Ok, so, I have the BEST broody hen that EVER walked the face of the planet! I found her in the hollow an apple tree, not too far from the coop, but far enough that I never noticed her. She had 19 eggs and my best guess was that she was a week and a half into he setting period. Well, I already have too many roosters from all the other broodies this year (6-7 total), so I formulated a plan to make her adopt some hatchery pullets. I really only wanted 12, but Mt Healthy's minimum is 15, so that is what I ordered. Well they came and I opened the box at the PO to make sure they were OK, and they were, but I thought that it looked like too many, but I equated it to them being cramped. Well, I got them home and fed them, then I decided to count them. 22. I almost croaked. How in the world is this hen supposed to take care of 22 hatchery chicks and 7 of her own? I figured that I didn't have anything to lose, because I certainly was not ready to take care of them myself, so I put them in the hollow with her. I was shocked! She readily accepted them (a bit confused about where they came from at first), and soon, ALL 29 of them were under her warm body!! 22 Golden Comets, 6 GLW X BO, and 1 BR X BO!! I am so very proud of her! I have pics, and I will put them up soon! It is quite the sight!
Ok... sorry that it took so long to get these up here! the computer acted up last night when I said I would do it. This is her when she was still in the hollowed out tree. I put the screen up because some of the babies learned how tto jump out and not how to get back in This is a sort-of up close. She bit me everytime I tried to pick her up! I don't blame her though, I would be up tight if I had that many babies to keep track of! I took her out for a quick pic so that you could see how full that little tree was! Then, a few days later, we got A LOT of rain and I went to the tree to find the babies all wet. So, I moved them to a cage in the coop, so they could dry off and have room to spread out. I lined the cage with feed bags so they couldn't leave their mama (they fit through the bars)! This is the whole group of them! (Can you spy the one that is different?)
