i guess i just wanted to share this story to anyone willing to listen. i <3 my chickys!
i started out with twelve. my mom wanted 6, but the minimum for bantams at the feed store was 12, so that's what we got. they grew up the current total at that time was 6 roosters, 6 hens. one hen (a CORNISH by the way!) got broody and we decided to let her hatch some chicks. of the 9 eggs she had sat on that february, 8 hatched. two more roos, 6 hens. another time, my sister and i decided we wanted to hatch at least another chick when the same hen got broody again, but my mom wouldn't let us. we hatched one anyway. of the three eggs under that hen, one hatched, one got cold, and the other my sister dropped and broke (don't worry, the egg was infertile, anyway). this chick was a hen, thank goodness!not long after that, one of the 2nd "generation", bumble, passed on to the big roosting pole in the sky.
! a little later, my 7th grade science class was doing a project on hatching eggs, so i got a leghorn chick- my only standard chicken- there. she's a hen, but she thinks she's a rooster! she only get's along with one of the "outcat" roosters who fight with the others in the main coop. the next "batch" of chicks started while we were on vacation for a couple of weeks and my neighbor took care of the chickens. the same hen was broody again and the neighbor didn't remove her eggs from the nest. when we got back the 17(!) eggs under her were too far gone. we candled them, and, again, thank goodness only 8 were even fertile. 7 of those eggs hatched. 4 roosters, 3 hens. now i have 12 banty roosters, 15 banty hens, and 1 standard hen.
i started out with twelve. my mom wanted 6, but the minimum for bantams at the feed store was 12, so that's what we got. they grew up the current total at that time was 6 roosters, 6 hens. one hen (a CORNISH by the way!) got broody and we decided to let her hatch some chicks. of the 9 eggs she had sat on that february, 8 hatched. two more roos, 6 hens. another time, my sister and i decided we wanted to hatch at least another chick when the same hen got broody again, but my mom wouldn't let us. we hatched one anyway. of the three eggs under that hen, one hatched, one got cold, and the other my sister dropped and broke (don't worry, the egg was infertile, anyway). this chick was a hen, thank goodness!not long after that, one of the 2nd "generation", bumble, passed on to the big roosting pole in the sky.
