Hopeless but still hoping for any suggestions... How to help an old hen lay.

[VA Lady]

Well it's been exactly two weeks since my sweet rooster passed away and I couldn't believe my eyes this morning... finally an egg! I know I'm a very long way away from a grown chicken (she's an old bird and it may not even be fertilized) but I'll never get there without the first step... Fingers crossed as this journey begins!

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Well it's been exactly two weeks since my sweet rooster passed away and I couldn't believe my eyes this morning... finally an egg! I know I'm a very long way away from a grown chicken (she's an old bird and it may not even be fertilized) but I'll never get there without the first step... Fingers crossed as this journey begins!

Good luck!

 

[Spangled]

I am looking forward to a happy outcome!

 

[VA Lady]

So good news at what I think is the very edge of when it would be safe to do it... I found another egg and added it to the incubator! Doubled my odds I hope!

 

[VA Lady]

So if I'm lucky enough for a chicken from my beloved pets I wonder what this little "mutt" bird will look like?

 

[Spangled]

Wow! She is stunningly beautiful. She's barred, but is she also carrying mottling? (as in from a Speckled Sussex or similar?)

There's really no telling what you'll get. Too many variables to know for sure, but male chicks will barred. Female chicks have a 50-50 chance depending on whether the sire is homo or hetero for barring. (B/B or B/b) At least that how I understand it. Some could be goldeny barred like your little lady above.

 

[azygous]

What an exciting story! I'll be checking back to find out how things are going, and at the end of three weeks, maybe two baby chicks!

I can identify with how you feel about losing your beloved roo. My Brahma roo Penrod died last summer, and he was such a sweet boy, too. It about broke my heart to have to euthanize him after he broke his leg and never recovered, just got sicker and sicker and quit eating.

But I had let a broody hen sit on two eggs that been fertilized by Penrod. One hatched and it was a little roo, the spitting image of his daddy. He was just six weeks old when Penrod died, and now he's almost a year old and is just as sweet and gentle has his dad had been.

I hope you get a baby roo and he's just as sweet as his daddy.

This is Penrod with his son Izzy just before I lost Penrod.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Keep us posted because I am afraid that to much time has passed for the eggs your setting to have been fertilized by you rooster, but who knows.

Hope does spring eternal in the human heart so keep us informed.

 

[VA Lady]

Well I think what is going to make the big difference is when was the last "time" before he passed away. He didn't have a long decline - looked perfectly fine until a day before passed, but I wasn't really paying attention to coop "action"....

According to this thread folks seem to say anywhere from ten days to a month so I think at around two weeks I have a chance. Roxie is a stubborn bird too so if choice enters into it at all, she's going to make whatever is possible happen!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/436458/how-long-to-clear-a-roosters-sperm

This is Roxie when she was young in a tree she decided she wanted to fly to from the coop - she can fly really well:

 

[VA Lady]

What an exciting story! I'll be checking back to find out how things are going, and at the end of three weeks, maybe two baby chicks! I can identify with how you feel about losing your beloved roo. My Brahma roo Penrod died last summer, and he was such a sweet boy, too. It about broke my heart to have to euthanize him after he broke his leg and never recovered, just got sicker and sicker and quit eating. But I had let a broody hen sit on two eggs that been fertilized by Penrod. One hatched and it was a little roo, the spitting image of his daddy. He was just six weeks old when Penrod died, and now he's almost a year old and is just as sweet and gentle has his dad had been. I hope you get a baby roo and he's just as sweet as his daddy. This is Penrod with his son Izzy just before I lost Penrod.[COLOR=005CB1] [/COLOR]

Penrod looks like he was a beautiful rooster! I'm so sorry you lost him, it must have been terrible. I think in a way I was lucky how mine went. When I got up in the morning to check on him, he was still sitting like he had been - it looked like he just put his head down and was gone.