One of our girls was missing for over two weeks...

[Little Tala Bug]

You must have been so happy! What breed is she? She's beautiful

I'm not sure what breed she is. We rehomed her and 4 others from my friend's mom who wanted to downsize. She didn't know. They look like Crested Cream Legbars to me. Henrietta lays pale blue eggs and her sisters lay pale green ones.

 

[Little Tala Bug]

An update on our lovely Henrietta: She eventually left her wee makeshift broody coop, escorted all the while by our lovely old cockerel William. He stayed at the edge of the pond with her while she took a long drink and then stood guard while she had a nice dust bath under the pine trees. I took the opportunity to check out her egg situation while she was off the nest, and she was incubating fifteen eggs! All of them small and blue, so definitely hers.

When she got back to the nest she rolled a partially broken egg out, so I retrieved it when I went to shut her in this evening. I opened it to see if there was an embryo inside and there was! So she was definitely fertile and we will most likely get some chicks out of the situation. I am over the moon at this lovely twist of fate.

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with all these extra birds!!! I just got 5 new pullets yesterday morning a couple hours before we found her, and I had pre-ordered 5 hens for this September. It's a good thing we have a couple spare wee coops lying about for isolations and introductions in the meantime!

 

[Bella the Chicken Lover]

An update on our lovely Henrietta: She eventually left her wee makeshift broody coop, escorted all the while by our lovely old cockerel William. He stayed at the edge of the pond with her while she took a long drink and then stood guard while she had a nice dust bath under the pine trees. I took the opportunity to check out her egg situation while she was off the nest, and she was incubating fifteen eggs! All of them small and blue, so definitely hers.

When she got back to the nest she rolled a partially broken egg out, so I retrieved it when I went to shut her in this evening. I opened it to see if there was an embryo inside and there was! So she was definitely fertile and we will most likely get some chicks out of the situation. I am over the moon at this lovely twist of fate.

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with all these extra birds!!! I just got 5 new pullets yesterday morning a couple hours before we found her, and I had pre-ordered 5 hens for this September. It's a good thing we have a couple spare wee coops lying about for isolations and introductions in the meantime!

Yay! Good for you!

 

[Sussex19]

Do you have an incubator ready? Whether or not those are all her eggs or she had co-contributors, you're looking at a staggered hatch. She'll be done setting a couple of days (at the outside) after the first chicks hatch and she'll come off the nest permanently at that point.

Why would they be staggered?
A hen lays all her eggs before going broody, and only then starts to set.
Unless other hens did indeed find the nest, and added their eggs (which seems unlikely, all my hidden nests have been from just one hen) they should all hatch bang on time.

 

[Little Tala Bug]

Why would they be staggered?
A hen lays all her eggs before going broody, and only then starts to set.
Unless other hens did indeed find the nest, and added their eggs (which seems unlikely, all my hidden nests have been from just one hen) they should all hatch bang on time.

I'm reassured by this information. Thank you for bringing it to the discussion, because I tried every search term I could think of and couldn't find any concrete information on why eggs would be staggered if they were from one hen. I also couldn't figure out how it would be evolutionarily advantageous for a hen to go off and make a nest of eggs only to abandon most of them for not hatching on time... surely it's a waste of her energy?

I waited until she was off the nest today to check the eggs and see if they were all from her. I found 15 little blue eggs so I think they are all hers as she is our only blue egger. One of them broke this evening so she rolled it out of the nest; I checked inside and there was a pretty well-developed embryo, so fingers crossed I get some wee ones <3

I like to do things as naturally as possible with my chickens, so I am just letting her do her thing and I will provide as much protection as I can without disturbing her. She chose to go have chicks on her own so I am trying to respect her wishes. Whichever chicks survive her wild parenting style will probably be strong and capable.

 

[Sussex19]

I like to do things as naturally as possible with my chickens, so I am just letting her do her thing and I will provide as much protection as I can without disturbing her. She chose to go have chicks on her own so I am trying to respect her wishes. Whichever chicks survive her wild parenting style will probably be strong and capable.

I think you are doing everything right, and I'm sure she will be a very good mother.
I had a hen to the same thing, and she actually 18 eggs under her. I found her pretty early on, so took out a few, and left her with 12, (I was worried that she was to small of a hen for that many eggs) and out of that she successfully hatched and raised 11. (one was deformed, and died after hatching)
Btw, they all hatched within a 12 hour period.

