I told you we had this, right? A broody hen? Buff Orpingtons are supposed to go broody and be good at raising chicks. Usually they don't do that until they are 2 years old. This one is only a little over a year old but we decided to see what would happen. Lots went wrong in the beginning. Other hens kept laying eggs on top of her and some of the eggs broke, making a mess. Eventually we found a way to block her off and we cleaned up the nest as best we could and made sure the eggs were clean enough to hatch - not smothered in dried egg.
But it was so dirty in there, I wasn't sure what would happen - definitely not the sterile environment of a incubator... they make it sound as though one wee bacteria could wipe out your whole hatch... Nevertheless, we let her continue to sit.
And today look what we found underneath her! One little wee pure bred Buff Orpington. There are some ameraucana eggs under her which will be half and half because Marigold is the dad of them all.
Yahoo! This means no more expensive hatchery chicks for me. We also have another hen who went broody. This time we transferred her to the empty side of the rabit hutch where no one can disturb her nest. She seems quite happy in there.
Tomorrow we will move this young mom into the empty chicken tractor with her brood if everything goes all right.
Now the only thing is ... Its really hard to not go back and check every two minutes to see if there are any more...
3 comments:
Oh my, what a cutie he (or she??) is! They look so soft and fluffy and cuddly at that age.
I love the new look of your blog Andrea! It's so perfect :-)
Well, we'll have to wait a few months to see whether it crows or lays an egg! And thank you - my talented sister, Bethany is the creator of my blog look. I'm very lucky!
that chick is SO cute!!!
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