I let Blondie have the six eggs she was sitting on July 4th, 2020. I carefully picked up the nest box and Blondie, covered her with a light table cloth, and moved the whole unit to my original chicken coop. This was a new experiment for me. Typically I would have put her in the small brooder part of the coop. The area I moved her to is at least 48 square feet (plus).
After I moved her and the six eggs I realized that she didn't have a green egg from Fancy the 2nd Generation Easter Egger that a broody hen hatched for me about four years ago. Fancy is the last of my colored egg layers. I decided to give Blondie just one more egg.
Blondie is over six years old and is one of my original hens from when I started raising chickens. She could be a tad older than that because I purchased her and the flock from a friend that was moving.
I found Blondie off the nest on day 18. She was laying lifeless near the fresh water. I have only been opening the door to the coop to give her fresh water and make sure that there is feed. I clear her broody poop when it's there. I also open the door to the brooder side and let a summer breeze blow through the coop. I pull out some fresh spearmint and set it in the corner of the coop for a little aromatherapy. Turned out she wasn't lifeless at all. I just happened to catch her while she was on break... I also peeked at the eggs and realized that she had eight eggs! She must have laid another egg when I set her. Hmmm. I caught it just in time. Will eight eggs be too many for her clutch? We shall see...
The rest of the flock can visit her via the open door of the brooder through a screen. Below you can see a picture of the proud dad, Wiggles, and two of my October, 2019 hens visiting her through the screen. I like to hear them "talk" to her. This is the first hatch I have given a hen such a big area and so much freedom--and visitation. I have another coop where all the other chickens and ducks go in for the night.
Yesterday I checked on her on Day 21. Four chicks had hatched!!! They were all different colors. Blondie is a Buff Orpington. Wiggles the rooster is a 1st Generation Easter Egger. He is five years old. Wiggles is such a gentle rooster (around people). He got the job done!
When I checked on her and the four chirping chicks, there was a half of an egg with a dark spot. I tried to poke Blondie to get her to move her head just a little so that I could see it. I didn't know if that egg/chick would be viable. Low and behold it was Meredith in the first pic in this post!!! A little grey chick!!! When I saw the grey chick I decided that chicks in this hatch will most likely have character names from Grey's Anatomy. (That's also how I keep my chicks/hatches straight from year to year.) They often have theme names. I have named them after Disney princesses, Snow White hatched seven chicks one year and I gave them dwarf names... When the Easter Egger hatch happened I named them by the colors... You get the idea.
I can't wait to try to check on them today to see if more hatched. Blondie was adament about sitting on those eggs and protecting her nest. I didn't disturb her. It's time for me to be patient a day or two more if necessary.
Stay tuned for hopefully more fluffy chick pictures! Current status: 4 out of 8 eggs have hatched!
She got injured somehow and didn’t recover the past two weeks. We did antibiotics and everything we could. We even wrapped the injuries. She was declining.
