Anyone know how to find a hen that i'm assuming has either decided to sit on eggs somewhere.. or knows the weather better than the weatherman & thinks the chicken coop isn't storm proof? I searched under bushes, up in the trees.. nothing. Do I just have to watch her all day long? How can I stop her from doing this? Two nights in a row now & we've got severe storms tonight so I"m really worried about her. She's one of my favorites. This morning she showed up about 6 am wandering the yard. I don't think somethign got her.. i really think she's sitting somewhere under something. I just don't know how to find her. suggestions very much appreciated. otherwise I"m fixing her with a tracking collar!
Nutmeg is lost!
If she showed up this morning, she's probably in a safe place and ok. It's frustrating though. When my dog went after my chickens, one of them hid all day, and it took me forever to find her. I can just see that poor chicken, with a collar, lol. Maybe you can give her a beeper.
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GPS tracking system for Nutmeg or is a CHP tracking system? chicken hiding place
She might have eggs stashed somewhere. They can be pretty good at hiding a stash of eggs.
Did she disappear again after she showed up at 6am?
This message was edited Jun 10, 2009 8:16 AM
I saw her off & on through out the day yesterday but this morning she's no where to be found. The wind was 70+ here last night. I wish she'd come to the house. She's only been laying 3 weeks maybe.. & she hasn't been laying very many eggs. But we have flowers that resemble a small jungle in the yard so she could be under anything! There was no hawk around yesterday.. I saw her right before I went in about an hour before i put them up for the night. I'm not sure she was around all day.. i didn't watch that close.. i just saw her at random times. But the odd thing is she's gotten very.. clingy to me when she is around. If she sees me in the yard or sees our new babies in the yard (the buff orps are 1.5 months) & she follows them around leaving the others. idk.. i just want her home.
How frustrating! I know what you mean--two of my Nankins have gone AWOL. One came back a few days ago with eight chicks of unknown paternity. I had to lock her up in a coop because the Jays were taking the chicks to feed to their babies. Then the other showed up for a day and disappeared again.
It is very upsetting.
I'm so worried.. the kids & I hunted under everything most of the afternoon. Nearly 2 acres of land.. I even started checking every crook of the tree that looked like a nest incase the silly bird decided to act like a normal bird & take to a nest! We are having a bout of really bad storms. This is a bad time for her to leave. I haven't seen her all day but mom swears she saw her while i was gone to town come up & eat food & get water. She's been disapearing for a few hours a day for nearly 3 weeks.. then clinging to me when i go outside. Up until 2 nights ago she was in teh coop.. i put her inside myself each night... she's always my last one in.. dragging her feet like a kid. IF she has eggs stashed somewhere they can't be good.. unless she decided to sit on the ones she laid just the last two days. I haven't had an egg from her in nearly 3 weeks. Sage the Roo just wanders the yard kinda calling out to her it seems. He's crowing more.. chattering more.. running people out of the yard more often. i don't know.. i just want my baby back. She has the prettiest muffs. The sweetest personality. She's been mothering the babies... they seem to miss her too. how long could she stay gone?
Oh man.. that's gotta be hard to take! Well, she knows where the food and water is.. that's a good thing. I hope all is okay.
greykyttyk wrote" I haven't had an egg from her in nearly 3 weeks."
Could be she's been "setting" it all up :). If she's been stockpiling eggs in anticipation of being a Momma, perhaps she's now got enough to be satisfied which her clutch, and has begun to set. The eggs don't begin to develop until that starts, so they can all hatch at the same time. So, depending on the other variables, you should have less than 21 days to wait. I don't know how you're set up for free-ranging, I would make sure there is water available at all times.
I hope she returns with her little family in tow, and soon.
She is probably sitting in a place you would never think to look i had one go under a house i was living at and make a nest.
They will go under anything big enough for their body to fit under my friend had one set eggs under a leaning bucket.
Keep watching for her most setting hens come off the nest in the early morning to feed and then sometimes in the day but mine come off morning and evening.
