We have a white American Game foul (I THINK) who started sitting on 15 eggs. She is small, so I gave 6 of her eggs to another sitting hen, whos eggs never hatched. She deserted the nest, so I brought the eggs home, and put them in an incubator. I really didnt think they'd hatch, but they did, one day before the eggs the hen was sitting on. I'm new to chickens, so this is our first hatching. Of Momma's 9 eggs, 1 exploded, and the other 8 hatched, but due to the cold snap we had, 7 died during the night. We brought the lone survivor and Momma to our house. (They live out at our farm property, and were free-range chickens. I set up a tent in the garage, put Momma and baby in a cage with the nest, and hung two drop lights. They stayed nice and warm. So the next day, I intruduced to Momma the other 6 chicks. She made a cooing noise, and the 6 babies instantly went up to her, and under-neath her. How precious! When they came back out she showed them how to peck at the food and water. All 7 babies are doing great in the tent. We will move them back out to the farm when it warms up enough. We have built them a house and an enclosed covered run. We lost about 20 of the other free-range chickens over the past few cold nights due to Coyotes. Here's some pics of the chicks at 6 days. There were various hens using the nest, and they could be from one of 4 roos. "Momma" is soo sweet, and actually now lets me pet her, and eats out of my hand, she wouldnt come near us before. She doesn't mind us picking up the chicks, but watches closely.
