So one of my hens has been able to hop the fence from my chicken run for a while. She will wander, then come back at night. I've clipped her wings, etc. Anyway, I knew she'd been hiding her eggs but didn't know where. Well, FOUND HER! and the 21 eggs she was clearly hunkered down on!
I wasn't worried, I didn't think she was covered by either of my roosters anyway, so I put some eggs in the incubator figuring I'd switch out her infertile eggs with a reasonable number after I could verify that she was really going to set...
6 days later I candled to find that the 21 eggs (small eggs, but I'm pretty sure they're all hers) are ALL DEVELOPING!
So I'm hoping that some of them will be clear quitters early on, but my real question is this: how many eggs can she reasonably hatch? And how many chicks can she reasonably raise? It's October in Michigan, it's getting cold, I just want to be realistic about giving her chicks that she can keep alive!
HELP!
I wasn't worried, I didn't think she was covered by either of my roosters anyway, so I put some eggs in the incubator figuring I'd switch out her infertile eggs with a reasonable number after I could verify that she was really going to set...
6 days later I candled to find that the 21 eggs (small eggs, but I'm pretty sure they're all hers) are ALL DEVELOPING!
So I'm hoping that some of them will be clear quitters early on, but my real question is this: how many eggs can she reasonably hatch? And how many chicks can she reasonably raise? It's October in Michigan, it's getting cold, I just want to be realistic about giving her chicks that she can keep alive!
HELP!