She will sit for 21 days and then will bring out her brood 2 to 3 days after that.
I know it would help your nerves to just see her but i would watch for her in the morning.
Just keep watching i'm sure you will see her soon :o)
She showed up this morning! All prissy, grouchy & a good bit damp. All my chickens are free range so there are 3 water bowls around the yard so the babies can get to water at all times. If I have been counting correctly.. she gives me btwn 9 to 12 eggs within a 3 week period.. idk what i'm going to do with more babies! I'm not even sure how to set it up for her to take care of them.
Oh i'm so glad she finally showed up :o)
As far as doing for her you can just leave her and the babys free range but there is a chance of predators.
When they hatch and she brings them out you can catch her and the babys and put them in their own cage and provide food and water.
I wouldn't worry about it too much right now remember the old saying "don't count your chickens before their hatched"
Happy to know she came to let you see she is okay and just tending to becoming a mom soon :o)
Clove was for a short time 2 weeks ago disappearing during the day for hours on end then reappearing. Is there a chance she was adding eggs to the batch also? She's now laying all her eggs in a box but could she have been "helping" Nutmeg with her little nest? At the time I just thought she was trying to lay but having troubles because the eggs she would give me were huge, no small starter eggs for her. Have you ever heard a hen chatter & sound like a baby kitten? Nutmeg had been doing that all weekend.. just wandering around chattering like she was talking to herself. I kept looking for kittens bc that's what she sounded like. It was the strangest thing, till i sat down & realized the noise was coming from her. Sage (the daddy) is pacing back & forth across one part of the yard chattering near constantly. Its quite a sight to watch when your outside.
Nothing like a Broody to make a fuss mine make all kinds of noises i have one that will crow.
I think they are just nervous and acting like expectant moms and yes Clove could have been adding to the nest.
She was probably run away from the nest when Nutmeg really began to set all day and night.
Dad is probably nervous too and yacking away wondering what in the world has happened to his ladies.
You know how hard us expectant moms can be on the dads he he he he he ;o)
She came back for a mid afternoon snack. Is there anything special I can treat her with besides meal worms to get her to come at least once a day to visit? Mom suggested watermelon but i was hoping for something a little less messy. She's fond of white bread but i swear the other chickens can smell it across the yard. i was trying to feed her separate so she could eat & not fight for the food. She's fond of meal worms, but once again.. the chicken radar knows when i pull them out of the fridge & its not easy feeding 33 chickens meal worms at once so it wouldn't be a treat for just her.
Here is a pic of Nutmeg, pic of the dad to follow...
Here is Sage the very proud papa. He seemed happier today.. but she came & socialized & ate a few bugs with him before disappearing again this morning.
I'd make up some scrambled eggs... if I didn't have the recipe below..
I use some high protein gamebird pellets, mixed with electrolyte/vitamin water to moisten.. a little yogurt and some minced up scrambled eggs for flavor.. it's a great treat for that situation.
edited to add..
You can just use layer crumbles or whatever you use.. it's more complete and "bulks" up the recipe above.. I have added fresh garlic, alfalfa sprouts, spinach, whatever is highly nutritious and doesn't take up much space. LOL
This message was edited Jun 11, 2009 8:31 PM
Sage is a gorgeous rooster!
Grapes were always the favorite with my featherkids. Any kind of pasta worked, too. Problem in that chickens DO have treat radar, and you're unlikely to be able to keep treat-time a secret :)
She will return maybe once or twice a day to feed and got back to her nest.
Probably anything you leave out will be consumed by the others and she may never have a chance to get to it.
I would concentrate on making sure there is a high protein feed available at all times so when she decides to eat it will be there for her.
At this point she definitely doesn't need to be fighting over special treats or food.
Hens typically lose weight during this time but she will not starve when the chicks are hatched she will eat like there is no tomorrow.
