- Jul 3, 2012
- 6
- 1
- 9
Hello!
I'm a novice chicken owner to say the least! We got them for eggs....until my husband decided to let one "set". She was on a clutch of eggs for about a week when a second hen moved into the same next box with her! They shared the nest happily. Somewhere along the line, a third hen decided to set up shop in an adjacent nest box and lay a bunch! So, the watch began. I didn't have exact dates on the calendar because....I just didn't think to write it down! Wish I had! One day I hear cheeping and sure enough there is a chick!...then two....then that hen (the first one) takes these two from her double nest and moves them down to the floor of the coop. She is a great Mom and guards them ferociously! The third hen began to hatch chicks 3 and 4 (one of these fell out of the nest box on day two and by the time we got home from work was happily assimilated into the first hen's family). Meanwhile...the poor second hen...nothing! She sat and sat and sat! We were certain it had been more than 21 days and probably more than 23 days. A friend had a new batch of chicks and gave us two so that we could "fool" her into thinking she had done her job. She loved them immediately! I took her eggs and she began to mother her new chicks. Well....I wanted to make sure that these eggs were indeed not viable before I tossed them. So....I examined each egg...most were not developed at all. But one was heavier than the others. I gently zipped the shell and OMG there was a moving creature inside the very thick, white membrane! I wrapped the warm moist paper towel around it and placed it back with Mom. I new for sure that I had totally screwed this animal up....next morning it was still there...still moving....by the afternoon my husband called to tell me that we had chick #5! It is doing great! (We did assist a bit with shell removal because it had shrink wrapped to the poor things back.) Talk about stress!!!! All seems to be well this morning....its awesome to see them scratching the ground and eating their chick food oblivious to the ordeal they caused us!
I'm a novice chicken owner to say the least! We got them for eggs....until my husband decided to let one "set". She was on a clutch of eggs for about a week when a second hen moved into the same next box with her! They shared the nest happily. Somewhere along the line, a third hen decided to set up shop in an adjacent nest box and lay a bunch! So, the watch began. I didn't have exact dates on the calendar because....I just didn't think to write it down! Wish I had! One day I hear cheeping and sure enough there is a chick!...then two....then that hen (the first one) takes these two from her double nest and moves them down to the floor of the coop. She is a great Mom and guards them ferociously! The third hen began to hatch chicks 3 and 4 (one of these fell out of the nest box on day two and by the time we got home from work was happily assimilated into the first hen's family). Meanwhile...the poor second hen...nothing! She sat and sat and sat! We were certain it had been more than 21 days and probably more than 23 days. A friend had a new batch of chicks and gave us two so that we could "fool" her into thinking she had done her job. She loved them immediately! I took her eggs and she began to mother her new chicks. Well....I wanted to make sure that these eggs were indeed not viable before I tossed them. So....I examined each egg...most were not developed at all. But one was heavier than the others. I gently zipped the shell and OMG there was a moving creature inside the very thick, white membrane! I wrapped the warm moist paper towel around it and placed it back with Mom. I new for sure that I had totally screwed this animal up....next morning it was still there...still moving....by the afternoon my husband called to tell me that we had chick #5! It is doing great! (We did assist a bit with shell removal because it had shrink wrapped to the poor things back.) Talk about stress!!!! All seems to be well this morning....its awesome to see them scratching the ground and eating their chick food oblivious to the ordeal they caused us!
