- Nov 5, 2010
- 35
- 10
- 22
She's just under a year old, and very independent. We were surprised when she went broody. (We've never had a broody before.) She stayed on the nest for a few days, so we decided to leave an egg under there to see if she'd "stick". A couple of days later she was still on the nest, so we put two more under her. We had no idea how things were supposed to be done, and didn't really expect her to stay with it for the long haul, so we were just kind of winging it. (Pardon the pun.)
I accidentally broke one of the eggs, but she was faithful for the duration and ultimately hatched both remaining chicks, three days apart. Here's a video of her taking them for an outting just outside the goat yard:
http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/ll82/cadillacjill/?action=view¤t=007.mp4
The little one that straggles behind in the video was hatched that morning, so he was not quite as alert and perky. The other one was 3 days old.
It's been several days, and she takes them all over the barnyard, teaching them to scratch, tossing them little bugs, clucking when she finds something particularly tasty. She leads them to safety when she thinks there's a threat, and has gone on the attack a couple of times. (I had no idea she could look so big and scary!) The only problem we've had is that the younger one gets left behind every night when they go back into the coop. I have to go on an evening chick chase, which is harder than I would have thought.
I still don't know exactly how this is supposed to be done. DH and I decided to let nature take its course as much as possible, and so far so good. I know this is probably old stuff to everybody here, but to me this maternal instinct is absolutely amazing, and I've really enjoyed observing it.
I accidentally broke one of the eggs, but she was faithful for the duration and ultimately hatched both remaining chicks, three days apart. Here's a video of her taking them for an outting just outside the goat yard:
http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/ll82/cadillacjill/?action=view¤t=007.mp4
The little one that straggles behind in the video was hatched that morning, so he was not quite as alert and perky. The other one was 3 days old.
It's been several days, and she takes them all over the barnyard, teaching them to scratch, tossing them little bugs, clucking when she finds something particularly tasty. She leads them to safety when she thinks there's a threat, and has gone on the attack a couple of times. (I had no idea she could look so big and scary!) The only problem we've had is that the younger one gets left behind every night when they go back into the coop. I have to go on an evening chick chase, which is harder than I would have thought.
I still don't know exactly how this is supposed to be done. DH and I decided to let nature take its course as much as possible, and so far so good. I know this is probably old stuff to everybody here, but to me this maternal instinct is absolutely amazing, and I've really enjoyed observing it.
