It's been a while since I updated. When I got back from my business trip on Tuesday last week, I moved 6 eggs into lock down that were due to hatch on Thursday. There were two late quitters. I also tossed 8 Chocolate Orp eggs that would have been due this week. None of them were fertile. I also set 14 Chocolate Orp eggs that built up while I was on vacation. I didn't have much hope for them, but I figured it would be fine to try them since one of the eggs I moved to lock down was the one fertile Chocolate Orp egg out of the first 3 I set.
I got up on Thursday morning to find 3 chicks had hatched overnight. But one was not like the others, the coloring was right, but those cheeks and that comb mean this chick is NOT a Dark Cornish.
I think one of my EE cross hens lays light tan eggs. I have a Leghorn/EE who definitely lays green eggs. Her daughter (Cheeks) is probably this chick's mother. Cheeks father was a Leghorn/Mystery chicken. He looked like a leghorn, but had a few black spots in his feathers, so he wasn't pure. This baby's father was either my Buff Orp or my New Hampshire. Her egg must have gotten mixed in with the hatching eggs because they look so similar. Oops.
The remaining 3 chicks hatched, including the lone fertile Chocolate Orp egg.
I brooded them inside because I was waiting to see if any of the eggs I let my broody Cornish have would hatch and they were due this weekend.
When I went to candle the eggs on Thursday, I found that of the 7 I gave her, only 2 were still intact. I candled the eggs and one was obviously bad. Dark fluid sloshed into the air cell. The other one looked ok, but I didn't get a good look at it because it wasn't completely dark outside. On Saturday, I was showing my chickens to my sisters who had come in for my Milk Drinker's second birthday and when I went into the Cornish pen, I smelled something horrible and the broody was off her nest. I look, her lone remaining egg was bad and had smashed. She was trying to get to the other tote and away from her nest. With relatives in for the birthday party, I didn't get around to separating her out and trying to give her the incubator babies until today. I went out this evening after the sun dipped behind the hills and divided my larger broody PVC pen down the center with snow fencing and I zip-tied bird netting to the snow fencing to keep the chicks from crossing sides. Molly and her 7 babies have been in the larger PVC pen I moved them to the 25 sqft pen. I moved the second buff broody and her 4 babies to one side of the divided 36 sqft pen. I cleaned out the box that I had my Cornish broody's nest in and placed that on the other side of the divided pen with clean hay.
When I went to get the broody from the other box. I found her and the other, only half broody, Cornish hen on a pile of 9 eggs that my second hen had laid over the last week and a half. I thought she wasn't laying anymore this season because she didn't lay for almost 2 weeks. Apparently not. So after I moved the broody over to her new home. I took the eggs and put them into the incubator. Some of them are at least 4-5 days formed, others haven't started developing yet, that I can see. I'll have a staggered hatch out of these eggs.
I then got the chicks from the house and introduced them to the broody Cornish. I gave her the puffy cheeked oops chick first because that baby isn’t integral to my breeding programs. When she first saw the chick she puffed up and pecked at it with a WTH look on her face and pecked it a few times. She didn’t get it until I shoved the chick under her a few times and held her wings down until the chick stayed underneath her. She then calmed down and got a startled, but happy demeanor as if to say “OOhhhh, this is what I’ve been wanting!” And started making happy broody noises. I then gave her the rest of the chicks. It took a few times of shoving the chicks back under her for them to get the picture, but they eventually settled down and accepted her as Mommy. All 6 chicks are under her in this picture.
I now have 3 broodies with babies.
