February 2022 Hatch-A-Long

[JacksonChickies]

Should I be concerned I found the hen off the eggs and the eggs chilled today??? Not like fridge cold, but cold for sure....

 

[Kelsykin]

Should I be concerned I found the hen off the eggs and the eggs chilled today??? Not like fridge cold, but cold for sure....

Normal for the hen to not stay on the eggs all the time. She usually will leave for a bit to get food, water, other needs, or just to stretch her legs.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Should I be concerned I found the hen off the eggs and the eggs chilled today??? Not like fridge cold, but cold for sure....

Did she go back to sitting on the eggs? My hens aren't usually off of them long enough for them to get very cold.

 

[Bananer86]

Should I be concerned I found the hen off the eggs and the eggs chilled today??? Not like fridge cold, but cold for sure....

Candle them

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Should I be concerned I found the hen off the eggs and the eggs chilled today??? Not like fridge cold, but cold for sure....

As long as she's sitting again there's nothing to worry about.

 

[JacksonChickies]

Did she go back to sitting on the eggs? My hens aren't usually off of them long enough for them to get very cold.

She did, but then was off them again when I got home for the night....

 

[JacksonChickies]

Candle them

We did try just now when we came home.....hard to tell though. Have to wait until its about darker I think

 

[CluckNDoodle]

She did, but then was off them again when I got home for the night....

It's possible that she's starting to break her broodiness. It happens sometimes. Do you have an incubator on standby just in case? You can wait to see if she actually stops sitting of course. You may just be catching her when she's up to take care of business.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

One of my perpetually broody Silkie girls did this last Fall. She is broody more often than she is not, thought I would give her a chance to hatch out some eggs and gave her a “test run“ of some eggs that were not high value, just in case she did not sit on them. At day nine she stopped being broody and went about her business as if she had no idea there were eggs that she was supposed to be sitting on!
Ended up finding them in time and putting them in the incubator, all three hatched!

 

[LAYAM]

We brought home a Muscovy Drake for our two little ladies in early December and collected two eggs around the 20th, to set in the incubator.

These guys hatched last night

Funny how quickly a guest bathroom can be turned into a 'temporary nursery' ...
9-12 more Muscovies due to hatch under mamma in about another 10 days <3

We do have 9 Jersey Giants (eBay shipping eggs) in the incubator hatching around February 6th