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Dansta. how long do you think the hen has been sitting on them? Cause they sound fertile to me, and probably over 14 days. either that, or they are rotten. LOL
If you candle an egg for long enough, like 30 seconds or more, frome the air sack end or even side on, you should be able to see the chick move.
Try it on your whitest eggs, they are the easiest ones to see into.
How many are fertile? Do they all appear to be around the same gestation, or are some noticably smaller?
I kinda assumed the presence of a rooster. ;):
I know they *can* get clucky, but if there's a rooster I guess it's more likely they're fertilised. :dunno:
I think she meant your comment that they won't sit on eggs unless some are fertile, this is untrue as hens with no rooster still go clucky and sit on eggs. I've just had 3 cluckys sitting on unfertile eggs for weeks.:
2 of our eggs hatched :) one 2 days ago and one this morning so im playing with fluffy chicks. Now to wait and see if the others hatch as theres4 chooks sitting on eggs.
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:hello:Hi girls,
We are planning to move into a new house in three weeks, which is 1.3 acres and I can finally get some chooks!!! :leap: As you can tell I am super excited. I am planning already!! Anyway, just thinking about what I need to do before I get chooks, and what kinds to get. I just want good layers who are gentle with DD's. Any advice??
bella yay!
first if it doesnt have one you need a coop, make sure holes in fencing are small and it needs a roof to stop snakes, foxes, crows and other this getting your eggs and chooks
Your coop needs a few nesting boxes and a perch as they like to sleep up high.
We have isa browns they lay well for us sometimes even twice a day, we also have black ones not sure of breed but these are our nesters always going clucky and turningour eggs into fluffy chicks
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woot!
bella a coop is good. are you thinking free-range or in a run? if its a run with chook wire (or netting) over the top make sure its not tight as foxes love "taught" stuff for walk on.
nesting boxes are a plus (old draws with the front removed are good.) mine nest on the shed floor dispite me having boxes in there! if you want babies you'll need a rooster. if not they'll lay with out. cant help with breeds i have two isa browns who lay some times. and the rest are bantom/slilkys that i got given. if you want them used to your DD's get the day-old ones. or so. 24hrs of imprinting plus isa's are fairly friendly. mine will run down the yard should i call them. and grain. we buy 25kg for $14 here and it lasts about amonth. we where buying laypallots but they didn't like them. so they get all the kitchen scraps and any fallen fruit from our place or next door. and when my veggie patch died they started to clean that out for me too.
AFM: 6 baby chooks! i've named three - that hached yesterday as Delta, Tango and Charli. the next three i'll have to look at more closely before naming. Mardi is still stitting on about 4 or 5 more eggs so i'll wait a few more days and see if any more hach out. i'll turff the rest if they dont hach, or candle them again. to see. but i just hope we dont lose them - like we have the others. but i guess that's life.
another 2 hatchlings for us this morning :) Still 11 eggs being sat on. we got our chooks when they were 8 weeks old they are great with the kids, the kids feed them, collect eggs etc they love it.
We even found a few chooks nestled up with the pig yesterday.
Ours get let out in the morning and get free roam of our 2 acres then locked up at dusk.
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We have added to our chook family in the last few days - we already have two fluffy little bantams, and now we also have three 14 week old wyandottes. I only went to get two but there were three of them left and I couldn't leave one behind! They have been named... Curry, Chilli and Satay. Apparently Wyandottes will only grow to bantam size but will lay Isa Brown sized eggs? Sounds painful...
The bloke we bought them from said they will start laying in about a month, anyone know if that's correct?
Dansta, how many chooks is that much feed, feeding? Congrats on your hatchlings!
Same for u MrsS!
I was thinking of building an open topped coop, with some high perches and nesting boxes on the floor, although I am considering now whether I should enclose the top. I plan to let them free range in the morning and lock them back up at dusk. I think I might end up with about 10 chooks eventually, but I might add slowly. Get some pol australorps and then when the first one goes broody, order some pretty chooks as eggs for a bit of fun :). Or I might just get some chicks now as well, so they are sexed. I have been pining lots of different breeds on pininterest last night lol! Some are just so pretty!
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i would top your coop otherwise you risk foxes etc
we got through 1 25kg bag a fortnight for 6 chooks and a rooster but they get fruit from our trees too and whetever scraps the pigs allow them to share
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Make that 7 babies. Helped peeper hatch.
I now have 18 chooks (inc the babies, lol) so 11 adult chooks.
