31 days later

 

 

 

 

 I spotted a fragment of shell when checking on the feed  for the sitting hen.  One of the eggs was very sloshy  so it was removed . And we have 2 goslings 

 So we will move them on and put them into a bigger run out on the grass. 

The sitting Hen

 At the moment we dont want any more chickens.

And we have a broody hen. 

And we have a goose that is laying eggs but at the moment isnt incubating them.

 

So 

 

Weve taken some eggs from the nest that the goose has made 

 

And introduced the hen to them .,And she is incubating them 

  Goose egg incubation time is about a month.  So wait and see what ( if anything ) comes of this.

New Arrivals

 So we had a broody hen. 

And we have some ducks that are laying eggs 

So we put the 2 together about a month ago 

 

 

 

 

 

1 egg must have been sterile

1 duckling seems to have died shortly after birth 

And I think we have 7. 

 

A surprise

 Hens go broody .  They sit on any eggs they lay or find and then peck at you if you  disturb them . 

So after checking no eggs under one of the broody hens ( weve got 4 broody at the moment) I left her to it. 

 So it was a bit of a surprise to come across this . 

As chicks go , this is a very small one  - she clearly secreted a small egg under her . 

 

So it is now in a run with food and water , and we shall see what it  grows into 

A surprise

 I went to give the hens some food. 

And i saw this 

Egg prodcution goes down at this time of the year anyway . And the hends are getting elderly , so we assumed that one missing had been got by an otter, or stoat, otr just died in the undergrowth somewhere. 

But  she hadn't. There were  4 chicks with her.  ive had a hunt and cant find the nest and broken shells.  So its nowhere really close to where they were found/fed. And we assume more than 4 hatched but they succumbed on the way - fell down a hole, or into a stream  or got lost in the vegetation . 

Survival  chances wouldn't be great this time of the year - there are plenty of predators around and chicks arent well-endowed with intelligence. 

So we rounded them up  and brought one of our chick runs back into action  and mother and 4 chicks are protected and doing well.

 

incubatoring again

We started  broody hens on some duck eggs a couple of weeks ago .
We check on them daily to ensue they have enough food and water. And yesterday one of them had clearly had enough of this sitting-on-eggs  malarkey and was found  on a perch. With the eggs abandoned and cold.

We have been here before with cold eggs and so nothing ventures, nothing gained the incubator was brought into action.

We checked the eggs - if they arent fertile then 2 weeks in ,  you can hear fluid sloshing around when gently shaken. As it is a tight fit for all the eggs in our (small) incubator, we had to jettison one

it looks as if it has been fertilised. And development stopped.

So the remaining eggs  have been put in the incubator

And they need turning regularly. And the water  topped up to maintain the humidity.
And we shall see whay happens   around the 28th June.

2 down

We put a hen on a dozen eggs  on 19th May .

We chekc daily on the broody hens ( currently 3 of them) to ensure they have enough food and water within easy reach.
And today , there had obviously been a bit of bother of some sort

2 of the eggs are no longer under the hen. Instead they have ended up by the feed, and one has been p***ped on.
And the eggs are cold.

We could try putting them back under the hen, but if she thinks 12 is too many she could push ( a different) pair of eggs out.

So the decision is to use the incubator.
Hopefully not for many days . Of course the eggs may have been left out for too long and the chicks have died.

We will know by the end of the weekend.

More Ducks ( hopefully)

There appears to be  good market for duck eggs. Our ducks are very sweet, and stupid . And not very good at consistently laying . Indian Runner ducks are better at consistently laying. And we have another broody hen.
So we kept the broody hen occupied , and sitting, on a couple of false eggs,- -real eggs, blown and then filled with plaster   -

And you can order eggs  on the internet - and a few days later they  arrived. 

So we replaced te plaster eggs with the real ones.

And she continues to brood on them. And the incubation period is 28 days.

And 28 days from putting them under the hen will be  26th June
So watch this space

2nd time lucky

the hen that was sitting and making broody-noises  didnt like the custom-arranged brooding environment

Not dark enough , not private enough. or something

So we have used one of the empty hen houses and set her up in there with a dozen eggs.

The only problem is  keeping an eye on things and ensuring food and water etc are topped up.

Watch this space  4weeks hence .

one hen a-stting

And one of the hens has gone broody - bit later than normal as its usually mid-April when this starts.
And as some of the hens are getting on a bit we may need to replace them.

