My girl Adore hatched her eggs this weekend. I got 2 male cream legbars, 2 female cream legbars, a showgirl, and a silkie. One cl got pecked in the head and the showgirl got abandoned after pipping and was shrinkwrapped so they are inside. The other 4 chicks are doing great with their mom...
They sit on them until they all hatch. Or she decides the remaining eggs won't hatch. Mine sat on them for 2 days before I removed the last eggs. Then she very happily got up and showed the chicks food and water.
Due to bad weather, I brought my mom and babies inside. It is too darn cute watching them. She had babies sticking out from both wings and under her chest.
Chickens are strange creatures. That reminds me of my showgirl rooster. My showgirls and silkies are in a fenced pen. The neighbor's huge rhode island red rooster likes to come over and visit. My showgirl tries to fight this bird that is 3x his size through the fence. I'm just glad they can't...
I've introduced a lot of birds and they don't ever get along at first. Chickens are brutal. If you can put the chick in a wire cage so they can see each other but do no damage it'll help.
If she's not broody, she's not going to accept a chick. Not a good idea to throw chicks in with older birds without a slow, safe introduction. As for the egg, if they get a taste for yolks, it's hard to break them of the egg breaking habbit.
Is it unusual that my broody hen sitting on eggs lets the other hen’s chicks rest under her? I really thought one disappeared yesterday when I couldn’t find it. Then it showed up again a few hours later. Today she’s got three under her while the other 4 are following around their mama.
We're up to 7 chicks, with 3 eggs still under her. Only 2 are silkies, the rest are showgirls. 3 blacks, 2 whites, and 2 chipmonks. One is under so it's not in the picture.
Yay! Got home from my class and three are out. All showgirls and so adorable. The other chickens are leaving them alone so far. I wanted to see how it goes keeping them together. It's just the rooster in there, the other broody, and two youngish chickens that are moving to their new home in a...
Ok, I still didn't see or hear chicks, so I was getting worried. I candled an egg that was at her wing, not really disturbing her and it had quit, sloshing around a bit and everything. I candled another at her wing and it was clear. I was starting to think that this was going to be a failed...
Yes, she’s decided to get serious about this hatching business. I put 6 cream legbar eggs under her and she’s sitting one 2 of her own eggs as well. I used to think showgirls were ugly, but now I think they’re beautiful.
Here's my two broodies. The black silkie is Silver and her eggs should hatch at any time. The white showgirl is Adore and she just started sitting a few days ago.
Today is 22 days since I started counting my silkie sitting on the eggs. It doesn't seem any have hatched yet. Would they be behind schedule from the 3 day freeze we had and them getting a bit cold. The ones under her were alive last I checked, I think Wednesday or Thursday, and that was after...
Some chickens just don't go broody. Depends on the breed and the individual chicken. My previous layers never went broody. Didn't even pretend for a day or two. That's why I got the silkies and showgirls. They are loving going broody.