 

[Coops Dad]

I made an assumption based on the clutches I've found; OP's clutch of blue eggs means I was wrong.

 

[BastyPutt]

I'm reassured by this information. Thank you for bringing it to the discussion, because I tried every search term I could think of and couldn't find any concrete information on why eggs would be staggered if they were from one hen. I also couldn't figure out how it would be evolutionarily advantageous for a hen to go off and make a nest of eggs only to abandon most of them for not hatching on time... surely it's a waste of her energy?

I waited until she was off the nest today to check the eggs and see if they were all from her. I found 15 little blue eggs so I think they are all hers as she is our only blue egger. One of them broke this evening so she rolled it out of the nest; I checked inside and there was a pretty well-developed embryo, so fingers crossed I get some wee ones <3

I like to do things as naturally as possible with my chickens, so I am just letting her do her thing and I will provide as much protection as I can without disturbing her. She chose to go have chicks on her own so I am trying to respect her wishes. Whichever chicks survive her wild parenting style will probably be strong and capable.

She does in fact look like a cream legbar. Any idea what William is? It would be neat to take some guess at the appearances of the chicks!

We are right there with you on the natural hatching and general raising of chickens. Nothing better. With that said, 15 eggs is a lot for a smaller hen to be sitting on. Some of those may not be viable, and taking up precious space for the others. If she pops up from her nest for a break, you can candle some of the eggs and pull out the ones that may not be fertile.

We allow our hens to hatch whatever they want, and end up with the best chickens. Congrats!

 

[Little Tala Bug]

She does in fact look like a cream legbar. Any idea what William is? It would be neat to take some guess at the appearances of the chicks!

We are right there with you on the natural hatching and general raising of chickens. Nothing better. With that said, 15 eggs is a lot for a smaller hen to be sitting on. Some of those may not be viable, and taking up precious space for the others. If she pops up from her nest for a break, you can candle some of the eggs and pull out the ones that may not be fertile.

We allow our hens to hatch whatever they want, and end up with the best chickens. Congrats!

William's dad was apparently purebred Shetland, mother was unknown. He has feathers on his feet so his mom must have been a feathery feet lady, cos Shetlands have clean legs. He is an absolutely gorgeous roo, and he is such a sweetheart to his girls and to his humans. His original wives still try to come visit him even though our other roo, Johnny Cashew, runs them off now

Johnny is William's son with a battery hen. We aren't sure what kind... maybe Hyline or Lohman brown. I got William, Johnny, and four battery hens from a lady on a rehoming site. Johnny Cashew is a GIANT white, red, and blonde creature with long legs.

It's crazy to me that he came from William, who is dark, compact, and rainbow all over with lovely speckles. The battery hens are our smallest birds, so Johnny's grandma must be contributing some of his size. Maybe she was a Brahma or something... that would explain the feathery feet and speckles on William.

Both William and Johnny have given Henrietta attention in the past so the chicks could be wildly variable. The embryo of the cracked egg that I looked at had black feathers all over. It looked to be about day 15/16, which lines up pretty well with Henrietta's disappearance. She went missing on the evening of the 8th.

 

[BastyPutt]

William's dad was apparently purebred Shetland, mother was unknown. He has feathers on his feet so his mom must have been a feathery feet lady, cos Shetlands have clean legs. He is an absolutely gorgeous roo, and he is such a sweetheart to his girls and to his humans. His original wives still try to come visit him even though our other roo, Johnny Cashew, runs them off now

Johnny is William's son with a battery hen. We aren't sure what kind... maybe Hyline or Lohman brown. I got William, Johnny, and four battery hens from a lady on a rehoming site. Johnny Cashew is a GIANT white, red, and blonde creature with long legs.

It's crazy to me that he came from William, who is dark, compact, and rainbow all over with lovely speckles. The battery hens are our smallest birds, so Johnny's grandma must be contributing some of his size. Maybe she was a Brahma or something... that would explain the feathery feet and speckles on William.

Both William and Johnny have given Henrietta attention in the past so the chicks could be wildly variable. The embryo of the cracked egg that I looked at had black feathers all over. It looked to be about day 15/16, which lines up pretty well with Henrietta's disappearance. She went missing on the evening of the 8th.

I am very excited for you. Anything hatched by a legbar is going to be awesome. You get the craziest combination of barring, head tufts, etc.

If possible, we'd love to see some chick pictures!