped eggs...then today three little ones snuggled under Mummy.
I don't quite know what went on with the others,but another Grape suggested maybe the shells were weak...they did feel very thin.
I thought Orpingtons were supposed to be excellent broodies but as well as her breaking three of her eggs the other one is broody and most days when I collect eggs she's sat on a few and has broken them....and ours are laying incredibly hard shelled eggs...take a good hard tap on a cup to break them....so are they reknowned for their clumsiness?

Finally,sorry it's a long one.
We were doing great on the mite front...her coop isa plywood box that we'd treated before hand.Also dusted her cardboard nest box well with mite powder before putting a few sheets of newspaper and then mixing some with the woodshavings.She has also had a few dustings herself...all was great and her comb stayed bright red up until Friday when it went very pink and I noticed a cople of mites.She got another good dust down and I'll change the bedding either tonight or in the morning.
Question is...would it be OK to mix a little Poultry Spice with the chick crumb to give her a bit of a boost?
Thankyou.xxx

[RichmondHens]

Congrats on the new hatchlings! Sorry to hear she squashed some. Orps are not known for their clumsiness (but Brahmas are apparently).

Can't see that it would be a problem to put poultry spice in the crumb. Surprised you have red mite so early on. It's been so cold. Maybe you have had a few hiding away over the winter which weren't killed off that have now popped out. Is she in a completely separate coop or one within a bigger house? If the latter they are perhaps hiding in the main house and creeping across to the broody coop. Get the broody coop out on the grass, well away from older housing that may harbour the mites.

Look forward to the pics!

[di]

Thanks,although it's very sad she squashed three....and worse that two of them were fully formed,I'm more than happy with three.Just hope at least one's a girlie.
I don't know what it is about us and mites...the broody coop/box is in a separate part of the run,totally sectioned off so the others can't get in and we treated it at the end of Summer.The site has quite a problem with wood pigeons,so whether they're dropping a few off each time they fly over?
Someone up there has a generator so I'm going to see if I can borrow it and give everything a blast with the steam cleaner.I'm prepared for them this year,whereas last year I had no idea how awful they are til they'd taken a stronghold...defence is the best weapon and I sure as Heck am determined to keep on top of them this year.
Took the kiddies up to shut them all in tonight but she only let us have a quick peek...hopefully she'll play ball and have them out tomorrow afternoon as I've promised them(weather permitting)that we'll go up straight after school.It's really nice,although they get excited about home hatched ones,they seem even more excited about ones under a broody.

I shall bear in mind your comments about Brahmas if and when Roo decides to take a turn...no offence to her but I can quite imagine several breakagesShe's lovely(and by far my favourite),but light on her feet she isn't
Hopefully,if she has them out to play,I'll get some piccies tomorrow.

[its hilly]

Well done a&d. Can't wait to see the pics. What sort of marans are they?
Know what you mean about Brahmas. Sam my brahma x sounds like an elephant thudding around. And when he runs he rolls from side to side like a drunken sailor.

[di]

Hi Hilly,they're Cuckoos....I'm pretty excited about going up there today,hopefully if it's nice she'll bring them out

I'm a bit mean with Roo and encourage her to come as close as poss and then throw my handful of corn so she has to have a little run...always brings a smile to my face
She's incredibly cuddly though and loves to just sit on my lap.

[Bramble-Poultry]

Congrats Di - don't write her off yet if shes a first time mom they can get it wrong it still a shame you lost 3 though - saying that I had a very very experienced mom squash one we think she must have been frightened by something - can;t think of any other reason as she has sat, hatched and raised tonnes of chicks successfully!

[di]

The shells did seem very thin when I disposed of them...not sure if that's the cause,but it feels like the easiest to go with
So far she's doing a grand Mummy job...even tutted at me and my friend earlier and raised herself up a bit so we could take a peek
Although she kept them in the coop,she did let them out of the nestbox earlier for a photoshoot(she's so well trained)...so.....

[Suechooks]

Goooooooorjuss!!

[MaureenHall]

Just a little bit of a hi-jack on this thread (sorry Di) but the broody hen I borrowed from Shellingtons has been sitting on some eggs for 25 days now and guess what yesterday 1 pipped and was cheeping like crazy. Unfortunately it didn't hatch and I found it dead in the shell this morning But ............................... another one had pipped and tonight I've seen a lovely fluffy little chick under Mummy Day 25 for goodness sake! There seems to have been a few late hatches recently, does anyone think the weather has anything to do with it?

[Nicos]

Fantastic news about the chicks Di!!
So sad to have lost the first ones though
Love the piccies...keep us updated!


Maureen..25 days???.flipping heck!..glad that one managed to surive.

[Glutton4...]

Wow - nature sure is strange! Well done, and congratulations.

I guess the weather may be a contributing factor, Auntie Mo, but having never hatched anything, I guess I'm just surmising. Sounds perfectly logical to me, though!

[MaureenHall]

The other pipped one didn't make it either But little fluffy is cheeping and running around and watching Mum have her breakfast I'll discard the rest of the eggs tonight

[di]

Pleased at least one made it Mo...that's some late starter.Is it particularly big as a chick?

Our three seem do be doing fine and Mum is greatI have got a few more pics but need to load them.

I was quite relieved yesterday,when she had them outside I took advantage of the moment and took the nest box out and inspected the coop.The only mitesI could find were hiding between two sheets of newspaper...needless to say it's been changed.
I also mixed up some dry soil,bonfire ash and mite powder and put in the run...even though she'd only just taken them back in she started clucking madly and had them straight out in it

[MaureenHall]

Well I don't know!!!! So far I've got 1 hatched chick, 2 died after pipping but before hatching, and another one's pipped this morning . I don't know whether the live one decided to go walk-about on its own or whether Mum brought it out, but they were quite happily trotting around the little broody run together totally ignoring the other eggs and the pipped egg was really cold So ...................... I've put all the remaining eggs in an incubator and if any more survive I'll pop them under Mum at bedtime. Meanwhile, I know you all like pics, so here's a couple I took just now

[Nicos]

OMG!!!...day 27???.....bit like me with my 'somewhere between 21 and 28day hatch'.
fingers crossed the last ones make it!
Sounds like mom got fed up with sitting!

Lovely piccies Maureen!