Don't count your chickens ...

This post could be called "We learn from our mistakes".  Based on this principle we should be geniuses by now.

 

Amongst our Coronation Sussex, Australorp and cross breed hens we have no shortage of candidates who want to sit on and hatch eggs.  So when I felt that I would like brown chickens to liven up our chook colour palette, we didn't have to wait long for a broody hen to appear. Princess was very happy to sit on 10 fertile Barnevelder eggs (chosen 'cos they're brown, of similar size and temperament to our current flock and are good for eggs and for the table.  Oh and because we read that the eggs are dark brown, so distinguishable from the other breeds should we want to selectively breed more chooks).


Princess, the broody chook.
Note the puffed up tail and the raised hackles.
I was getting too close to her eggs!

When candled  after one week we had 1 infertile egg which was removed, 2 partially developed but not looking quite right and 7 eggs looking good.

Sunday 05 January is hatch date for these Barnevelder eggs.

Saturday 04 January:
We get up late and Mick wanders down to see the chooks, notice that Princess has one of her eggs outside her nesting box and dropped into the hollow of a cement block, it is cold.  He puts it back under the hen, hoping it will still be OK.
He then checks the rest of the eggs in her box to find a broken egg (not pipped, the eggshell had been broken at the tail end of the chick), with the chick cold and not moving.  There was also a very dead chick buried under the wood shavings in the nest.  6 of the eggs were not yet pipped,  1 egg only had pipped and was looking good. 

We were wondering what was going on as it looked like Princess was not doing her job properly.  I should add that all through the checking process, Princess was highly agitated. We cleaned up the mess and reset Princess in the nest and let her be.
 
As we were finishing up in the chook shed, Mick noticed some very slight movement from the chick in the broken shell.
We took it straight to the kitchen, set up a bowl of water at 38°C.  The chick is cold, we know it needs to be warmed up. Mick held the chick in the water, supporting its head out of water till it is more active, set up a makeshift brooder box and set the temperature to about 36 to 38°C.
To cut a long story short, what we assume was its navel was protruding and leaving light blood stains on the towel when it is being dried off  and on the bedding in the makeshift brooder box, it was more active and breathing deeper for an hour or more, but it never opened its eyes, and eventually died in my hands.
We are left to ponder whether our attempts to help this chick had any hope or whether we only prolonged its misery.

Sunday 05 January:
I found 3 live chicks under Princess (the cold egg that had been found outside the nesting box had come good and hatched), but Princess was again agitated - some of the 9 week old chicks had flown over the 1.2 metre temporary fence between the broody pens and were in her area.
A bit later we found Dutch, the "mother hen" for the 14 chicks from three previous hatchings, who seemed very keen to get back into the shed**.  Up till then she had been a devoted mother so she was let in to see what she wanted.  After a while she flew over the 1.2 metre fence into Princess's area and became aggressive, wanting to get into the nest box where Princess and the three chicks were.  She was quickly shooed away and locked out.

Once it was dark, we candled the 4 remaining eggs, which showed no signs of pipping.  They all had 25% - 30% air space, and a watery mass.  No signs of anything remotely resembling a chick.  We can't help but wonder whether Dutch targeted the live chicks.  If so, why did she turn from devoted mother one day to murderous assassin the next?  I guess we'll be keeping a close eye on her from now on.

It seems that Princess had not really failed in her duties, but had not been able to adequately defend her clutch of eggs.  Sadly we learnt the hard way that we need better fencing between our broody pens.

**Separate story, but some weeks back Dutch was left to "mother hen" her chicks and adopt the chicks of two previous small hatches after the 2 broodies suddenly gave up on their duties.  She accepted all chicks as her own.  We weren't concerned because this meant the other two mothers could get back to egg laying. Dutch and her 14 chicks lived in the pen next to Princess, separated only by a 1.2 metre fence.