The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: monty on August 18, 2008, 07:50:13 pm

Title: BROODY
Post by: monty on August 18, 2008, 07:50:13 pm

my light sussex bantam has started sitting 2 days  shell come off the eggs for about half hour then go back on is this okay??

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: Rosemary on August 19, 2008, 08:02:06 am

Yes. We have a broody sitting just now and we make her come off for 15 / 20 minutes night and morning to drink, poo and eat.

Her eggs are due to hatch on Thusrady but I don't think any will hatch (V disappointing - reviewing eBay purchase policy). I hope to get some day olds and slip them under her and see if she'll "adopt" them.

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: monty on August 19, 2008, 06:15:12 pm

moved her into her own coop last night this morning she not sitting ??????????

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: Wildman on August 19, 2008, 09:20:34 pm

Whats that about ebay?

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: Rosemary on August 19, 2008, 09:37:18 pm

I've bought hatching eggs four times off ebay. Best hatch rate was 60% with the Copper Black Marans; 33% for the Cream legbars; nothing from 6 RIR and 1 chick from 6 Cuckoo Marans. 10 Cream legbars in this batch and I'm not hopeful, despite doing everything exactly by the book. I've five left that MAYBE have something inthem but I'm pretty sure it's not a chick. Heyho, we'll see on Thursday.

Try shutting her in with the eggs. She may just be upset at being moved but will settle again if you persevere. The RIRxLS we've got broody just now was in a normal nest box - when I moved her to what I thought was a des res in the garage, she legged it. We relocated the Black Rock broody to bigger premises and put the RIRxLS in the broody coop and shut her in with the eggs overnight so she'd nowhere to go but sit and now she can't wait to get back in to her eggs.

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: Hilarysmum on August 20, 2008, 10:43:36 am

I was planning to buy dark brahma eggs off ebay, not a good idea then?

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: Rosemary on August 20, 2008, 05:35:49 pm

Maybe I'm just unlucky - and my attention to detail hasn't always been the best, although this time I did everything by the book. My chum Carol (Ayeskint) hasn't had much luck either.

If you do go ahead, let the eggs rest for 24 hours before putting them in the incubator - alleviates the trauma of the postal system.

Maybe other forum members have had better experiences...

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: doganjo on August 20, 2008, 11:11:28 pm

Nope, I had the same result - very low hatching rates - 2 out of 10 Golden partridge bantams that I wanted to try.  My pal got them to hatch then one escaped as the wire mesh was too wide and one of her other chickens killed it.  Wouldn't bother with Ebay again.
Annie

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: Hilarysmum on August 21, 2008, 01:20:12 pm

The problem with living over here is its difficult to source eggs for hatching, so one automatically turns to ebay.

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: stephen on August 21, 2008, 01:29:15 pm

we had 2 turkeys hatch from 6 eggs from ebay!

Title: Re: BROODY
Post by: hexhammeasure on August 21, 2008, 08:39:02 pm

My brother used to keep quails he bought eggs from ebay and would get 8-10 from 12 which isn't too bad.
Having said that i don't have much luck with our duck eggs sometimes as low as 3 from 8 and thats with a high drakes to duck count... so maybe its me and not ebay?