My splash Marans has been broody for about two months now. She had a bunch of eggs close to hatch and one of my mom's dogs got in the pen and ate them out from underneath her. I have wasted a number of good eggs since then beaning her every time I see her. She hasn't gone near the pen again, and the last time I left an egg within her reach, she wouldn't touch it. I think she's gotten the message.
I went out the other night to gather eggs and one of them had been opened, the chick inside was a gorgeous blue and fully formed, but dead. I'm not sure what happened, but I have a good guess... Einstein, my Legbar roo, has found out that if he mounts the hens in the nest boxes, Orlando won't know and won't chase him around like a Keystone cop. It's possible his weight and claws on a pipping egg may have been too much.
So I put the nesting box in a closed pen. But Queenie has been flying over the fence and is in another nesting box when I come home from work. Tonight I gathered the eggs (all blue), brought them in and candled them, expecting dead embryos. Not only are they alive, one of them is internally pipping as I write this!
Once the chicks hatch, if I put them in the closed pen with Queenie, will she get over the fence and abandon them?
How do I stop Einstein from getting in the nesting noxes? Little twerp.
Ok, I'm zero help as far as your question goes. But, should you want to sell some blue or splash Marans chicks count me in! (Yep, it may be time to extend the run...)
fingers crossed for a grey pullet! But I love all the colors. Poor dh has had to sit next to me google-ing swedish flower hens for a week now. I got it bad! - chicken fever that is
given what I've heard lately about guineas that's not saying much....
