Adventures in Hatching - When Things Don't Go Quite as Planned

Been there done that and got the T-shirt!

Totally enjoyable, well written, entertaining and informative. Anyone who has had chickens any length of time and dealt with a broody hen or two has gone through this. The funny thing is, the next time Snowflake goes broody you will rant and fuss at her about what an undependable broody she is and how the hot place will freeze over before you ever give her an egg to sit on. You will rant for days....then give her 3 eggs again, hoping against hope that she will see the job through THIS time.

Keep the incubator handy.......just in case.

Thanks for the well presented, well written article.

Great story, love your graphics and photos!

this is great. reminds me of the time someone unplugged the incubator to vacuum the biology class. I was devastated, but remained hopeful, and after being unplugged for at least 14 hours, I plugged it back in and two weeks later got seven out of twelve eggs hatched! of course, being the nerd I am, I named one Hedwig.

I now wish I had candled Barbara's 4th unhatched egg before I tossed it on day 23 when the other three hatched right on schedule.

Great story. Truly inspiring.

Awesome article, made me smile and giggle and I'm certain your experience will come in handy once I start on my own chick's next spring. Can't wait I also appreciated the imagery and how thorough your descriptions were.

Such a beautiful story. Soooo amazing! Congratulations on getting all 9 chicks.

This gives great perspective on a realistic expectation for hatching. Awesome graphics, too--really helped me visualize what the article was saying!

Butterscotch is a champ! Well done all the way around?

Fantastic article on broodier and hatch world.
Love the play by play
Thank you for sharing your adventures and for saving Shelly!

Thanks for sharing.

What a great read! Loved the egg graphics to help us all keep track of the proceedings.

This is a very entertaining article!

Absolutely perfect and very well written. Anyone who has hatched for a time surely appreciates this cute story.

Very well written article, i could not stop reading until i reached the end! Many pictures!

I feel sorry for Butterscotch. She just sat down with thoughts of a bit of a rest from the day to day stuff and the next minute she's got an army! Chickens can count you know.
It's not something I would do but I loved the article.

Glad things worked out for everyone!

I'm so happy this hatch had a happy ending. I enjoyed reading this.

I can't believe all 9 chicks survived! In am planning to incubate chicks and put some under a hen, so I found this very useful. Thanks for taking the time to make it. Grown on, chicks, grown on!

I had a hen hatch out 4 and get off the nest and didn't get out to check the eggs I had assumed were dead, with mom off them and cold night time temps, but when i picked one up I heard the cheep in the egg, so instead of just tossing them planned out of 4 eggs still in the nest 2 still had live chicks in them one got out on it's own the other had to have help but because I'd waited so long after momma got off the nest with her chicks it was to late to save the mal-positioned chick, luckily you had Butterscotch, my momma hen wasn't having nothing to do with the 2 day late chick she's incubated. so put it in temp brooder by itself, day time temps allowed to take it out for short periods, and it took me a week to get her to accept the late chick, but was more because the other chicks had accepted the lone chick.