New Chick on the farm (pict heavy)

[StonyGarden]

Oh and I had to take the eggs away from the broody hen. She originally at 15. When I candled she had 12 and the other day when I was checking for chicks she had 9. She was either eating the chicks as they hatched or was eating the eggs/chicks before they hatched. All eggs are in incubator now.

 

[Smart Red]

Either I lost a hen yesterday or she is sitting on a nest somewhere in the outback.

My Buckeye, Cinncy, missed the head count last night. There are no signs of fowl foul play so I am hopeful she'll return in 20 days with hatchlings. There are just too many chicken friendly habitats around here suitable for hiding eggs. She's never gone broody before, and the usually broody hen, Hilda, hasn't seemed the least bit interested in nesting.

Your hen shouldn't be too interested in eating while she's brooding, but she may toss the hatchlings out of the nest where they are fair game. At least that is what one of mine did. That's why Nesco got his name. I took his egg away from Momma and hatched him in the Nesco (chicken roaster).

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had a black snake eat eggs out from under a broody. It would take three or four, go away a few days to digest them, then come back for more.

 

[StonyGarden]

It's hatching day!! 2 hatched last night and 8 have hatched so far this morning.

 

[canesisters]

Sooooo eggciting!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Great news. We'll expect photos in the next few days, after the hatch is safely over.

I put a dozen eggs under a broody yesterday. It will be my first broody hatch of the year.

 

[Smart Red]

Congrats, @Stony Garden! You must be a great chicken (grand) mom! It is eggs-tra eggs-citing when they hatch from your own chickens. Pictures, pictures, pictures, please. Hatching time is the cutest those fuzzy things are.

 

[Smart Red]

Cinncy, missed the head count last night. There are no signs of fowl foul play so I am hopeful she'll return in 20 days with hatchlings. There are just too many chicken friendly habitats around here suitable for hiding eggs.

That was Friday night. Saturday came and went with no sign of my Buckeye hen. I still figured she was hiding out on a nest of eggs somewhere out back. Nope! She was not!

My solution to my fighting roosters is to cage first one for two days and then cage the other so they don't harm each other. That's been working for the past couple of weeks or so until DS decides it's time to butcher.

Well, I fed and watered the caged roo this morning when a box on the floor moved just the tiniest bit. My first thought was a rat or baby 'possum, but I bravely lifted the cardboard container to find. . . .

Cinncy! She had tipped over the box and found herself trapped for two nights and the better part of two days. Was she ever hungry and thirsty when I let her out! And -- probably because it was constant night under the carton -- there were no eggs.

Despite having no eggs, it was a happy ending.

 

[Wishin']

I am glad she is fine. I had that happen to a poor bantam rooster once, he was our farm mascot and we were so sad when we thought he had gotten picked of. When I found him two days later we thought he wouldn't make it, as the two days were 80+ degree days and he was severely dehydrated and lethargic, we had to give him water with a dropper at first because he wouldn't drink or even move, but he made it .

 

[Ridgerunner]

Glad it worked out for her. I had that happen once and it did not end well. I no longer keep cardboard boxes where they can get to them. That was a hard lesson to learn.