I have been watching for her & take her feed when she comes out. There is always feed out but when i see her i bring her to the porch & feed her alone. The chickens eat constantly but they are like little pigs when they see one eating they all must go investigate to make sure someone doesn't eat better than they are.. I figured if she was trying to hurry she didn't need to be fighting for food at all. I just wanted something to give to her as a treat when i saw her.. but then i got to thinking.. she may decide that the treats are better when she's sitting on those eggs & try it again! Tomorrow morning going to be up early & watch for her so I can see where those eggs are. We've got bad storms forecast for all weekend & if she's under a bush I"d like to know which one in case we get a bad storm. We've got trees everywhere, soft maples & they break like crazy, I'm mostly worried one will lose a limb during a wind storm & she'll get squashed. At least if I know where she's at I can get to her to check & not wait worrying till she comes out again. Idk how you guys do the incubators.. this is bad enough & i don't have to remember to turn the eggs, keep the humidity & temp correct either.. She's doing all the work & i'm still a basketcase!
I agree with you Catmad!! They do have treat radar! LOL Thats why I take advantage of that time to get some power packed nutrition in em. Unless I'm trying to make friends.. then they get grapes or watermelon or wax worms..
You poor thing greykyttyn, you are the one who will need to remember to eat and drink! LOL Remember, she is the expert..
At least with fretting over the bator we don't have to go outside and search in the storm! :)
Ha~ Ha~ Ha~ Ha yes chickens can be like little pigs Catmad
Sounds good her getting plenty of good things to eat and it's sweet how concerned you are for her.
I wouldn't worry to much hens tend to seek safety when building their nest ;o)
I have good reason to worry.. couldn't find one of my younger roo's this morning, but mom let them out so I could sleep in after working half the night, I just assumed it had gotten seperated & would be back around later as they sometimes do. I walked the yard a couple times, didn't hear it calling.. didn't find it in the coop when i looked real quick but i had to go to work & was kinda hurried. I went to check a bit ago.. no roo. So i hunted around some more.. he's never gone this long.. and found feathers under the coop that are his. Something snagged him last night, his first night in the big coop & something got him. So I'm short a roo, not a big deal other than he was one of my Welsummer roo's, i still have 7 confirmed Roos left. And speaking of Roos.. Goldie started crowing this morning.... I was not happy. My brother nearly died laughing bc Goldie starts crowing & I'm sitting there yelling at him to stop, you're NOT a roo.. YOU. ARE. A. GIRL. I wasn't quite awake yet.. & he kept right on crowing his little heart out. SO very proud of himself. Haven't seen Nutmeg today but i worked all day so i wasn't' able to watch for her.
and yes I do worry over my animals. Mom has always fussed bc I take in anything that shows up on my door & spoil it. I currently have 9 cats that I've taken in, one dog & the first four of my new chickens were rescues. :) I figure even if I can't feed them perfectly all the time they at least get to live, be spoiled & have happy little lives. Our shelters only kill them here due to being too full.
AH-HA! So my roodar is working!
I'm sorry for your loss Greykyttyn.. That is too bad about your roo..
but on a happier note...
I could have told you yelling that at them doesn't work.. I think I might have hurt Chuckie's eardrums.. LOL Nah, not really,I was laughing too hard thinking of Haystack the first time Chuckie crowed!!!!!
Didn't my Roo Detector go on too for Mr Gold? Or was that one of my mix ups.. can't remember.
Will be waiting for an update! :)
Today begins the great hunt for Nutmeg... tune in later for an update on what we find!
