Our poor broody hen story with a happy ending.
We felt so sad for our hybrid hen no 3 of 4 as she was always going broody and we had to keep taking her out of the coop for almost a week at a time to get her of broodiness. really felt sorry for her and decided that we would get so fertilized eggs for her, and then rename her Madonna.
Drove all the way to Northampton for the eggs and should really have driven away from the place we got the eggs from as it was filthy and we got charged £12 for a dozen dirty eggs. They hadn't even separated the breeds so we could have had any type of chicken comming out!
Stuck the eggs under her that night and thought that would be it. 6 days later 2 of the eggs exploded under her. left with an awful smell and slimy mess for us to cleanup. i then decided to try and candle the remaining egg but didn't really know what i was looking for so put them all back under her only to see more explode. wow what a mess then with 4 eggs left after 25 days I decided to take them out and see what if anything was in them. first two eggs exploded in my face like a hand grenades. what a horrid slimy mess and the smell couldn't find word to describe that bit. then the last two eggs had half formed baby chicks in. Yuck yuck yuck and double yuck Panic set in so thinking of what to say when the children got home from school so i rang a local chick breeder and slipped eight week old chicks under her,( cream legbars so could tell the sex as well for a bonus). Lucky the kids or mum were none the wiser although not too sure if they believe in twins out of each egg!
Chick breeder says that the germs from the exploding eggs killed the other eggs and maybe dirt from the farm killed the first few..
Going to try again next time she goes broody any advice would be great.
We felt so sad for our hybrid hen no 3 of 4 as she was always going broody and we had to keep taking her out of the coop for almost a week at a time to get her of broodiness. really felt sorry for her and decided that we would get so fertilized eggs for her, and then rename her Madonna.
Drove all the way to Northampton for the eggs and should really have driven away from the place we got the eggs from as it was filthy and we got charged £12 for a dozen dirty eggs. They hadn't even separated the breeds so we could have had any type of chicken comming out!
Stuck the eggs under her that night and thought that would be it. 6 days later 2 of the eggs exploded under her. left with an awful smell and slimy mess for us to cleanup. i then decided to try and candle the remaining egg but didn't really know what i was looking for so put them all back under her only to see more explode. wow what a mess then with 4 eggs left after 25 days I decided to take them out and see what if anything was in them. first two eggs exploded in my face like a hand grenades. what a horrid slimy mess and the smell couldn't find word to describe that bit. then the last two eggs had half formed baby chicks in. Yuck yuck yuck and double yuck Panic set in so thinking of what to say when the children got home from school so i rang a local chick breeder and slipped eight week old chicks under her,( cream legbars so could tell the sex as well for a bonus). Lucky the kids or mum were none the wiser although not too sure if they believe in twins out of each egg!
Chick breeder says that the germs from the exploding eggs killed the other eggs and maybe dirt from the farm killed the first few..
Going to try again next time she goes broody any advice would be great.
