Natural Hatching adventure

[valmom]

Well, we are finally raining instead of snowing! And, impatient as we are, we're going to let the girls set some of their own eggs and hope they don't freeze. We are so anxious for spring here, this actually sounds like a good idea to us...

And, if no chicks appear in the coop in a month it really will be warm enough to not freeze them overnight. And, really, what have we lost- 6 eggs or so? The girls are cranking out as many as we can eat already.

I NEED signs of spring!

 

[kstaven]

I have found many of my Orpingtons and Marans are quite capable winter hatchers.

 

[valmom]

Well, no spring here yet.It was 14 yesterday morning. We are collecting the eggs and putting plastic eggs (Easter eggs are in stores now!) in the dog crate onthe floor of the henhouse in hopes one of the girls will decide to actually stay on a nest and brood.

Are they really like that? They will become broody if they have enough lumps to sit on?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Sometimes I wonder that myself!

Do you fill the plastic eggs with anything to make them mimic the weight of an egg?

 

[horsejody]

I have a hen that goes broody at the drop of a hat (except this year when I needed her to). One year the kids left some toys in the coop (don't know why). That hen insisted on sitting on a toy dinosaur and a teenage mutant ninja turtle. One day we found the turtle kicked out of the nest. I guess he was a dud. After about 4 weeks, the dinosaur "hatched." We found it on the floor with the hen. She finally gave up showing it the food, but I did leave it on the coop floor all summer.