I'm going to check every nook & cranny minus the neighbors crazy stacked woodpile in hopes of finding her. They are calling for severe storms with heavy rain & strong winds so at least if I find her maybe she's somewhere I can throw a tarp over the bush or brush pile or something. As much as she detests being wet I'm sure she won't mind me finding her as long as I don't touch her. Water runs anywhere from 6 inches to 4 ft deep in some places of our yard & i just need to know she's not going to drown trying to keep her babies warm. If she's in a low spot I can at least put something in to divert a majority of the water around her. So off with the older kids for the great hunt for Nutmeg that pays a prize to the first to find her. :)
I FOUND HER!!!! She was right under my nose the entire time. Mom has a grass called Monkey Grass planted & we hadn't thinned it out yet this year, she just crawled into the hole that the cats use in the summer when its hot & is tucked under the grass. No wonder she got drenched when it rained.. no shelter. i put a chair over her so the rain gets diverted off of them & she has some protection from falling limbs considering there is one close to 6 inches thick that is dead & ready to fall about 20 ft above her. No clue on how many eggs yet. After an hour & half of Nutmeg around the yard I finally tucked her under my arm, took her inside to finish dinner, then went back out to let her go back to her babies. she kept trying to go to one place & the roos were running her off. I snagged the roo & held him still to let her past him. She ran around a box (confusing him totally) back down the other side & dove under the grass. Do you have any idea how boring it is following a chicken around 2 acres of yard? I did teach her to eat out of a plastic cup that I hold so the others can't get at her feed. Then she eats in peace & I fend off the little piggy's who want everyone's food but their own. I also figured out she only comes out every other day, twice a day for about an hour or so unless she sneaking out after dark to eat bc her nest is about 10 feet from teh food bowl but during the day its being guarded by 4 Roo's who refuse to let her up there to eat now.
so now i'll watch for her to go out to eat & I'll count eggs!
Did you say you took her inside?
How long did you keep her there if you did? She shouldn't be taken away from her nest for a long period of time or her eggs could get chilled and die.
My hens typically only stay off from 10 to 30 minutes funny seems they know long they can stay off.
She has been off for nearly an hour each time sometimes a hour & half. I only took her inside for 5 minutes at the most to rescue the dinner that was scorching. I highly doubt these eggs hatch bc she's so young & it seems like she's not totally sure of what she's doing. I have been watching & I was right so far.. she's not getting off the nest yet today. So far we've only seen her every other day. She didn't mind showing me where she was nesting & when i walk by now she clucks & chatters. I gave her a piece of bread thru the weeds this morning as a treat guess she assumes room service is available for treats if she talks to me when i go by. I did notice when i watched her crawl back in that she'd covered the eggs with the dead grass & had to brush it off to sit back down. One egg got shoved out of the nest somehow, we found it 3 days prior, I actually sat on the railroad tie a foot from her wondering where the egg came from & trying to figure out where the chattering noise i was hearing was coming from. Which brings up a question... Can they continue to lay eggs while they are sitting or do they take a break till the eggs hatch? We keep hearing a hen calling & clucking like they do when they've laid an egg & its coming from her area each day & there was no other hens nearby that are old enough to lay eggs. I've been hearing it the entire time she's been "missing" & for weeks before hand.
Nutmeg got off to eat her treat a bit ago & I counted eggs. I've got 2 eggs from Pepper (cream) 3 eggs from Clove ( light bluish green) & 11 eggs from Nutmeg ( light green with different shape than Cloves) :) I'm hoping 5 hatch. I will not hope for more than that so i can be pleasantly surprised & a bit horrified if all 16 hatch.
I gave her apple sauce.. she walked over & pecked my foot ( i'm in flip flops) then walked off not eating another bite. Sooo.. i covered it in chick starter & gave it too the babies.. she promptly got mad, shooed them off & ate most all of it.
Oh okay i thought you had taken her in when it was raining LOL
Yes they can continue to lay while they are setting mine will lay one or 2 when they first sit but thats it.
I would candle them if you think they may not hatch a rotten egg really smells bad ~~gross~~or you may be surprised and find out you going to have 12 more chickens to feed LOL
OMG we crossed posted 16 eggs "WOW" is all i know to say ;o)
My mom nearly had heart failure when i told her how many eggs. It won't bother Nutmeg if I randomly steal eggs to candle?
It was funny bc mom was complaining about more chicks running around & now she's all concerned about Nutmeg & is trying to find her nice soft nesting material for her box so we can move her tonight.
I so want to set up a camera on her when its close. I've never seen an egg hatch! I also can't figure out how she knows which egg she's turned & which she hasn't. that's a lot of eggs to keep track of when you can't see them.
