[HesterF]

So I've had two broodies sitting on my only fertile eggs to date (one batch of four and one singleton - latter not intentional!). One batch was due to hatch yesterday - but only one did and I was pretty certin the rest had died (no movement, peeping, starting to discolour). I left her with them and this morning she'd clearly given up on them too. The other broody, with the singleton, was still sitting tight but her egg was starting to discolour too so I thought I'd check them all. All dead in shell but at a really late stage - internslly pipped, yolk pretty much all absorbed, all looked perfect physically. So what happened? The only thing I was worried about was that they'd lost quite a lot of weight (19% ish) even though I'd been spraying them to keep up the humidity. Would that extra loss of liquid make the difference?

  - not doing well at this hatching business. So far I've set 36 eggs, only five have been fertile and only one has hatched.

Oh, and what should I do with the broodless broody?

H

[Backinwellies]

My experience of broody hen (silkie bantom) .... sat and reared successfully if left alone (had to physically move her from eggs to get her to eat).  The only way to stop her broodiness was to give her fertile eggs which hatched! So not much help to you I'm afraid.   

Someone on here with experience will be along to help soon

[mentalmilly]

I had 3 broodies last year, couldn't stop them so got some eggs from nearby for one of them, and most hatched. The others l gave a variety of eggs from the hens l have and most of them hatched. I have an Indian Game sitting on eggs now and she has 2 weeks to go.  Last year she went a bit mental and got so excited when we went to see her she started to trample the chicks. At 3 days old we moved them to another hen who had hatched her chicks and she took them in and reared them. Hope she does better this year. I have never sprayed eggs, leave the hen to sort them out, and move the broody off the nest for exercise once a day if she has not come off herself.  I have had eggs that have died before they hatch but l put this down to the age of the hen who laid the eggs, she was not quite a year old and l rushed things a bit.  Don't know if that was the cause of the dead in shell chicks but none of the other eggs died.  If you have a cockerel and the eggs are not fertile you may be better getting eggs from someone else.  Don't know what you can do about the broody, l have found that they get over their loss after about 4 days and you give them time.  If she is still sitting and broody you might be able to get some day old chicks and put them under her, but if she does not like them you are stuck with rearing them yourself.  I thought of doing this once but didn't want to rear the chicks if not successful. I am not an expert this is just the way l have done this.

[mab]

Can't offer any useful advice - though I'm getting the impression that this hatching eggs thing is a bit of a minefield of ways to lose chicks before they reach maturity; I tried using an old incubator last year with some ebay eggs and got nothing.; this time with a broody hen, [size=78%]I thought when she hatched out 7 chicks the worst part for losses was over, but 3 of the chicks have vanished without a trace - I can only assume they were carried off by crows or something. [/size]

[size=78%]I guess with two broodies you could try & et more eggs?[/size]

[Bodger]

I've never bothered with spraying eggs that are under a broody, I just don't think they need it. Where broodies are concerned, I simply don't mess around with them. Most of them  will get off for a poop but if they don't, then and only then would I pick them up and take them off the eggs. I wonder if they've simply had too much water sprayed on them.

[HesterF]

Thanks for the advice! I forgot to mention that these were duck eggs - hence the spraying because they need higher humidity (mum duck gets off and has a swim once or twice a day unlike mum hen). The reason I thought it was the humidity issue is because waterfowl eggs should lose 14-15% weight to hatch successfully and these had lost more than that - which will have been too much water loss. They were really quite dry inside when I broke them out today

The broody with one seems quite happy & has come out of her broodiness. They've been out into their little pen exploring today which is really cute - Peeps (the duckling) seems pretty strong, fingers crossed he'll make it to adulthood.

I've taken a big risk with the other broody and put a fresh batch of duck and goose eggs under her. She's a bit surprised to have gone from one duck egg to seven eggs (including three goose eggs) but seems to have them covered for now. Only problem is that if she gets them through to hatch, she'll have been sitting for nearly 50 days  . I'm feeling a bit more confident about that because the other broody has been sitting for 35 days and not really lost any weight - suspect she's healthier now than she was before.

