- Sep 10, 2012
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So last fall, we had a hen go broody. We put a hatching egg under her (from a friend as we had no rooster). Baby hatched, mama took care of her and she is now part of the flock.
10 days ago we added a rooster. Yesterday our mama hen went broody. I brought her inside for the night because she got pecked today and had some blood on her. Her comb, now that I cleaned it up, looks mostly fine but there is some dried blood. The rooster and the hens seem fine but we got hit with Nemo over the weekend so the girls and Mr. Roo have been stuck inside the coop and run since Friday, perhaps they got bored?
Here are my hatching questions:
1. I checked the eggs we got yesterday, they are fertilized. I would like to give her the two from today that she seems keen on keeping. Does she need to be separated? She wasn't last time but now we have a rooster.
2. I checked our white egg from yesterday and a brown one. We had one white and a different brown one today. Is there a good chance that both are fertilized? If not, how many should I collect before letting her sit? I am happy to only add one or two to the flock at a time and she was an amazing mama last fall.
3. The two eggs have a little blood mark on the outside because she keeps pushign them under her. Will that be fine or will the other chickens peck them and break them?
Thank you in advance. I am a little new to the whoel hatching idea and until we added a rooster, we never had any pecking issues. My Welsummers seem to love him but a couple of my older girls ignore him (including this mama, a Black Jersey Giant). The rooster tends to ignore the BJG because she just doesn't tolerate him so not sure who pecked her but it wasn't like that this morning.
10 days ago we added a rooster. Yesterday our mama hen went broody. I brought her inside for the night because she got pecked today and had some blood on her. Her comb, now that I cleaned it up, looks mostly fine but there is some dried blood. The rooster and the hens seem fine but we got hit with Nemo over the weekend so the girls and Mr. Roo have been stuck inside the coop and run since Friday, perhaps they got bored?
Here are my hatching questions:
1. I checked the eggs we got yesterday, they are fertilized. I would like to give her the two from today that she seems keen on keeping. Does she need to be separated? She wasn't last time but now we have a rooster.
2. I checked our white egg from yesterday and a brown one. We had one white and a different brown one today. Is there a good chance that both are fertilized? If not, how many should I collect before letting her sit? I am happy to only add one or two to the flock at a time and she was an amazing mama last fall.
3. The two eggs have a little blood mark on the outside because she keeps pushign them under her. Will that be fine or will the other chickens peck them and break them?
Thank you in advance. I am a little new to the whoel hatching idea and until we added a rooster, we never had any pecking issues. My Welsummers seem to love him but a couple of my older girls ignore him (including this mama, a Black Jersey Giant). The rooster tends to ignore the BJG because she just doesn't tolerate him so not sure who pecked her but it wasn't like that this morning.
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