Mums to be...

[vicky]

That's sad, sorry to hear about your news. But prehaps you're right - it was the best thing to happen for him

[jessmorris]

Still no action with my bantam eggs and its day 21 today...I've never had a completely failed hatch before. Some eggs show a dark mass at one end and a large air sac at the other, but no movement at all...

How is your remaining chick G62?

JM

[gillian62]

Chick doing ok, had a wobbly time this afternoon. Think he got cold, so warmed him up and he seemed better. We picked up a couple more youngsters for companionship, but they are too big for him. Unfortunately one of them stood on him, which didn't help.

We are still dipping his head into water and wet crumbs to get him to feed, but he's doing alright. Breeder thinks the heat and humidity affected the eggs, and as the membranes dried up, the legs were affected as they struggled to get out. At least I know why.

[kirsty b]

Day 19.....

hatch day is reckoned to be Sunday, but have had a couple of probs with temp (which I didn't at all before) this time, so won't be surprised if they are a day or two 'late' if they come at all. The temp fluctuations have been 2 degrees either way so really don't know how this would have affected eggs

Getting excited and apprehensive all at the same time now!!!

May do final candle tonight to see if I have reasons to be hopeful.

[jessmorris]

Oh gawd - my broody has abandoned the eggs which I have now put under another hen. I floated all the eggs in warm water on the advice from a friend. One showed definite signs of movement, and another very slight signs of movement, so there may be hope yet..its past hatch day so they must have got cold at one point I suppose?....The tiniest chick of the booted bantams seems to be doing ok but is only 2/3rds the size of his siblings - whether he'll last the course who knows? Its all a bit nail biting for some of us this week!

[vicky]

Good luck Jess, so stressful! Thank goodness you had another broody!

Let us know how you get on with the candling Kirsty

This should be called problemchookchat...

Of the 5 eggs abandoned by my broody 2 hatched ok and are under mum, one's pipping under mum but unfortunately 2 pipped but died last night. Still a better outcome than I expected at one time.

[kirsty b]

Will keep my fingers crossed that the pipped one survives xx

[jessmorris]

Me too! 3 out of 5 for abanadoned eggs sounds quite good to me!

[julesapple]

We had three Friesian chicks pipping when I went to bed last night (9pm, long long week) but this morning two were fine and one healthy chick had died in it's shell.

It was well pipped with a large hole in the shell and the membrane had dried to it's beak. I am cross about this as DD had placed a face cloth under the eggs to add moisture but she didn't wet it and it very effectively prevented moisture coming through the mesh tray from the water troughs underneath. The level dropped to 40%.

Anyway, another Friesian chick has pipped. We've got 7 eggs out of 12 and only one is a Silver Laced Wyandotte. I hope it's a hen......I hope it hatches!

Jules

[sheena]

I'm feeling hopeful... I got to thinking last week that my previous attempt was down to the temp being too low as I tried my best to keep it to 37.7C or as close as. Then I read that still air incy's need to be slightly hotter and have raised the temp to 39C. The eggs actually have some warmth to them now when i'm turning them (as if they have just come out of the hen - take that as a good sign)

Day 14 - On candling them again last night, I can now confirm that out of the 23 remaining eggs... 12 have definately started to progress, with the possibility of another 2 as I cannot see into the green shelled egg and another darker shelled one looks to have an air sack.

So fingers crossed x

Out of the eggs, 9 from 12 of Kirsty's, only 1 from 6 of Jules and 3 from 6 of Ebay's... plus 2 questionable one's from Kirsty's batch. So it's all good so far.

It could of been the length of time they were left waiting for extra eggs tho Jules, not to mention the travelling. Always remain hopeful

[julesapple]

Final Count...

.....three chicks out of 12 eggs.

Not impressive, is it?

So, after this morning's humidity/not topping up the troughs episode, we had one more Friesian Fowl chick hatch. This one is considerably smaller than the other two, and I'm a bit concerned about it making the night.

I candled and listened to the remaining three eggs, but they were silent. Out of the three one felt cold so I pipped this one, the little body was cold and had died in the egg. No sign of why; no excess water etc. Then I pipped the only Silver Laced Wyandotte egg...the chick was alive but seemed to be swimming in gloopy egg white. To my eyes it looked very premature. We did everything we could think of but it died too. The last egg was another FF and it had inhaled it's own pooh, poor wee thing.

As we had a good fertility rate, and the eggs seemed to be developing as normal, I had high hopes of this hatch. So I am disappointed but I do now realise that there really isn't anything that can hatch eggs as effectively as a good broody!

Anyway, that's us finished with hatching for this year. Got an egg wish-list for next year though......

Jules

[Glutton4...]

Better luck next time Jules.



OK, today is Day Nineteen with the Broody. So, it's silly question time;

I've bought Chick Crumb, will Broody eat it too, or will she need separate food?
What should I line the floor of the cage with; newspaper, shavings, towel...?
It's a good size (nearly 3'x2') cage, but how soon will they need more space?
What have I forgotten?????

Ta very much.

[RichmondHens]

Yes broody will eat the crumb same as chicks. Get a scratch ring in the feeder as if she is anything like my hens she will chuck it all out all over the place and create a terrible mess. It's their way of teaching the chicks how to forage.

Is she in a wooden broody coop? Will she have access to grass? Once the eggs have hatched I take all the bedding out and let the hen sit on the wooden floor. I tend not to put shavings in when the chicks are very small as they sometimes try to eat them.

Once the chicks have hatched I would get them outside into a broody coop as soon as you can. It's nice and mild and the hen will keep them warm. There is nothing better than grass for the chicks to run around on and mum to scratch in - and she will do a lot of scratching!

[Glutton4...]

Thanks RH!

That means a big change of plans then. She's currently in a cardboard box in the corner of the old tack room. Concrete floor with shavings on. I was going to put her in the dog cage, for security, as she has a large area (6'x4') at the moment.

I have a coop I could use, and could easily put it on grass, but have no fencing.

Why didn't I think of all this before I bought the eggs!? D'Oh!

[RichmondHens]

She won't need much room for the first week. My broody coops (housing box + covered run) measure about 4 by 2 feet and then I have extension runs that just join on the end which are about 4 by 4 feet. It also depends to some extent on how many chicks you get. If you end up with just two or three they obviously don't trash the grass quite as quickly as if you have 12. I move my coops every couple of days for the first week and then daily after that.