Advice on hatching--newbie

[bjcoop]

One of our bantams had been broody for a month. Tried to convince her to stop by the ice pack method, ice cubes, moving her out, caging her for 4 days--everything that I saw here. Nothing worked.She was DETERMINED.

So I gave in

and got her some fertile eggs--10. Before I got to move her that day 2 of our delis kicked her out and laid there, so she has 12! Hope that wasn't too much, but moved her to our chickland in a separate stall. Put her in a hay-filled basket and she is HAPPY, sitting on her eggs.

Now we're at day 16 and getting closer all of the time. My dumb question--with all of the talk of incubators, humidity, heat, etc. I am worried that our Blackie is over her lil head here. Can she hatch these, or do we still have a crazed broodie?

 

[skeeter9]

That's a lot of eggs, but broodies are pretty efficient hatching machines. If all of the eggs are bantam sized she will probably do just fine. I guess you'll find out in about 5 days!! Ha!

I have a Buff Orp hen that goes broody a lot - she hatched out 18 eggs in the spring!!!

Best of luck. Let us know how it goes, and of course, you have to post pics!!!

Lori

 

[jimnjay]

She will more than likely stay on the nest for a day or two then leave unhatched eggs to take care of the babies. At that time you can remove the unhatched eggs and finish them off in a hatcher of some sort or just pretend they are not fertile and put them in the trash.

 

[bjcoop]

Thanks for the advice. Will try to figure out how to post pics in the meantime.

Waiting with Blackie....

BJcoop

 

[bjcoop]

Update on Blackie! She was able to hatch 5 out of the 12. Yay! I am glad she finally has a few babies to dote over.

We were a little worried about her sitting on 12 large eggs, and so when we heard the first pip on Saturday morning, we were thrilled! By the end of the day Blackie had 5 new babies, with 7 eggs yet to go. She was very protective of her new chicks, so we continued to just let her sit. To my relief, last night she was finally out of the nest, and showing the new chicks where to find food and water.

Since today was day 23, and she was off the nest, and now on the floor of the stall, I removed the rest of the eggs. What a good mom she is! Here are a few pictures I took today....

 

[sara]

Adorable!