I live and learn - at least these weren't the more valuable goose eggs. I'd have been completely gutted to have lost four of those so close to hatch.

H

[Bodger]

I didn't realise they were duck eggs.
Its only in the last few years that i've started using incubators, I've been using broodies for the best part of fifty years. Its not always possible but if i can, I try and avoid using pullets as broodies and any broody that plays up gets a black mark and doesn't get used again.

[HesterF]

The broodies have both been brilliant as far as I can judge. They've both sat tight, just getting off to poo or when I got them off to eat and they did manage to get the ducklings through so far. I just felt so bad for them that it all went wrong at the final hurdle. The one that hatched one also seems to be thoroughly devoted to her single duckling - it will be the only duck pecking around rather than dabbling (and it does seem quite keen to eat the wood shavings) but it's much loved by all!

H

[Marches Farmer]

Broodies make their own humidity and it's perfect for the job.  Ducks' feathers don't absorb water - "water off a duck's back", etc.  If humidity is too high at the end of incubation the ducklings/chicks will tend to be too big to break out of the egg.

[AndrewMBaines]

Maybe you cooled the eggs too much by spraying them?

We've hatched duck eggs under a broody before and had 100% success. Only problem was the hen turfed the ducklings out after they hatched, so we had to put them under a heat lamp.

Using an incubator, we're lucky to get 50%.

[HesterF]

I sprayed with hot(ish) water - warmer than the eggs anyway - only thing that did occur to me was that they must then cool down quicker than they would if not sprayed while waiting for the broody to return. Meantime the new batch of duck eggs under the broodless broody is infertile. Drake is definitely not that fertile (so fingers crossed my one and only duckling is a drake). So I've ordered some hatching chicken eggs for her - I'm theoretically still in my six month closed flock for the hens but should be through it by the time they hatch and meantime it means she'll only have three weeks left to sit as opposed to starting her again with duck eggs and I don't have to worry about spraying. The spraying has come from quite a few waterfowl breeding sources so I've not just invented it! Even the incubators recommend higher humidity for waterfowl eggs.

All so complex - illness, infertility, failure to hatch - I'm sure other things can go wrong (foxy loxy) so maybe I shouldn't moan too much.

H

[Brijjy]

Usually by this time of year my muscovy ducks have gone broody but so far, no sign. I've got a couple of black cochins that are attempting to sit. I'm thinking that because of the crap year last year and the hard winter, all livestock has been affected. This could be a reason for the poor hatch rate under the broody. I've so far hatched four out of eight appenzeller eggs, in my incy. All were fertile but only four hatched and out of those four, two have died. I couldn't figure out a reason. They all hatched easily and were very bonny to start. The ones that died went overnight with no sign of illness. I think the poor weather has taken it's toll on the parents and this is passed down as weaker offspring.

[HesterF]

Could well be - have just ordered some hatching eggs in because the fertility from both the ducks and geese is so poor. I think my problem is a too-old drake and a too-young gander. Am hoping my singleton turns out to be a drake (unusually) because I have a young pair of unrelated ducks to make a nice breeding trio for next year. Got to think ahead because my latest candling has just revealed another three infertile goose eggs and four infertile ducks eggs - can't really blame the weather any more, it may be a bit colder than usual but not that far off. Ho hum.

H

[graham-j]

Hi,late death seems to be a very common problem this year as dose an overly thick membrane,I had this problem early on with my first hatches of goose eggs but the later hatches have been a lot better,I have spoken with several other people and they have all said the same late deaths and thick membranes.I think its the weather we have have this year and put it down to the eggs getting chilled before they were incubated,so I doubt its particularly anything you have done wrong.
I hatch using an incy with goose and duck eggs I turn them by hand 3 times a day,and at the same time spray them with luke warm water,my last two hatches have been 100% .But I think if I were hatching under a broody I would just let them get on with it.

Graham.