Well...I ended up with fourteen broody hens! It seems it is contagious. I did not think I would have so many. In a way it is good...at least I know the breeds I have will reproduce naturally...I let them all sit on eggs though...and now I have a lot of chicks. Not all of the eggs hatched, they kick them out of the nest sometimes but, I ended up taking a lot of them away from the broody sitting on them. The other hens tend to crawl in the nest with the broody hen and lay, they have broken eggs, and killed chicks doing this. I moved, or should I say tried to move the hens to the "Broody House", some of the hens did not like it and stopped sitting and started screaming at me. If they didn't stay on the nest after a couple of hours I let them out and took their eggs in the house and candled them.
I have an egg candler that basically looks like a flashlight with a rubber extension over the light, you place the egg on the rubber part and it shines up into the egg and you can basically see the contents of the egg. If an egg that is fertile has been sat on and brought up to a temperature of around 99 or so, it starts developing into a chick...you can tell by three days if it is developing. Generally you can see blood veins developing around the inside of the shell and a dark little body forming, it is about the size of a tiny pea at three days...sometimes a little bigger. If they were developing, I put them in the incubator...if not, they were either dog food or went into the trash. My chickens destroyed my compost area, so I will eventually start another and start putting the bad or previously sat on eggs in it...just have not started another one yet.
I have had chicks hatching every day for two weeks. Some days, only one or two hatch...other days up to 11 have hatched. I have not had to aid any of the chicks in getting out of the shells. There is a big difference when you hatch eggs from your hens and eggs through the mail. Even with opening the incubator multiple times a day, they hatch without help. The chicks are stronger and healthier at hatch and no problems with sticky chick, or dried membranes or birth defects from my chicks! But, getting eggs through the mail is necessary to get the endangered breeds and the breeds people want the most, that is why I have been doing it. I have not been selling enough eggs lately...so I decided to try and sell chicks. We shall see how that goes. Oh, and with the chicks that I hatched from eggs through the mail...I have about 100 chicks between less than 24 hours old and two and a half weeks old...well, and 14 turkey poults, and about 45 chicks in the grow out pen that are from 8 weeks to 10 weeks old, the others that I hatched this year are out wandering around the yard like big chickens do...going on 4 months old, it won't be long until they start laying. Hopefully I will sell some of my chicks and get the money from them to work on my breeding pens. Until my breeding pens are complete, I won't be able to separate the chickens and have full blooded breeds...and that is what I must do to make enough money to fuel my business...OK, continue my addiction, but make money enough to feed them hopefully!
Oh, on that note...I won some auctions on eBay and have more eggs coming. Hopefully I will have some successful hatches out of them. People want Black Copper Marans hens for their chocolate colored brown eggs...well, hopefully I will have a bunch hatch and they won't all be boys! I will keep some of the babies for my breeding stock, and sell the rest. I will have Black Copper, Blue Splash and Blue Marans and hopefully be breeding by the end of the summer...then I can hatch babies of those and sell hatching eggs in the winter time...just thinking...I just may need more breeding pens built!
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Monday, May 18, 2015
Broody Hens...
A broody hen is a chicken who wants to sit on eggs and hatch them, it takes 21 days on average for a clutch of eggs to hatch once she starts sitting on them. Broody hens can be rather uncooperative, combative and will scream at you and peck you if you get to close.
I have a lot of broody hens right now. Brown Racer is one of my first hens, she went broody first and it has snowballed since then. I have been really busy lately and since she went broody, I have had a bunch more get broody and start sitting on eggs. Brown Racers eggs started hatching a few days ago, I ended up taking her babies away because the other hens were killing them, or she accidentally did it. I found two dead and took one away thrat died shortly afterward. I walked into my big coop and found a dead one in there and one standing in the floor screaming with blood all over its head. I took eggs away and put them in the incubator, seven have hatched so far. I used the house I originally intended for my ducks and geese, changed our minds and decided to use it for turkeys we hatched...but right now, it is a broody hen house. I moved 8 broody hens to it...3 quit sitting on their eggs...more eggs went into incubators and I kicked those three out of the house. Those hens went back to the big coop...I had three left sitting in the big coop...but, now I have even more broody hens!
