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8:00 am August 13, 2010
| Butterbean
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| Big Chicken | posts 23 | |
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My Americauna has gone broody, she is about 16 months old, this is her first time, and was setting on 6 eggs. One hatched just fine. Monday, another one began to hatch, but when I checked that evening everything was gone. She is in a pen that nothing can get into. So yesterday, another chick began to hatch. This morning it was dead, had not completely hatched. This is the first time that I have had a hen go broody. Is there something that I should do? She has 3 more eggs, and 1 looks like it has a little hole in it, like the chick is ready to hatch. just wondered if there is anything I can do. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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8:12 am August 13, 2010
| BuckeyeGirl
| | N.E. Ohio | |
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Well…. the first chick is still fine? Mama is treating it well? If the one that was hatching took a long rest in the middle, (as they often do), or else it died in the process, (which could have happened too) and mama looked in at it and freaked out, she may have cleaned up the remains, or even actually killed it. A bit ugly I know, but they have an instinct to keep the nest clean of all dead (or perceived dead/dying) chicks to protect the live ones from predators who would be attracted by the scent.
…since this is her first, she's probably not sure of everything herself.
Either way, without an incubator you're a bit stuck. If you were to remove eggs now, the balance of humidity and heat would be pretty messed up. Humidity is the big problem, you could approximate the heat with a simple light bulb in a box at this point, but with too dry an environment, the membrane around the chick could/would shrink once the process starts, and 'heat shrink' around the chick which suffocates them.
All I can suggest is keep as close an eye on her as possible. If the chicks seem in danger you can take them away and try to do it. Warning not to 'help' the chick out though, that usually leads to serious bleeding by the chick. They do take long breaks in this process, hours at a time, even 10, 12, or 20 hours!
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If tomatoes are a fruit, then isn’t ketchup technically a
smoothie?
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9:07 am August 13, 2010
| KentuckyFarmGirl
| | Kentucky | |
| Mighty Chicken | posts 282 | 
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I had one do this last week and I am assuming because it has been so HOT here, the eggs all tried to hatch at different times. She had 6 hatch out the first day and then another 5 hatched during the next two days but she didn't want anything to do with the eggs or babies once the initial 6 were dry and healthy. She was done hatching and ready to care for her babies. She wouldn't even sit on the nest of eggs. If it hadn't been so hot the others probably wouldn't even have hatched but with 100+temps they still thought momma was sitting on them. I tried to get her to take one of the later hatchlings but she pecked it and would have killed it if I hadn't taken it out. I have the 5 little guys in the brooder and I tossed the rest of the eggs still in the nest. Went out this morning and have another momma sitting on 14 eggs….why do mine only want to go broody when it's sooo hot?
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9:33 am August 13, 2010
| BuckeyeGirl
| | N.E. Ohio | |
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I KNOW!! It's so crazy! As if the stress of setting on a nest weren't bad enough for them! Hopefully the heat will have eased by the time they're ready to hatch!
Something you can do to get her to take chicks after she's 'done' is wait till it's pitch dark outside, go out with the tiniest flashlight you can manage to get by with, or drape a bigger one with a cloth if you need to, and slip the chicks under her while she's asleep. They usually just shift around and make room, then they're there when they all wake up in the morning and she doesn't have a clue that there's anything new going on.
That whole 'touch a baby bird and the mother will smell you' and reject them thing is a total myth. The only bird with a sense of smell to speak of are vultures. The rest have no real sense of smell and they don't call them 'bird brains' for no reason at all, they can't count and have NO IDEA how big their clutch of chics is!!! Usually they wake up, the chicks are there, so they take care of them. 
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If tomatoes are a fruit, then isn’t ketchup technically a
smoothie?
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9:35 am August 13, 2010
| CATRAY44
| | By a lake in S. Michigan | |
| Super Chicken | posts 721 | 
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I have done that as well, even after a couple of days it still works. I have taken dud eggs and replaced with 3 day old chicks with no issues, doing it as Buckeye Girl suggests.
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9:40 am August 13, 2010
| Butterbean
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| Big Chicken | posts 23 | |
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I had wondered about the heat having something to do with it. It has been so exteremely hot here! Also wondered if this was a first time Mama thing?
The chick that hatched Saturday is fine. It is running around peeping and climbing on Mama. She is still setting on the eggs. I did not lift her off of the nest, but when I picked up her wing this morning, I had noticed tiny holes, like the other eggs were trying to hatch. Is there something that I need to provide her with that I haven't? She is in her nesting box with plenty of straw. The nesting box is inside a homemade wooden box, with a solid bottom and top, and the front and back of the box have wood sides, the remaining sides have chicken wire. The other birds can see inside and check on her progress. There is enough room for her to get up and walk around, and room for food and water. I am keeping clean fresh water in there, and offering chick food, as much as will be eaten. I check several times a day so that she has fresh food and water available, even though she is not eating very much right now. I don't always lift her wing, I did last night because I saw the feathers on the new baby, they were still wet, looked like that sack had not been broken, so I left her alone. This morning, the chick was dry, and still in about 1/3 of the shell. I thought that mama knew how to do her job better than I would. Wondering if I did the right thing now. I am a first timer with this, usually buy chicks at the hardware store, but when she went broody, I left her alone so she could do what she needed to.
