Now what!!!
I am not at all prepared to hatch eggs. As I bought 12 pullets and ended up with 2 roosters out of that bunch. I am now at 8 hens and 2 roosters from the 12 I bought as chicks in Sept of 2010.
I didn't think I was going to have a broody either. Then today, after I went to the feed store and bought 14 chicks, I came home and let my older birds out. They are kept in their coop until about 1-2 PM each day then let out to free range. This is also when I feed them.
I have been collecting eggs from them for about a month now. Today "Chicken Little" as I call her because she is the smallest of my hens went in and sat on the eggs as I was taking photos of them. She was pecking around at the straw and wiggling around. I thought at first she was just going to lay and go but she sat there and I sat across the coop from her. I think she is a Dom. She is Black and white barred anyway. I Can't tell a Dom and a PBR apart yet. Soon after one of the RIR came in and nudged her until she left the nest.
Now I am wondering if I should leave the eggs and not collect them. I'm going to go back out and mark them with a Sharpie. I would be tickled pink if they hatched out their own eggs. I need to do some reading though. I don't fully understand the process of making a clutch and when they start to sit and not leave the nest.
Add to that, the first week of laying we got 1 green egg in the "communal" nest. Very excited I collected it along with the others. We have been eating the eggs but I noticed some have little blood spots and white areas on the yolk. I'm assuming they are fertile. I had not seen another green egg since. So I figured it was a fluke or that hen wasn't laying any more. As I was leaving the coop today I looked under an old cabinet and there are TONS of Green eggs! (The coop is a converted shed / work shop). I can't get to them to mark them or collect them sneaky hen! I'm wondering if there are not Guinea eggs under there too because they are the same age and I have yet to see anything but brown and now green chicken eggs.
I guess my question would be should I leave the green eggs and see if she hatches them? I have not seen anyone sitting on them and I dono which hen is laying them. They all flood the door when I open it in the afternoon to let them out so for my safety I stay out of their way LOL. Next coop I will build as a coop and the door will swing in not out! I am learning MANY lessons with my first flock!
I am not at all prepared to hatch eggs. As I bought 12 pullets and ended up with 2 roosters out of that bunch. I am now at 8 hens and 2 roosters from the 12 I bought as chicks in Sept of 2010.
I didn't think I was going to have a broody either. Then today, after I went to the feed store and bought 14 chicks, I came home and let my older birds out. They are kept in their coop until about 1-2 PM each day then let out to free range. This is also when I feed them.
I have been collecting eggs from them for about a month now. Today "Chicken Little" as I call her because she is the smallest of my hens went in and sat on the eggs as I was taking photos of them. She was pecking around at the straw and wiggling around. I thought at first she was just going to lay and go but she sat there and I sat across the coop from her. I think she is a Dom. She is Black and white barred anyway. I Can't tell a Dom and a PBR apart yet. Soon after one of the RIR came in and nudged her until she left the nest.
Now I am wondering if I should leave the eggs and not collect them. I'm going to go back out and mark them with a Sharpie. I would be tickled pink if they hatched out their own eggs. I need to do some reading though. I don't fully understand the process of making a clutch and when they start to sit and not leave the nest.
Add to that, the first week of laying we got 1 green egg in the "communal" nest. Very excited I collected it along with the others. We have been eating the eggs but I noticed some have little blood spots and white areas on the yolk. I'm assuming they are fertile. I had not seen another green egg since. So I figured it was a fluke or that hen wasn't laying any more. As I was leaving the coop today I looked under an old cabinet and there are TONS of Green eggs! (The coop is a converted shed / work shop). I can't get to them to mark them or collect them sneaky hen! I'm wondering if there are not Guinea eggs under there too because they are the same age and I have yet to see anything but brown and now green chicken eggs.
I guess my question would be should I leave the green eggs and see if she hatches them? I have not seen anyone sitting on them and I dono which hen is laying them. They all flood the door when I open it in the afternoon to let them out so for my safety I stay out of their way LOL. Next coop I will build as a coop and the door will swing in not out! I am learning MANY lessons with my first flock!
