June to July hatch-a-long!!!

[chickenmama109]

Well, my broody blue EE is now 2 weeks along... She is part of the free range crew here and I was down to 2 hens due to some predator problems with fox/coyote mix. They are gone now and it is peaceful, at least temporarily... She is sitting on a huge pile of eggs in a nest of live bermuda grass that is actually growing up a vine. Took me awhile to find her. I am wondering how many of those eggs could possibly hatch, since they are piled on top of each other and only the top ones stay warm. I guess I will know in another week. I have a small coop run that she will have to go into once they hatch, since I have cats. I bought it especially for times like this (and a few others, like quarantine, stuff I couldn't resist at feed store, brought something home from sale that I have no place to put etc). I am hoping some of them hatch, as EE population is down. Took a long time to trap that fox.

It might be a good idea to candle the eggs so you can see how many are fertile, you might want to do this at night so you dont up set her. Good luck!

 

[BreanneRN]

It might be a good idea to candle the eggs so you can see how many are fertile, you might want to do this at night so you dont up set her. Good luck!

Not worried about fertility, my EE rooster (Johnny B. Good) is diligent... But some may not hatch due to just not ever getting warm enough... Another thing is, some may be spoiled from the hot weather, but the last couple of weeks have had very few 100+ days, and the eggs were sheltered. True, I should probably candle them, but I don't want to disturb her at this point, and I am not sure night time would be better. I'm going to just wait and see! Though I may sneak some out for a sniff test, if I catch her off of them this afternoon... 6 more days...

 

[BreanneRN]

Well, they passed the sniff test! Not smelly at all... I'll see if I can download some pics...

 

[BreanneRN]

And here is Azul, off the nest. My most dominant EE hen, she is the boss lady!

 

[BreanneRN]

And here's Johnny (B. Good), though, sometimes Johnny B b

ad and crows at 1:00 in the morning... and with him my other surviving EE hen. Most likely some of those eggs in the nest are hers...

 

[chickenmama109]

And here's Johnny (B. Good), though, sometimes Johnny B bView attachment 1833970 ad and crows at 1:00 in the morning... and with him my other surviving EE hen. Most likely some of those eggs in the nest are hers...

He is very handsome, good luck with your eggs!

 

[Cyprus]

And here's Johnny (B. Good), though, sometimes Johnny B bView attachment 1833970 ad and crows at 1:00 in the morning... and with him my other surviving EE hen. Most likely some of those eggs in the nest are hers...

Heeere'ssss Johnny! I couldn't resist.

 

[chickenmama109]

So yesterday I got my first egg and I'm going to be eggs the rest today, can wait to put them under the broody

 

[BreanneRN]

Heeere'ssss Johnny! I couldn't resist.

i couldn't either! Maybe it's the cut of those hackle feathers... And he does have a great monologue...

 

[Cyprus]

My week old chicks have been off supplemental heat since they were 3 days old. It's so hot here, they don't need it.