Hello Everyone,
I've had to make a tricky decision over brooding today.
Bit of background, we live in a greenhouse and our place gets 'hoooot' - as in over 40c hot midday and I do not trust my incubator to not cook an egg at the moment. - likewise, ambient is a too warm in the coolest places for resting a hatching egg and I don't like the idea of refrigerating.
We got a new girl - a 1 yr old frizzle that was in with a white silkie roo about a week ago and I believe she just laid her first egg with us today. 90% sure it's hers and not my blue splash silkie laying double today.
Now, my 3 yr old white silkie is on the nest and has been for 2-3 weeks - really regretting not logging her start time. She's a 'super' broody who broods thin air and can easily go over 5 weeks without breaking and has historically raised two clutches and is a good momma. Seems a bit late in her cycle to give her an egg, but I've decided to go for it as I'm not sure it'll survive the ambient temps long enough for me to get a full clutch together.
My blue has only just come into lay around a week ago, so if she's anything like my white, I can expect she may go broody over the next week or so, but she's a newbie so not sure how that'll go down. My white definitely jumped right into brooding after laying her first clutch - so I could potentially swap hens if that's how it goes down for blue.
Hoping she can at least get a few eggs through the 'sensitive' period and well on their way and I can finish them up with a staggered hatch and fairy them away to the brooder, but will be a tricky one :/ There's then the question of whether they're fertile too. I'm good on eggs so can spare a bit if wastage if they end up being clears.
Guess I'll just have to wait and see how things are looking in a week or so. Wish us luck!
I've had to make a tricky decision over brooding today.
Bit of background, we live in a greenhouse and our place gets 'hoooot' - as in over 40c hot midday and I do not trust my incubator to not cook an egg at the moment. - likewise, ambient is a too warm in the coolest places for resting a hatching egg and I don't like the idea of refrigerating.
We got a new girl - a 1 yr old frizzle that was in with a white silkie roo about a week ago and I believe she just laid her first egg with us today. 90% sure it's hers and not my blue splash silkie laying double today.
Now, my 3 yr old white silkie is on the nest and has been for 2-3 weeks - really regretting not logging her start time. She's a 'super' broody who broods thin air and can easily go over 5 weeks without breaking and has historically raised two clutches and is a good momma. Seems a bit late in her cycle to give her an egg, but I've decided to go for it as I'm not sure it'll survive the ambient temps long enough for me to get a full clutch together.
My blue has only just come into lay around a week ago, so if she's anything like my white, I can expect she may go broody over the next week or so, but she's a newbie so not sure how that'll go down. My white definitely jumped right into brooding after laying her first clutch - so I could potentially swap hens if that's how it goes down for blue.
Hoping she can at least get a few eggs through the 'sensitive' period and well on their way and I can finish them up with a staggered hatch and fairy them away to the brooder, but will be a tricky one :/ There's then the question of whether they're fertile too. I'm good on eggs so can spare a bit if wastage if they end up being clears.
Guess I'll just have to wait and see how things are looking in a week or so. Wish us luck!