Dansta do you seperate your chooks that are sitting on eggs from the rest?
i just found an empty shell but no chick :(
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With mardi and her large broode shes in a box with water n food in a,fewdays i'll put them in a box they can be in or out of. Every other time i've let them go. I just check water bowls arent too deep. ...
9 babies now o.O
your on a roll!
how do you candle the eggs i might have to do this im not too confident on how many are groeing vs rotting
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You do need to be careful of other hens who may peck and kill the chicks, but if it's been okay before, then I suppose it will be this time too. Just put some marbles or small stones from the garden in the water bowls and then the chicks will be fine whatever the depth.:
You know they can take up to 48 hours after pipping to hatch? It is not a great idea to help them out as the hatching process cuts off the blood vessels they been attached to the egg with, etc. I helped one out once in a broken egg, it lived 2 days and then died :(:
i agree with not helping them. I remember my mother always saying they needed that time to do it by themselves. They gain strength from the challenge :)
The ones that have been helped out where left by mardi...so we'll see
They're under a light atm. But if they pass, so be it kwim? Its a learning lession. plus my neighbour said 'if they cant brake the shell, they'll die any way' could be right too....
Upside is itmight make boof used to chooks.
Woke up expecting at least one dead chick...but all three inside made it!! Tilli is strongest and when they had floor time attempted to follow me. All other (10) chicks under mardi have been moved into.the empty side of the chook shead, they cant escape from there and they're away from other chooks and in this weather they dont have a leaky roof.
I cant help but feel proud that thus far they're alive
Congrats love :). Obviously u hVe great mother chook instincts :)
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Spoke too soon with 120mm of rain 9 chicks drowned, I pulled one out and now I have 4 inside. Put sand/stone on the floor to try and build up the floor :-/ kind of fml moment. Hopefully thease ones will make it...
oh no, that sucks. :hug:
Yay great work!! EDIT - sorry I must read whole thread before posting. Very sorry about the losses!:
Oh that's awful Dansta! :hug:
Welcome Bella and GL with the chicken preparation. When do you move in? We had two girls from chicks and that was a great experience for DD. One died after about a year (DD was devastated) and we got two more at point of lay (very hard to introduce chicks to fully grown hens). All are very friendly and actually the one most lugged around by DD1 is one of the ones we got at point of lay. Ours are ISAs too.
Oh no Dansta!!! poor little loves!
Jen, have you noticed we seem to be in an awful lot of the same threads? LOL! We move in in about 19 days :) Very exciting! I can't wait! I am gonna have to work hard to get a pen up tho!
LOL Bella, I was starting to wonder who's stalking who! ;) And Hot1 as well!
Yeah I was gonna mention hotI! Maybe we are all just soul sisters!
:dance: soul sisters
Still no eggs here, think we got duds :( all the girls seem happy & healthy & love all our scraps.
I have to go buy more straw and clean out the 'hotel' but girls are sick today so that's a no :(
We want to buy some more chooks so will have to maybe find a breeder around here... HotI any suggestions?
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zf - give it time.mine took weeks. They may also be 'off' thelay too.
We've had them nearly 2mths now :(:
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we moved in to our place on march 21st and the first egg i saw would have been late apirl early may. they might start laying. but they can be funny critters and stop because the weather isn't right (mine did that) they'll be ok. with the weather as crazy as it is atm they're most likely not feeling like laying. :(
Considering they are a commerical hybrid, they 'should' be laying by now. They are just egg producing machines and as a result have a short life span than other chooks. My gut says if they are not laying by now, then they wont be :( Sorry
Yeah I thought so too :( oh well the girls love them. Will just have to be more aware buying more.
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Hi ladies another quick question?
I am looking at an add on gumtree for some "genuine point of lay silkies" they are $30 each is that a good price?
Also this person has ex battery hens for $6 that she says are laying and in good health, says they are about 19mths old???? is this a poor buy?
I want to stay away from the ex battery but for that price it might be nice to get some eggs and see how they go IYKWIM, she says they are hy-line browns, is that just another breed of isa browns?
Ohh also founds australorps for $15 said they are about 4mths old and will start laying in about 5wks?????
I have been looking at australorps a bit zf and that seems like a good price to me.
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Great price for Australorps. Nice bird, fairly calm, quite big. Have not much luck with them being broodies (not sure if you want that though)
$6 for ex battery is not too bad. We pay $2 here, but they are in horrid condition.
I might get some of the hy-line's and maybe ask DP about buying an australorp for something different.
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