Surprise , surprise, surprise! Lol, well...my husband went out to give treats to our critters and he always gives our hen Brown Racer some special attention and scratch grains when she is sitting on eggs...he saw a baby duck last night. So I had to get a brooder ready real quickly. I didn't exactly record when I gave her duck eggs to sit on, I just did the ones in the incubator apparently...I was a thinking I had more time.
I have not hatched duck eggs under a broody hen before. He was afraid the other hens would kill them so I went out there after setting up the brooder and found two already hatched. I heard little chirps after I took them out, and went out later and found another duckling buried and squished flat under some eggs...It didn't look very good last night, but it seems better this morning. There are five more duck eggs and one chicken egg still under her...she was not happy with me picking her up, but she didn't peck me. My husband named her Brown Racer...she is one of my original starter flock of six.
I put duck eggs under another broody hen but after sitting on them awhile, they just disappeared. I think I may have an egg eater. She is still sitting as are three others, but I keep taking the others eggs away. I have been adding goose eggs to the incubator every time I find them, hopefully some will hatch...but I am not seeing veins or any growth in but one, so far. That and one duck egg.
I still have about 25 chicks on my back porch, in my double decker brooder. Most of them are Black Copper Marans and it appears a lot of those are roosters. I have way too many roosters and need to process some...once they start aggressively mating they go into an isolation pen. I am planning on breeding, so I need roosters...but they don't have to be in the general population if they are gang bangers. I would prefer my hens not get attacked by five or six roosters at once and that is what they do when they find a submissive hen...they gang up on her. There have been many times that I snatched one off a hen that tends to mate a hen every few minutes, some of them run around all day and try to mate every single hen in my flock! It angers me, the brutality of some of their actions. The roosters that actually protect their girls get to stay out, they are generally easy going and gentle until another rooster messes with their women.
I have probably 10 hens that are bald on their back from mating...I made chicken saddles for them but they got ripped off, some saddles are torn up. I will have to rethink the design and try heavier material on both sides. Maybe a canvass duck type or heavier outdoor material. Apparently blue jean and quilting cotton is not good enough. They have not torn the blue jean up, but it is heavy and I do 't want my hens to overheat either. It has been blazing hot outside here...combine that with the humidity and it feels like 105 a lot out here. As long as there is a breeze it is not to bad in the shade.
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