So the chick run has been brought back into use, as she is sitting on some plaster eggs. If she is still sitting in the morning, we will put some real eggs under her.

A sitting hen.

Someone local had  a broody hen   which was offered on loan  - perhaps thats easier  that trying to unbrood them , or putting up with pushing her off any eggs that are  laid.

As we've had limited luck with geese - because of the predators taking the eggs - the hen is sitting on some geese eggs.

Only a few - we started with 4 but on the first inspection , only 3 were under her so one was removed. Perhaps ot surprising as they are so much bigger

And the hen is in a broody box - its gives them the shade and privacy they need and means we need to be bothered a bit less about disurbances.

And the incubation period is 25-30 days .

Null Chicks

We decide to sit one of the broody hens, on previous experience a good broody,  on a clutch of eggs
the hen was rehoused  to give her more room and make it a bit more strightforward to keep her topped up with water and feed.

But we found eggs abandoned in the run - and broken shells. And the 12 eggs were eventually reduced to 2, that the hen continused to sit faithfully on .

And we got to term + a week, and something  wasn't right.

And we found the hen with a broken, partially developed chick under her.

 and another one in the run

We think there must have been something (? a rat)  that has been getting in the run , stealing eggs abd frightening the hen off the eggs , so they got too cold, and the chick died.

Its unlikely we will get another hen going broody this late in the season ,  so it will ahve to be next year when we try again if we want more hens

broody rehoused

So the broody hen hasnt been particularly happy in the cage , be-towelled and sitting on eggs.
 So something must be done.  And it has been.

The various chick runs we have , had a bad winter and got a bit trached by the storms

So a bit of fixing , and the run is good enough.

And the broody hen and 12 eggs has been moved in.

A tale of 2 broodys

So the hens go broddy through the summer.  And its a real pain because they try and sit on eggs on the henhouse , which makes it difficult to collect them, and other hens cant get in the right place to lay their eggs.
So there are 2 choices - let them brood, or try to 'unbrood' them .
For the latter, they are put in a cage where they cannot 'brood'. there is ample food and water ( but they dont take much when broody) , and after a few weeks they usually get the message , give up trying to sit , and can be put  back with the other hens.

Or the laternative is to let them sit on a clutch of eggs and see whaty you get.

13 eggs 

and there is a  hen in here, begin given some peace and quiet , to get on with hatching some chicks.

Watch this space, 3 weeks hence .

hiding

Whilst out cutting the grass  ( you do a lot of that at this time of the year) , I spotted a hen, sitting suspiciously. And on closer insepction there was an egg.

And when i turfed her off the eggs , there were a load  of eggs. 15 in this batch , and another 3 a short distance away   

So she has been laying egges here for 3 weeks , and then started to sit on them. 

As we arent so far  planning to hatch any chicks of our own, we put her back in with the others. 

But this is 3 boxes of eggs we could have sold !

A hen gone AWOL

One of the ducks when AWOL and reappeared with 7 ducklings 
One of the bantam  hens has gone AWOL , and was found. But she was sitting ( or trying to sit ) on 20 bantam eggs. And they are unlikely to be fertile as  we dont have a male bantam , following the sad demise of Andrew .

So we removed the bantam eggs and  replaced them with some hopefully fertile light sussex eggs. If she spotted the swap, it didnt bother her too much as she just sat on the new eggs.


If you look closely

You can see the hen

Sadly

The duckling was alive first thing this morning, but at lunchtime we found it dead in the run.
And the mother hen was still dutifully guarding it.

Either it wasn't strong enough to survive, or there was a problem anyway ( which is why it ended up in our pond)

At least it didnt get attacked by the local hoodies whilst it was alive.

see what we found

Out early  in the morning , we found this  duckling trying to get out of the pond.   No sign of its mother, or any other ducks ( ours were still locked up) . Ours get counted in and locked in every night , so we don't think one has surreptitiously been sitting on some eggs. Although the eggs will probably survive if left for couple of hours  and then re-incubated  , they wont survive left overnight, 

So we think its a wild duck that has hatched some and this little one got separated, or lost, and go carried down on the stream.

So what to do ? We could just leave it and let it take its chance  of either the mother finding it (very unlikely) or it succumbing to the hooded crows (very likely)   or it dieing of cold and starvation (very  likely). 

So what we did is  take the eggs off one of our broody hens and  put them in the incubator

 and  slipped the duckling under the broody hen.  She seems to have accepted it and they have been moved to the chick run and  given access to food and water  

  So we shall see what happens.