My RIR is broody and...

[Mamaboid]

she gathered herself 10 eggs, and then got on the wrong nest when she went back from feeding...so, I waited til night, gave her 10 nice new eggs covered her head so she didn't see that she was being moved, and moved her into her own little private suite. She is sitting tight and eating and drinking and so far all is well. Today was day 2 so now we wait with baited breath. It has been almost 20 years since I had chickens and I am as excited as I can possibly be. Now if I can just get rid of the stupid hawk that has taken 3 chickens in 4 days, all will be well...but that is for a different page. Anybody else start yesterday?

 

[Impress]

I set 28 eggs in my incubator last night, so I guess you get the weird bald derby girl as your hatching friend.

Some of them are from someone who had some laying around that may or may not be viable, so I may end up hatching like, 5, but we will see!

 

[Mamaboid]

Quote:
5 is 5x better than none. Some of my favorite people are both weird and bald..including my dh, so glad to have you.

 

[Impress]

Awesome! I'm a nervous wreck about this hatch, I traded a rooster for a bag of mixed eggs, and two of them were starting to go rotten and busted in my hands when I washed them.

but it seemed like some were old, and some were not, so hopefully some of these in here will hatch into interesting chicks and not just explode in my incubator. Waiting to candle is TORTURE, and having 2 that are the color of dark chocolate isn't helping because I know my only avenue there is to smell them regularly, I'll never be able to candle those shells!

 

[Mamaboid]

Quote:
Ewww

exploding in the incubator is one of the few things I remember about the hatching process, lol. That smell is something you never forget. I hope you have good luck with a whole bunch of them.

The eggs I sat were all fresh none older than 2 days, and all my eggs have been fertile for a couple months now, so I am really hoping for a good hatch. She is still sitting tight, and growls when we open her door to put feed and water in. She has half of the goat pen all to herself and gets lots of sun and air and seems to be enjoying her special treatment. I am not sure about candling, when I had chickens years ago, I had almost 300 and when I left the hens hatch and raise them, I just left nature take it's course. The only ones I candled were the ones I incubated. Not sure if I am going to candle them or just let her be. I am kind of afraid to disturb her, I don't want her to come off. Curiosity will probable get the best of me tho.

 

[Mamaboid]

Well, day 14 and all is well as far as I know. She is still sitting tight, won't let me near the nest and has only thrown one egg out. I have resisted candeling so far, so I think I am going to let her alone for the duration. She is so funny when we open the door to check on her and put in feed and water..She growls and hisses like a cat. I am getting so excited about this, I feel like a kid at Christmas.

 

[Mamaboid]

Well, Out of the 10 eggs, I got 2 little black fuzzy butts, 1 dead fully developed that didn't hatch and the rest were not viable.. but 2 cute little ones is a whole lot better than none. Their mommies are RIR and their daddy is a black cochin and they are adorable. Will get pics asap.