I am going to attempt to move at least three to the three empty nests in the now dubbed "Broody House"...I think other broody hens will not kill babies...I hope not anyway. I went out to feed and one of my Blue Splash Marans has a new hatchling...I took her other one away yesterday after finding dead babies in the chicken tractor with Brown Racer. I DO NOT like finding dead babies!
All of my purchased eggs hatched, the turkeys, the Cream Legbars, Lavender Orpingtons, the Salmon Favorelles...not even one Jubilee Orpington hatched! Only one Java hatched...I am guessing due to rough handling when the eggs made their way through the postal system. None of the Jubilee Orpington eggs even developed and I contacted the seller...she may bring me eggs next time she heads up this way, she has family in New Boston...it is about 35 miles away or so. I purchased some more and we shall see what happens, I need two different lines at least to breed with...possibly more. In the mean time, I have 13 turkey babies and about 40 or so new chicks so far in my brooder room. I have Juvenile chickens in my grow out pen, probably about 20 and let my older babies start running with the adults...probably about 25 of those. No, no exact count yet...but, I still have Lavender Orpingtons, some Dominiques, Easter Eggers and mixed breeds hatching in my house. I have two almost full incubators with eggs in them still. I candle the ones I bring in from the nests...a lot of them are not developed and I have a big box of those and will probably add more soon.
I wanted broody hens...I got a whole lot more than I need. But since I have not been selling very many eggs and when I advertise, people want laying hens when they call...not eggs, I will hatch chicks and sell them...or sell them when they start laying.
I have a lot of broody hens right now. Brown Racer is one of my first hens, she went broody first and it has snowballed since then. I have been really busy lately and since she went broody, I have had a bunch more get broody and start sitting on eggs. Brown Racers eggs started hatching a few days ago, I ended up taking her babies away because the other hens were killing them, or she accidentally did it. I found two dead and took one away thrat died shortly afterward. I walked into my big coop and found a dead one in there and one standing in the floor screaming with blood all over its head. I took eggs away and put them in the incubator, seven have hatched so far. I used the house I originally intended for my ducks and geese, changed our minds and decided to use it for turkeys we hatched...but right now, it is a broody hen house. I moved 8 broody hens to it...3 quit sitting on their eggs...more eggs went into incubators and I kicked those three out of the house. Those hens went back to the big coop...I had three left sitting in the big coop...but, now I have even more broody hens!
I am going to attempt to move at least three to the three empty nests in the now dubbed "Broody House"...I think other broody hens will not kill babies...I hope not anyway. I went out to feed and one of my Blue Splash Marans has a new hatchling...I took her other one away yesterday after finding dead babies in the chicken tractor with Brown Racer. I DO NOT like finding dead babies!
All of my purchased eggs hatched, the turkeys, the Cream Legbars, Lavender Orpingtons, the Salmon Favorelles...not even one Jubilee Orpington hatched! Only one Java hatched...I am guessing due to rough handling when the eggs made their way through the postal system. None of the Jubilee Orpington eggs even developed and I contacted the seller...she may bring me eggs next time she heads up this way, she has family in New Boston...it is about 35 miles away or so. I purchased some more and we shall see what happens, I need two different lines at least to breed with...possibly more. In the mean time, I have 13 turkey babies and about 40 or so new chicks so far in my brooder room. I have Juvenile chickens in my grow out pen, probably about 20 and let my older babies start running with the adults...probably about 25 of those. No, no exact count yet...but, I still have Lavender Orpingtons, some Dominiques, Easter Eggers and mixed breeds hatching in my house. I have two almost full incubators with eggs in them still. I candle the ones I bring in from the nests...a lot of them are not developed and I have a big box of those and will probably add more soon.
I wanted broody hens...I got a whole lot more than I need. But since I have not been selling very many eggs and when I advertise, people want laying hens when they call...not eggs, I will hatch chicks and sell them...or sell them when they start laying.
I Have An Addiction!