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2:07 pm August 13, 2010
| BuckeyeGirl
| | N.E. Ohio | |
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| posts 3969 | |
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You are doing just fine Butterbean, I would do absolutely nothing different than you are! Hens don't often stay setting after the first group are hatched so she's doing quite well to still be on the nest. Whenever I've had staggered hatches like that, I take the dry chicks out and let her set till the second batch is hatched. Then slip the older ones back under her as described before.
This happens when a hen has already started setting consistently and other hens push in and lay more eggs a week (or so) into the setting period. Another reason why any eggs a broody has started setting on should be marked so you can remove any new ones.
If the shell is on that hatched chick, it will break away and fall off by itself UNLESS it's over it's bottom hole and will interfere with the chick being able to poo. Still that's not a huge problem yet, they take a couple of days to poo, but it could well be a problem. If so, don't pull it! you'll have to break it possibly with a pair of scissors but OH SO CAREFULLY by snipping SHELL not feathers, fluff or anything anywhere NEAR the chick!!! just break the SHELL and leave it sticking so the little guy can poo. it will dry up and fall away so don't be tempted to pull or do more than need be so it can poo.
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If tomatoes are a fruit, then isn’t ketchup technically a
smoothie?
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7:29 am August 14, 2010
| Butterbean
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| Big Chicken | posts 23 | |
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Thank you Buckeye Girl! It is hard to resist the urge to help Mama!
This particular girl is the only one that we named. Her name is Hoppy, because she hops instead of walks when she gets excited. Could be some type of hip problem. We have noticed that the others treat Hoppy differently, like she is special. Everytime that she has laid an egg, all of the others sing the egg song, including the rooster. It is like everyone is happy for her, they run around the chicken pen singing and strutting. It is interesting to watch. Hoppy has always wanted to be a Mama, she would set on eggs before she ever laid an egg. This time was different, she was setting with a purpose. So I left her alone. She is an Americauna, as is the rooster. The other 3 are Dominickers. Hoppy sat on her egg, and swiped from the Dominickers to set on. I laughed when I saw the brown eggs on her nest, but I let her keep them. The chick that hatched looks like a Dominicker chick. I am afraid that the first one that she lost was her egg. The remaining 3 eggs are brown. So the question here is, are the chicks Domicaunas or Amerinickers? LOL! It will be interesting to see what they look like, and hope that there are no roosters!
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8:58 am August 24, 2010
| NorthCountryGirl
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Hi! I was reading down through the posts and thought I'd comment. I, too, have a hen that went broody during the extremely hot weather. Of all times! This is the second hen this year out of my flock of ten. I put twelve fertile eggs we got from a farmer friend under Broody #2. She's been faithfully sitting on them. I go out every two hours and give her water and put food in the box with her. It must be the season to go broody! I had other hens start the "Putt, Putt, Putt" they make when they get that way. BUT, they lost interest real quick. It seemed the hot weather brought the broodiness out in them.
I have to laugh! Hubby said after the first batch of six chicks hatched, "Okay, that's it for the chicks!" You see, Broody #1 caused quit a stir in the hen house. She took over the hen house and wouldn't let the other hens in to lay their eggs. Welll, that didn't work!! She and I went nose-to-beak over letting the other hens in to lay. I won!!! But it was quite a feat getting a mother hen to "cool it" once her chicks were out and about. And this was a low-on-the-totem-pole hen to begin with.
ANYWAY, when Broody#2 went broody, hubby asked me what I was going to do. Took me all of 2 seconds to reply "Get some fertile eggs for under her." (Remember what he told me in paragraph 2?) "Okay, what kind do you want?" he replied. HUH!?! Well, since you offered…I had him get green and white eggs this time. He came back with green and brown eggs. Good enough! She is now sitting on 12 green and brown eggs. In early September, I hopefully will be a grammy to more new chicks. Suzanne was right!! You can never have enough chickens. THEY ARE ADDICTING!!! (Even husbands who adamantly stated they were "NOT" getting involved with the "CHICKEN" project some how get "hooked.")
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1:13 pm August 24, 2010
| BuckeyeGirl
| | N.E. Ohio | |
| Admin
| posts 3969 | |
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Chickens really are very addicting. If anyone is building a chicken coop, be sure to build it much bigger than you think you need it… you'll always want more!
I'm sorry I didn't see your question earlier Butterbean but with an Ameraucana rooster, and Dominiker hens, they'll be a cross, not either or. Just like if a beagle an a poodle had pups… The thing with chickens is, there's no formal tracking of crosses, if you have a hen or a roo that fits the "American Standard of Perfection" for the breed, you can call it that breed, though it would be unethical untill you have proven at least to yourself, that it breeds true with several clutches of chicks, and probably several generations after that too. Any time a bird is sold as being one of any certain breed people want to be able to count on any chicks hatched from two birds of that same breed (including your cross I mean) will produce chicks that are at least decent examples of that breed.
See, the first generation of that cross may look like say, the Dominiker, but if one of those chicks is bred to another Dominker roo, they may actually produce chicks that wind up looking oddly like the Ameraucana grandsire. Genetics are such an odd thing!
I hope that made sense! 
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If tomatoes are a fruit, then isn’t ketchup technically a
smoothie?
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