We have a broody!!!

[TheAmundsons]

What day are they on?
I'd wait until at least day 10-14 before discarding, especially if you're new to candling.

Honestly, I’m not 100% sure what day we’re on. These pictures are of one of the eggs she’s sitting on. I know they aren’t very good pictures, but it’s hard to take a clear picture! It’s the same egg as the top picture I had posted earlier. It’s significantly darker in the majority of the egg and definitely is further along that we thought yesterday. I think we’re somewhere between 7-11 days, but that could be wrong. How far along would you guess? We aren’t exactly sure what day because while we were making sure she was broody (not letting her keep eggs except for fake ones) she had others laying in the box and she just sat on all of them. We stopped taking eggs out and others continued laying while she was eating, so we just left them to see if they were fertile. Only two have shown any signs of development that I can see (my first time candling), and since we just got our chicks in the mail this morning (so exciting!) we aren’t really wanting her to hatch a bunch. About 5 minutes ago we removed all the eggs except for the two that we can see developing, and the two fake eggs because she seems to prefer having more eggs.

 

[TheAmundsons]

I went to check on the egg this morning, and this is what I found! It’s chirping a lot and kind of stick it’s beak out sometimes! We’re so excited!

 

[aart]

View attachment 1776239

I went to check on the egg this morning, and this is what I found! It’s chirping a lot and kind of stick it’s beak out sometimes! We’re so excited!

Great!!.....but.... put that back!!

 

[TheAmundsons]

Great!!.....but.... put that back!!

Haha I know! I took it out to see if it had any signs of hatch yet (I’m not very patient ) and saw that so I snapped a quick picture before I put it back under momma!

I attached a picture of Uno (baby chick) when we went to check and found it hatched!

I also added one of momma with Uno!

Unfortunately, I think we’re going to have to raise Uno in the brooder. I’ve been checking on them every few hours because we don’t have a way to separate them from the rest of the flock right now. I found Uno halfway across the barn and momma was in the nest box. In order for that to happen, the chick had to get down the ladder (about 3 feet) and walk about 10 feet. At this point, Uno couldn’t really walk yet. So I’m not sure what happened, but I put it back with momma. She pecked at it once and wouldn’t let it get fully under her. It is also super warm today (upper 80s*F), so my thought is that maybe they were both warm enough so she didn’t think it needed to be under her. Uno seemed fine and fell asleep. The next time I checked on them, momma was eating, then went back up but sat just outside the nest box. Again, still warm enough that I wasn’t concerned for the chick. This last time I went to check, we have a different hen (that just started showing signs of being broody) on top of Uno, and momma is in the nest box next to them. She seems confused about why there’s a living, moving thing there and not an egg anymore. We currently have 24 chicks that are almost 2 weeks old in the brooder. I worry that at this point, the size difference is too drastic. Any suggestions on what to do? Thanks!