So miss hissy pants, with 2 chicks hatched decided to abandon the nest this afternoon. She so far is being a wonderful mom and the rest of the flock is being watchful and protective of her and the chicks. I was prepared to swoop her and her chicks away but looks like I can leave them be. I took the eggs she left behind and plopped them in the incubator and just had a look at them.
When I decided to let her sit, she had 4 eggs. Over the past 21 days, every time she left the nest, another would jump up and lay an egg in there, hence why at the end she was sitting on a dozen eggs.
I've since removed 4 as being to new with minimum or no development and left behind four. 3 of them look to be about right for going into lockdown and the 4th, looks to be about 10 days along. We will see how they do as they are now in the incubator with Aloha's that I locked down early as the two empty ones are being deep cleaned.
I'm going to get up early and see if she will accept the six that were born 3 days ago, I'll sneak them under her around 4:30 or so as I start chores at 5 and can see how she does with them.
