OK, I have these two hens with no matching rooster. I put pics here trying to ID them, no one could be positive but a few folks said some kind of dorking.....
So anyway, these two were the best at hiding their eggs. Usually found them in the stable or the hayloft. Well, abut a month ago, I finally noticed that only one of the girls was in attendance at any given time. I mentioned this to hubby, so off he goes.... comes back and says 'what is it you call hens that don't want to get off a nest of eggs?' 'Broody hens,' I said. 'Well, you got one. In the hayloft'.
So we figure out when they started setting, and came up with a hatch date around the 5th of May. But.....
In the meantime, I noticed neither one of them was feeding every day, only about once a week. And only one of them at a time. So I told hubby to take some feed and water up to the hayloft. When he came back, he said 'you are not going to believe this. They are BOTH on the nest, side by side. Neither one is big enough to set on the entire nest, so they are sharing the duties.'
He would check on them every few days, and a couple of times more, one would come down. I was getting hay in the stable one day, and I hear squawking, and flapping, and one of the hens comes flying out the access to the loft, flies over me still yelling, and takes off to join the flock.
We checked on Tuesday the 5th, they were still there. Then on the 6th, I had to have emergency hernia surgery. Came home the same day. Had hubby go check, no peeps.
Well, just an hour ago, hubby calls me on the cell from the loft, and....
We have peeps! Both hens still setting. So hubby puts bales all around so that the chicks cannot somehow be led to the loft access and have to jump all the way to the ground. We are going to bring the dry ones down tomorrow evening, when the hens are in their sleeping trance, then get more every day til all are down.
We are scrabbling together a separate area for the two hens and chicks, just in case they decide to keep them a while.
I know this was long, but there was really no way to keep it understandable.
Possible daddys are Blue Polish, Black Polish, Welsummer, and Cuckoo Marans. From what I remember before the Polish were re-homed, they are the most likely candidates, small than the other two roos.
So, when they get down where my camera with no flash can be used, I will have pics of the new chicks on the block! Thank you for reading, lol.
Cheri
