Actually, she's been broody for about nine weeks, totally dedicated to clutch after clutch of infertile eggs—I couldn't break her of it no matter what I did. I read somewhere that chicken broodys respond well to actually hatching out some chicks.
So now Wilma's sitting on 14 fertile eggs. This is Day 5.
She seems the picture of a dedicated brid-mom—turns her eggs, shuffles them around, only leaves the nest to eat and drink. She's even started tidbitting for the other hens (then getting super fussy when they take her up on it
). I have no doubt she'll see this to day 16+ but I'm also planning on how to pull the chicks away if she or another hen gets too rough with them or each other. That's also assuming there will be chicks...
This is mostly a loosely-thought-out science experiment, I admit—there are things I could have set up for differently. I just want to see if one of my birds will hatch out quail chicks given that I've heard again and again (here and elsewhere) that it's rare or that the urge has been "bred out of them."
So now Wilma's sitting on 14 fertile eggs. This is Day 5.
She seems the picture of a dedicated brid-mom—turns her eggs, shuffles them around, only leaves the nest to eat and drink. She's even started tidbitting for the other hens (then getting super fussy when they take her up on it
). I have no doubt she'll see this to day 16+ but I'm also planning on how to pull the chicks away if she or another hen gets too rough with them or each other. That's also assuming there will be chicks...This is mostly a loosely-thought-out science experiment, I admit—there are things I could have set up for differently. I just want to see if one of my birds will hatch out quail chicks given that I've heard again and again (here and elsewhere) that it's rare or that the urge has been "bred out of them."
Do you mind if I watch this thread? I don't know anything at all about quail and this seems... super interesting.
Got it! Can't wait (and I'm sure you can't either)
