My depressed OEGB....SHE'S BROODY!--UPDATE w/ Chick pic!

[greytmommy]

She laid an egg this morning and has only gotten off of it ONCE to eat a little.

I am totally willing to let her hatch herself a buddy.

for those of you that dont remember, my OEGB is a rescue, that is currently a house chicken. I posted a week ago that she seemed depressed and wouldnt come out of her cage to wander the house. I didnt know what was wrong. I had been taking her outside a few time to see if my mixed flock would accept her and we were discussing moving her outside. We are wary about leaving her outside full time b/c she is so little, but if that makes her happy...it is worth the risk.

ANYHOO...she is BROODY! So maybe that has been what is going on with her!!!

Needless to say her egg is not fertile. I do have a banty cochin roo outside and a bunch of hens (one including a banty cochin pullet). But my chicks are not very old...like 6-7mts old. Not all of them are even LAYING yet. I have seen the roo attempt to mount the hens (mostly one of the EE's, the Cuckoo Maran and teh banty cochin). So I could pull maybe the banty cochin egg for her to sit on. But how do I know if it is fertile or not? Should I grab a couple of eggs? Maybe one of each?? (EE, CM, banty) and see what "takes"???

NOt really sure what to do! hahahah

 

[bufforp89]

I would give her a few eggs. Hens seem to be in their glory when raising chicks, it would fix whatever ails her I bet. I have a bantam cochinX hen that has 4 standard chicks. They are all bigger then her at this point but she still mothers them

 

[dantodd]

You could pull a few potentially fertile eggs of whatever cross strikes your fancy. You could also set up a date with the roo so she could lay her own fertile eggs.

When cracking eggs from each of the pullets/hens he is mounting check and see if it is fertile. If one of her eggs is fertile most likely they all are. After 10 or so days you should have no trouble identifying which eggs are properly developing by candleing them.

 

[greytmommy]

Quote:
ok....call me dumb.....how would I know if an egg is fertile when I crack it open to cook with it????? (like I said...SO new to this chicken thing...)

 

[Impress]

Look for a bulls eye on the yolk, it is a little yellow spot with a white circle around it.

 

[greytmommy]

Ok, so we had scrambled eggs this morning so I could figure out which of my girls have fertile eggs. Looks like the EE's eggs are NOT fertile (well...the one I checked...we have 3 EE's...but I dont ever see him mount them much...they run off!), my CM egg was fertile as well as my LF Cochin. So we are holding off a day to see if my Banty cochin will lay...but I think we will put the CM egg and a Cochin egg under her. We dont really want another Cochin (we have 4, and turns out of the chickens we have, they are our least favorite), but would love another Maran. She is our absolute favorite hen.

 

[greytmommy]

ok, our OEGB hatched an EE egg just before Halloween.

the roo: Blue Splash Bantam Cochin
the hen: LF Easter Egger white/tan

and here is baby "Chip"!

And here is a picture of Chip with her OEGB mama....the baby is almost as big! but still cuddles up under mama's wing.

I will see if I can find recent pics of the roo and hen Chip came from. Hopefully Chip isnt a roo. We hope to move BOTH of them outside with the big flock once Chip is fully feathered.

 

[chicmom]

Very cute.