We have a great maternity ward for our broody hens to hatch in. Its a 8X6 run and there is a dog igloo in there for them to feel safe. Plenty of room.
We had a broody hatch five chicks last week and now we have 2 more broody hens. One (Black Betty) has been sitting for a week or two and the...
This happened to us last week. She hatched her first one out on Wednesday night and the last one was on Sunday. We just brought her a tiny bowl of water and some chick starter as well as pellets for her. This was on day 2 of her marathon hatch and she seemed appreciative and kept right on...
I think she just needed to stretch her legs for longer than normal. I kept them warm in the incubator and an hour or two later she was back nesting. I gave them back to her and she snuggled them right back in and we have a new little chickadee this morning. I'm guessing the others will follow...
Thank you guys! It was definitely worth a try, she tucked them right back underneath her. As my husband pointed out, maybe she just got up because it was 95 degrees out and not necessary to keep them warm? Who knows. But after an hour off the nest I thought I should do something. Looks like...
I am so nervous about the part where she might not accept them. Would she try to kill them?
We have had a first time broody peck a chick to death when it first hatched. I am nervous these other broodies would do the same thing. One is only 8 mo old. Not too experienced and she is also mean as...
Maybe this is the thread I should be enquiring on...
We have a broody who hatched two chicks yesterday and then left the nest today to eat with her 2 lil ones and then never returned. I went to check the nest and heard chirping. No pips but 4 eggs were clearly chirping. So internal pip has...
We have had a wonderful broody who decided to hatch. We just let her go on whatever eggs were underneath her. There were 7 eventually but I think they accumulated over a day or two. We often have hens who will set in the same box as a broody. About 3 weeks ago I marked the 7 eggs that were under...
Oh I have a similar problem right now! We have a hen who has been sitting on eggs for 2 weeks. When she got up for her daily stretch another hen sat on them and won't move (like pecking mean crazy bird). The poor gal whose being doing the work for the past 2 weeks is now sitting on an empty...
Well the mystery is solved at 6 mo old. That is 26 weeks of waiting for a crow and we finally got one this morning. The last 2 weeks I was finally becoming convinced he was male without hearing the crow, spurs were coming in and neck feathers and general behavior seemed very rooish. So it looks...
Ok I got some close ups of him/her. Here we are at 5 and 1/2 months haha and we still can't peg it down...
Tail feathers.
Spur development?
Neck feathers
Full Body
That's what I had always heard! A lot of the hens have brown in them too though. Like the blue one (same parents as this one) is blue with splashes of brown. But hers are more spread out and not so shoulder oriented. I'm wondering in it's just the mix of breeds?
Thanks! He/She is a fun mix, 1/4 black orpington, 1/4 splash americauna and 1/2 white Marans. I am beginning to lean towards girl too. I think the patches on his/her shoulders throws me off. But no crowing yet is leading me to believe we might have another layer. Which is fine by me. I think...
So we have more eggs than we can eat and have been approached by friends who want to buy our eggs for $5 a dozen... umm ok, sure thing! So we are having fun with it and with more laying hens on the way we MIGHT someday have enough to sell at he local farmers market. I have a few questions about...
I just received my eggs today from this very sweet lady and they are in PERFECT condition! I have never seen eggs so well packaged! Clearly marked and beautiful colors! Thank you!
Also in regards to your question about diluting and breeding true. Weird things happen when breeding OEs. In one of the picks you see his barred siblings in the background. There was no barred looking parent involved in this hatch. They had a different Mom but she was just an EE. We had no clue...