I fixed an old plastic chair over her, it straddles the nest giving her shade & a bit of relief from the rain. I was afraid it would bother her but she seems happy. Now that I know where she's at, she'll hope off the nest, come great me then run back to get on the nest when i go outside. So I've been avoiding that door so she doesn't' get off the nest too much. She's always been a very social bird & I guess the setting is taking its toll. :) but heaven help the person or chicken who comes to pay a social visit. Lilly (the black roo) came over, "sniffing" about & Nutmeg flogged the poor boy running him clear across the yard. I kinda felt sorry for him...he's just a baby.
How cool for you...
Ha~Ha~Ha~Ha~Ha Greykyttyn It is such a pleasure reading your post it's like and adventure story.
Please keep telling us how she is doing i love reading about Nutmeg, Lily and the others.
You should write a children's book about Nutmegs adventure in becoming a mom i'm sure it would be a best seller.
Kept me on the edge of my seat reading your account of Nutmegs day :0)
update on Nutmeg: I moved her into the house :0) mom suggested it.. so not sure how i managed that one. She's in a huge dog carrier with food & water. She's in chicken heaven she thinks. She clucks & mom sticks treats thru the little window to her since she can reach them from the nesting box i fixed. I'm definitely learning something. I couldn't' figure out how she could stay on so many eggs & keep all them warm. She rotates her lil body every 5 minutes, her head starts north, then west, then south, last she faces east & starts over again. I'm not going to get any sleep for watching her the next few days. Mom wants to put her in the garage but I'm pleading to keep her in the house till the babies hatch. :)
:( i just attempted to candle the eggs. I can't see thru the shells. Even the cream ones are dark with little glowing specks showing thru. Am i too early? Are they just too hard to see through? I wanna see chicks!!! I was mistaken she's not big enough to keep them all warm. there are 3 that are cold.. not ice cold.. but maybe 90 degrees... 95 at the most. I'm guessing those won't hatch. I candled one of them.. actually could see a blob of something on one side of the shell but the rest was translucent. It wasn't moving, it just looked like a lump.. figuring that one is rotten?
I babysit... I am still half a kid... of course i can tell stories! You should read the one about my hypothetical house depicting different scenes of my life over the last 5 yrs & the people who have come in & out of my life portrayed as mice & cats. :o) I use to write a lot when i had the time. Our English teachers were big on writing short stories since we were a very small school. Maybe Nutmeg will get her own story soon. I really should tell Gingers story.. he was a great little roo. Might just start a chicken story blog. :) THAT will give me something to do while i wait for this babies to hatch.
This message was edited Jun 15, 2009 9:48 PM
Eggs are Candled at 7 & 14 days of incubation if it has been 7 days you should be able to see blood veins in them.
If you only see the yolk at 7 days and no veins then that egg was infertile and didn't develop.
This message was edited Jun 16, 2009 12:06 AM
ooops.. sorry was using the laptop while i was sitting watching Nutmeg & guess i just saw the H & assumed the rest of the name. He'd been posting on several threads I'd been reading just before that to. Sorry :(
the blob didn't' move.. but she laid eggs this week. We heard her afterwards so it could have been that one I grabbed also. I didn't want to bother her enough to candle all of them. Its been 7, 8 or 9 days.. not sure exactly which. She wasnt on the nest the first night I'm sure.. she roasted in the tree bc when we put them up it was very dark, i was late getting home & i heard a rustling & flapping of wings in the tree but didn't think much of it bc she always always always goes to the coop. When i found her out the next morning i knew it was her. So idk if or how long she's been on the actual nest. The shells are so blasted thick i can't see squat.. well i can see little glowing specks where the shell is thinner.. kinda looks like someone dusted them with glitter. So i can't tell on any but that one if they are good or not.
Some eggs are just too dark to see through you can just wait for the what you assume to be 21 days and see if any hatch.
I have had one or 2 maybes myself with my hatches good luck and keep telling us Nutmegs Adventures :o)