Some of you may have read my original thread about my very young (6ish month) Sussex Mabel went broody. I was a bit unsure about it as she is sooooo young but she sat on nothing / 1 plaster egg (we broke the other one
) for a whole week - I even tried to move her to a better spot in the coop (she is in a back of a huge TV in the run 
) 4 or 5 evenings of that waiting week and she refused and went back to her 'TV'. So I decided to go for it and got her 12 eggs (a mix of Vorwerks, Black / blue / splash copper Marans, 1 precious Cream Legbar (the guys Legbars stopped laying the week I needed eggs!) and a tiny tiny Pekin bantam).
It has been a comedy of errors the whole time! First she broke an egg (I think it was an accident when getting up or settling down) on about day 5 and there was a little tiny chick embryo, I then moved them to the incubator in a panic. Then I broke one on day 14 - still alive briefly - it just slipped out of my hand so I gave them back to her again. Then she tipped 5 of them out (or possibly me I've discovered when I cover her box with a pallet at night
it is tipping up and I could have tipped the pan she is in a bit which means if that was the case the eggs that fell have no hope (including the Cream Legbar
). One of those 5 had a chip in it - luckily no broken membrane so I sealed it with wax - luckily I'd read about this on here so knew what to do
. The 5 that got tipped out I put back in the incubator. A day later I checked and 2 were definitely dead
(so now down to 8!) but couldn't see the others as they are chocolate and blue I am however prepared for the worst.
My remaining concern was the tiny tiny egg as I read on the incubating thread that bantams often hatch a day or so before big birds and I feel that as she is so young and inexperianced that it would be too much for her to have a spread out hatch so I decided to bring the tiny one in with the plan to sneak it under her when her others hatch.
So yesterday I spotted her off the nest and went to grab it and check on them and I found a crushed egg
I grabbed both and headed back to the house. I looked carefully at the crushed one and amazingly the membranes were still intact. As it was already day 18 I decided to not bother trying to seal it and just put it in the incubator. Today amazingly my hubby spotted movement (as did I once I conceded to putting on my new reading glasses) you can see it breathing or heartbeating or something
I'm so glad I didn't just get rid of it! Thankfully when I was reading about repairing the other egg I'd spotted similarly destroyed eggs so knew I could have a chance! They are due Saturday so we shall see if it makes it!
Should I put some oil or something on the membrane or wait until hatch day????
) 4 or 5 evenings of that waiting week and she refused and went back to her 'TV'. So I decided to go for it and got her 12 eggs (a mix of Vorwerks, Black / blue / splash copper Marans, 1 precious Cream Legbar (the guys Legbars stopped laying the week I needed eggs!) and a tiny tiny Pekin bantam).It has been a comedy of errors the whole time! First she broke an egg (I think it was an accident when getting up or settling down) on about day 5 and there was a little tiny chick embryo, I then moved them to the incubator in a panic. Then I broke one on day 14 - still alive briefly - it just slipped out of my hand so I gave them back to her again. Then she tipped 5 of them out (or possibly me I've discovered when I cover her box with a pallet at night
. The 5 that got tipped out I put back in the incubator. A day later I checked and 2 were definitely dead
My remaining concern was the tiny tiny egg as I read on the incubating thread that bantams often hatch a day or so before big birds and I feel that as she is so young and inexperianced that it would be too much for her to have a spread out hatch so I decided to bring the tiny one in with the plan to sneak it under her when her others hatch.
So yesterday I spotted her off the nest and went to grab it and check on them and I found a crushed egg
Should I put some oil or something on the membrane or wait until hatch day????
but good luck!!