I keep seeing different breeds of chickens that I want to be part of my flock. I have also become a Hatchaholic. I now have three incubators going at the same time. But, not only that...one has turkey eggs in it, lots of turkey eggs! I have candled them, not all appear to be developing, but I will candle again next week..it is my first time trying to hatching turkeys. If a lot hatch, I will probably try and sell some. I set more eggs today, Jubilee and Lavender Orpingtons. So, I have Java, Crested Cream Legbar, Salmon Favorelle, Dorking, the Jubilee and Lavender Orpingtons basically cooking at the moment in addition to the turkey eggs. I must be out of my mind.
I want good breeding stock, so I get breeds from different sources...not all of them hatch and a lot are males. Males do not lay eggs...so I get more eggs to hatch hoping for more females. It is a vicious cycle of fluffy butts, incubator alarms, taking care of babies, cleaning up, feeding, watering, musical chairs with chicks. But, I am determined to try and make some money off of them, to help with the costs of my addictions. I hope I can. I bought a large ice chest and some refreezable ice packs, I may go sit on a corner someplace and try and sell eggs soon. The Farmers Market will open in another month or so, and I will try and sell there too. I may have to see about livestock auctions in the area to sell some chickens and hatching eggs. I am even planting things so that maybe I will be able to supplement all my poultry's feed...they love cucumbers, water melon cantaloupes...stuff like that. But I have field corn to plant too.
I have to plan a turkey house too, and finish the goose house, and possibly another chicken coop. Yes, I stay busy. I have a lot to do. I still need to finish breeding pens, but I need to build the doors...and I have not started. I have not planted my garden yet either...but rain has stuck around so tilling is not possible yet, but I did get some garlic and onions planted and some weeding done. I periodically check my fruit trees too...I can see tiny fruits on most of them and all of my pecan trees have leaves now. I still want more fruit trees and hope to get a Nectarine and Red Plum tree this year. Time will tell what all I get done.
I have a granddaughter due to be born in June and just started a project for her too, I guess it is no wonder I am tired, so much I have to do, or want to do. We have not been eating dinner until late and we got the first four seasons of the HBO series Game of Thrones...we have watched two episodes a night...and been staying up later to do it. I must get busy, it may storm tonight and I should prepare for it...put on my muck boots and try and finish wiring up the duck and goose house. I have a heavy duty tarp coming to cover it to keep them dry, but I wonder how something like that would work if we have large hail and high winds?
I want good breeding stock, so I get breeds from different sources...not all of them hatch and a lot are males. Males do not lay eggs...so I get more eggs to hatch hoping for more females. It is a vicious cycle of fluffy butts, incubator alarms, taking care of babies, cleaning up, feeding, watering, musical chairs with chicks. But, I am determined to try and make some money off of them, to help with the costs of my addictions. I hope I can. I bought a large ice chest and some refreezable ice packs, I may go sit on a corner someplace and try and sell eggs soon. The Farmers Market will open in another month or so, and I will try and sell there too. I may have to see about livestock auctions in the area to sell some chickens and hatching eggs. I am even planting things so that maybe I will be able to supplement all my poultry's feed...they love cucumbers, water melon cantaloupes...stuff like that. But I have field corn to plant too.
I have to plan a turkey house too, and finish the goose house, and possibly another chicken coop. Yes, I stay busy. I have a lot to do. I still need to finish breeding pens, but I need to build the doors...and I have not started. I have not planted my garden yet either...but rain has stuck around so tilling is not possible yet, but I did get some garlic and onions planted and some weeding done. I periodically check my fruit trees too...I can see tiny fruits on most of them and all of my pecan trees have leaves now. I still want more fruit trees and hope to get a Nectarine and Red Plum tree this year. Time will tell what all I get done.
I have a granddaughter due to be born in June and just started a project for her too, I guess it is no wonder I am tired, so much I have to do, or want to do. We have not been eating dinner until late and we got the first four seasons of the HBO series Game of Thrones...we have watched two episodes a night...and been staying up later to do it. I must get busy, it may storm tonight and I should prepare for it...put on my muck boots and try and finish wiring up the duck and goose house. I have a heavy duty tarp coming to cover it to keep them dry, but I wonder how something like that would work if we have large hail and high winds?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)