Broody or not ???

[RoosterML]

Mama and chicks with the flock @ 1 week?

 

[aart]

Mama and chicks with the flock @ 1 week?

Yep....if you're going to have her raise them.
Chicks should be strong by then, and best to integrate while mama's 'broody power' is still running strong.
If you're going to brood them 'artificially', then you can take them at any time.

 

[RoosterML]

Here we go Round #2 now with my cream legbar. I just put 5 eggs under her today. This time I am not touching anything. She picked the nest box she can have it. With the flock she and hopefully the future chicks will be. Ah what a great chicken life!!!
Here is future mama hard at work:

 

[aart]

Here we go Round #2 now with my cream legbar. I just put 5 eggs under her today. This time I am not touching anything.

What's she setting on?
What happened with Round #1...in another thread?

 

[RoosterML]

What's she setting on?
What happened with Round #1...in another thread?

I just grabbed what I hadn’t yet put in the fridge. Which should be Lavender Orp roo with Red sex link hen. I hatched some of that cross already this spring in the bator and while they are not the prettiest birds (dirty white with black and red bleeding spots through) they do actually get to a nice size fairly quickly for a good meat bird.

In round #1(this thread) that was my Buff Orp that went broody in the beginning of January and in between me moving her way to much thinking I knew better than her and cold temps only one eggs had started to develop and that was it. She also gave up on the nest due to my interference I’m sure. Chalk one up to a learning curve.

 

[RoosterML]

Success!!! Mama Legbar hatched 5 chicks. It’s really nice to see mama showing her chicks what to do. It’s even nicer not having to do anything. Just kick back and watch.
Here’s mama showing them what to eat.




I have a question about sex link.
Out of the 5 black chicks 2 have white dots on top of their head.
Rooster is a Cuckoo Lavender Orpington and the hen was likely what some call a red star, or comet. Many different names for the production reds. Any idea on sex? I know I’ll find out eventually but just curious now.
These two :