Sweet chickening madness, help me I've gone hatching crazy! 🤪

[Chicalina]

My flock was decimated due to a predator recently, and I've been left with 4 hens. 3 of which are mad broody....

So, I have gone a little mad looking for replacement bantam lovelies.

I am only left with a polish, two sussexes and a welsummer. I now have 2 black/lavender araucana, 3 English cuckoo marans, and a blue silver pencilled wyandotte under one broody. There were 12 eggs to start but postal service and infertility (and I dropped one) leaves 6 which are growing nicely.

The other 2 hens are sitting together on 3 fake eggs, which they keep stealing from one another.

I've got replacement wyandotte eggs coming, and I've just bought 12 transylvanian naked neck eggs, and am planning to pick up some day old polish next week to coincide with the first hatch.

 

[Lor]

Good luck with the hatch!

 

[Chicalina]

I love having a flock of many breeds, shapes and colour.

Just pondering on how I'm going to manage the clutches. The current clutch is under a Sussex. I'm thinking I will swap them to the Polish as she is a proven mum and is super friendly, so the chicks will be too.

Then, what do I do with the two Sussex broodies? One will have been sitting 3 weeks by then and the other 1 week. Should I put the newly arriving eggs under the 1 week broody Sussex and try and break the other longer sitting one? Or shall I give her the hatched chicks I am getting?

I've had two clutches of different ages growing up in the flock before, and it worked out fine so long as they had enough space from each other. But each mum fiercely protected her own chicks from the other chicks.

Do you think the two broodies that sit together might raise some together?

I've got 16 new eggs coming next week, I guess I'll have to split these as there will be too many for 1 hen. Maybe I shouldn't swap the Polish to the first clutch?