Three is a crowd update with hatching photos

[heyeddah]

I have three sweet girls( only two pictured here) sharing a clutch of over 7 eggs. They share the duty of mother hen and alternate who sits, who eats and who rotates around the circle. They have been at it over 16 days. I am going to let nature decide how it lays out. The third one is a frizzle. The black silkie is older and has hatched her own before. The third one here is a silkie australorp mix with unexplained coloring, but it could only have come from those aforementioned parents because I only had two birds back then.

Here's the Frizz the third co broody

Here is one of the new babies hatched out last night!!

 

[SallyF]

That is so neat. I'm going to subscribe to your thread to see how the three work it out when the chicks hatch. Keep us posted, please.

 

[Chicky~Buddy]

that is awesome love to see how that works out for the three of them...I've often wonder how it goes with two brooding together. looking forward to updates!

 

[heyeddah]

Still going strong all three of them. I will try to get a photo today when they are all there. I want to lift them to see how many eggs they are" guarding" but I do not want to disturb them. I find it fascinating that somehow through nature they have communicated with each other to work this out. I sit here with an incubator counting days and calculating temperature and humidity. Let's see who has better success. This is day 17 or 18. I am not quite sure because I didn't notice exactly what day the first one started setting. Thanks for being interested.

 

[heyeddah]

Here is the photo of the three together. As you can see"The Frizz" has bumped "Taffy " to the middle and " Princess" the silkie is on the outer edge. And there they sit and wait and wait. Perfectly content to let me get the photo. They are not going anywhere until they are done with it!

Today

yesterday

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

PRECIOUS!!! Haha, they must of run out of stuff to chat about after 17 long days together! Can't wait to see how it comes out, good luck!! And post more pictures of your wonderful, doting moms-to-be!!!

 

[brendapa]

Hmmm, This will be very interesting to see how this works out.

During the last 3 days (broody lockdown) the hen will not usully, willngly, leave the nest.
She will also pluck out her breast feathers so the moist skin (high humidty) has direct contact with the eggs.
I wonder if all 3 will pluck thier breasts?

I have tried to do this with slkies and it did not work.
I now seperate.

I have seen one of my hens roll an egg up under her neck, carry it & move it. Unfortunatly, she dropped it onto the clutch, cracking it.

I have found eggs, cold, left behind in a sqabble.

I've also split the eggs betweed the 2 broody's and seperated. To save room, 1 week after the hatch, I put them back together.
The dominant immediately hen took the chicks. The 2nd hen would not even look at them after that.

Silkies! Ya' gotta love 'em.

Good luck to you. If you've gotten this far it sounds like a success story.



Brenda

 

[heyeddah]

Soooo cute today. Taffy was spread out across all the space with her wings covering The Frizz and all the eggs. I did not have time to get my camera. Frizz just sings out there like silkies do when they are little in the house at night. I hope this goes well this weekend. Fortunately we are having temps in the upper 40s to 50s here this weekend. I will post new photos Sat and Sun. Sooooo exciting!

 

[heyeddah]

They hatched two last night!!
I went out today to water and feed and the shells of two eggs were kicked out.
Princess the silkie took over the mothering as I suspected she would. The other two went back to sitting. In answer to who would pluck her feathers out it was Taffy the original broody. They have a hoard of eggs under them. And all were eager to eat some scratch and guzzle water when I brought it out.
Now what do I do? Will they be able to protect them from the others anad the roo? Never got this far before. Can they stay warm enough over night under mamma with temps in the 20s?

 

[The Sheriff]

Oh that is the sweetest thing EVER!