Broody just hatched some more

[flocksalot]

Ezmeralda (Ezzy for short) just hatched out her second broody batch, or at least 8 or 9 have hatched so far. She has 6 more eggs she's still sitting on. Can't remember how many eggs my son actually gave her for sure. One of the little ones got injured and died, but I think there are still 8 little fuzz balls in there. Kinda hard to see as she's not willing to have them parade about for me to see just yet, but we lifted her bum and tried to count. Last year she hatched out 6 (3 boys and 3 girls), so we already have more this year. She was driving all the other hens out of the house and wouldn't let them lay eggs anymore, so I moved her to a small coop that I had converted for the young ones. We had to do a coop shuffle as we had gotten another coop anyway. Ezzy was a wonderful mom last year, so the idea of her having more was exciting. We had just gotten a new batch of chicks and I thought of putting some in with her, but decided to give her some eggs out of the fridge to see what happened. She is an awesome incubator! I really have to find my camera! It's driving me crazy not knowing where it got packed up this winter when we sold our home. At the rate that our new home is getting built I won't be able to find my camera until Ezzy is on a new batch next year.

I'm just so excited! One of them has feathering on it's legs which means that it's bio mommy is one of Ezzy's babies from last year. They are EE's and lay beautiful eggs. Harriet lays a deep blue and Charlotte lays a dark green. I picked their eggs out of the fridge hoping we would get some of their babies. They are also very pretty girls.

The coop we used for her was a 3 hen coop that I had removed all but the floor (shelf) of the nest box. We put Ezzy under the shelf so she had a dark area. Good thing to as Ezzy's sister Drucilla went broody and started chasing the other hens out of the house. Slap a few boards down on the shelf, add a nest box, insert hen and eggs. Yippy we got ourselves another hen incubator. Drucilla has only been sitting for about a week or so. I hope all the comotion below her doesn't upset her.

 

[Gypsy07]

I just got three chicks hatched out under my first ever broody hen. So exciting! Sounds like your Ezzy is really good at it...

 

[flocksalot]

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Congratulations! Isn't it just so exciting? Last year she killed her first chick.

It was her first hatch and she probably didn't know what was under her. This time the last chick looked like it had gotten stepped on by a claw. It was puntured in the back with yolk running out. Still I think she did awesome. Can't believe Alex put 16 eggs under her. I only gave him 8. Have no idea who's eggs he put under there, but I'm betting one of them was his favorite hen Rosie's.

Well I took the last 6 eggs out and candled them. 3 have movement, one looks OK but no movement (could be sleeping), and two were bad. Ezzy isn't setting them anymore as she is too busy teaching her 9 (Yes that's right 9) new little one's how to eat, drink, and scratch. She wasn't very happy with me taking the eggs, but when I brought them back she was like "they are your problem now, you sit on them I'm busy." We took them home and fired up the bator. The last time we used it my husband unplugged it 1 day before hatch and left it off through a cold night. We waited a week before taking and checking the eggs. My son had to check every single egg. Each one had a dead chick in it.

That was a year ago. I put the bator in my sons room. Dad isn't allowed in there. Hope everything works out. We will put the eggs back under Ezzy at night and hopefully the other four hatch overnite. Either that or we will give her the chicks as they hatch. My son was right though Ezzy was sitting on 16 eggs. Know wonder she was so squarshed down and wide. She is a very good momma, now her sister is having some troubles. She wants out, but she wants to sit on them too. She just doesn't know what she wants. Now with the commotion down below she probably wants to go steal some babies and be done with this sitting crap. If I thought Ezzy couldn't handle all her babies I would, but she is an awesome mother. She probably could have handled the 36 chicks we got three weeks ago, but what would be the fun in that. I much prefer the anticipation.

Now how many eggs did Mr. Alex slip under Drucilla? Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[Sailing Dede]

lol, I like your son

He is getting the most out of those girlies for sure lol

 

[The Chickeneer]

Thats great!

Ur going to have lots of fun. I have a broody with chicks that are almost 2 months old. Last night I installed a perch for them because they are getting to big for their nest box. I just love watching them hatch, isnt it so exiting! Well congrats and good luck

 

[flocksalot]

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He's seven and thinks he's gonna be a chicken farmer.

He's the reason I even started raising egg layers. I used to only raise meat birds, and I have parrots. My Quaker lays an egg here and there and Alex always wanted to hatch it out and his father wanted to eat it. So after much research we settled on RIR, but as you know types are just like numbers.........you can't have just one. The other day my son caught a polish while we were picking up a nest box for his 16 week olds. He wanted it really bad. Two years ago he just thought they looked hilarious, now he wants one. If I let him we will end up with at least one of every type. He currently has seven coops, but as he will be turning 8 in Oct. he has decided that he will need another coop. Each secessive coop has gotten larger. Which of course means more chickens which leads to needing another coop as they might get too crowded and then more chickens...............Alex say's you can never have to many chickens. Good thing we're AG2 out at the farm. He's lucky I enjoy them as much as he does. His Dad not so much, but he's been out voted. Alex does an awesome job helping take care of the chickens. He is the first one to notice if something is wrong with any of them. But then he carries them all over and spoils them rotten. Especially Rosie. In this hot weather Rosie gets her very own private fan, and is the only chicken invited into his pool. Now if the ducks and geese could climb the ladder.......course we saw one fly this morning, so maybe I'll be cleaning the pool sooner than planned.