UPDATE: Broody has eggs due the same days as my hatchery order!

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I put in my order in February or March, since my 1 year old hens seemed to have no intention of going broody. Well, ok, I confess!!! I wanted MORE chickens! 12 just didn't seem like enough, and I wanted more colors!
Anyway, this week my Silver Laced Wyandotte, Tilly, decided to give hatching another go (she tried before but I meddled with her and she got mad and quit). This time, I won't try to move her. She seems set on hatching her chicks in box #2, and wants to be left ALONE.
So I have already ordered 12 chicks, and agreed to the free extra. Now Tilly's got eggs, and who knows how many she will hatch, or how many extra chicks the hatchery will put in (last time I got 3 extra pullets!). So it looks like my chicken population will MORE than double in less than 3 weeks!!!
How many will I get? What will my mutts look like? Mysteries! I love the surprizes!

Anyone care to guess? Here's what I have:

Roosters- Indigo, the Blue Andalusian (black) he is the dominant roo because he's a pushy little butt-head and Crimson doesn't feel the need to put him in his place.
Crimson, the Blue Laced Red Wyandotte (splash) He is older and mellower. He is HUGE but seldom enforces the pecking order (I don't think he has to!) and I think some of the girls like him better.

Hens- 4 Columbian Wyandottes, flighty and stupid, the most likely of the hens to be the ones who lay on the floor instead of the boxes
2 Gold Laced Wyandottes, more likely to have eggs fertilized by Crimson since he is a little possessive of them.
2 Black Jersey Giants, I love these girls, but no guesses there!
Rufus, the Barred Rock, Again, no guesses
Tilly, the Silver Penciled Wyandotte, the mother. ONE of the eggs has to be hers, right?

I hope to get an egg count tonight... but I invite guesses of number and color/breed- I promise to post pics when they hatch!

 

[BeccaOH]

I can relate to population explosions.

Sounds like your chicks will have some blue genes.

Happy hatching!

 

[suzyq53511]

It's fuzzy chicken math again!

 

[MareeZoCool]

Sounds like you might be needing an addition to your coop.

My bank account & my DH help keep my population growth under control

 

[calicokat]

No guesses here, but how cooooooolllll!!

What varieties do you have coming on order?

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I ordered:
5 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes (by far my favorite breed thus far in color and personality)
2 Easter Eggers (the hatchery claims Amerucauna/ Aruacana (sp?) but I know better and don't care that they're mutts!)
3 Buff Orpingtons (heard good things about them and after seeing a few in person decided they ARE pretty enough to have)
1 Speckled Sussex (I felt I needed this color pattern... I like spots!)
1 Silver Laced Polish (a bird with a frill, how could I resist!)

I like colors... I save feathers and make masks from them. So my hope is for my mutts to be pretty and unique. As a kid we had a flock of Bantam mutts, and in 1 generation they ALL turned out the same color. Black hens, roos that looked like they went with partridge. But all were black and white as chicks. We had partridge, barred, and spotted hens to start in addition to black... but the black took over. Sometimes we'd get one with faint gold lacing on the hackles. I just hope mine don't go all bland like that! I wouldn't mind a partridge roo, but whats the point if they ALL look like that?

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I checked under my hen and found only 3 eggs (and a golf ball)

and too late to add more.
Since she has been sitting, my others seem to be taking turns trying to fake me out. Almost every day, someone is in the far left box, refusing to budge. Hissing and puffing up, sometimes even spending the night... but then they give it up. I even had one of them start making this aweful noise I can only describe as an evil possessed dolphin cackle the moment I touched the door (and continued till I left, then started back up when another chicken entered the coop)
Now that I know how many she's sitting on, I sort of hope another goes broody... is it crazy to want that many more chicks?

So... do any of you think her hatch-if successful- will help the other chickens accept my mail order babies who will be the same age (give or take 2 days)? I am planning to build them a temporary coop and run in the other side of the yard till they are big enough to not get eaten by the local crow (who I appreciate for chasing off the local hawk-a much larger threat!) My woodpeckers are pretty good about warning when the crow shows up, and the chickens listen to the woodpeckers, fortunatly. I hope the other chickens will just accept the new peeps... there will be more young ones than old, after all!

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

Sunday was chicken day! 32 healthy babies in the mail (20 not mine) and the broody hatched at least 1 out of 3. My mystery 'rare' chick was a partridge cochin (I think!) which I have never had before. The one chick of the broody's was black with a bit of white and looked just like a barred rock, though it is a mutt for sure.
I spent sunday mostly working on chick stuff. Turned my front bathroom into a brooder, built my broody a ramp so her new chick can get down from the nest box, and, well, just watching the new little peeps!

I will post pics when the broody lets me see her little one.

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

Sad times.
My little one somehow managed to get him/herself out of the closed coop (with mom still inside) through the run fence, and into the yard... where something mean (most likely our cat, still cranky about the new puppy) snatched it up. I found what was left of it in the garden under the grape vines, and burried it there. Hen seems to be taking the loss well... she isn't looking/calling for it and does not appear to be moping.
We still have our dozen hatchery babies in the bathtub but I feel bad for the hen. She worked so hard! We plan to update the coop to prevent a repeat if/when another hen tries to hatch little ones.