the case of the disappearing chicken

[jspriver]

Over the last week, our barred rock hen has been vanishing for about two days at a time. She shows up just now, and is a bit aggressive towards her yard mates. i 'locked her up' in the coop for now and may try to follow her to her hide out this evening.

Yes, we do have one rooster, he is a Creol (a real nice looking one too)and much he's smaller... Could he have gotten lucky and she is now nesting elsewhere ready to hatch out some youngins? i hope not....

or is she just wacko ?

these guys are really, really, free rangers. we have three+ arces that they have the run of with plenty of woods to be on the LAM in.

any thoughts ?

 

[debilorrah]

I like the idea of following her. However, if she is hiding her eggs and is off of them for hours at a time they will not hatch.

 

[jspriver]

SOLVED!

now, please understand, we are still kninda new at this...

she's brooding.

we turned her loose and followed her to her lair...or should i say layer...

we found nearly two dozen eggs 6 of which she was sitting on.

we moved her and the eggs to more suitable accomidations...i doubt any of the eggs are fertile but who knows... maybe that creol got one or two of them

 

[NotTheMomma]

Try to candle the eggs and see if they are fertile and are developing! She can't hatch that many eggs. No way to keep them all covered and warm. If you can find the fertile ones and put them back under her, you'll most likely have some chicks soon!

 

[jspriver]

we pulled out the ones that she was not on....

my wife wants the shells for the garden...so she is crackin..and found one feritle one...oh well...it looked like a white head zit in the yolk...

guess that little creol is getting action after all..good for him...

now on to the possibility of mixed breed birds. is that bad ?

 

[Mahonri]

One of my best looking chicks is a designer mix from Miss_Jayne... a Delahorn (DelawareXLBLeghorn) ... I'm praying it's a pullet.