Tuesday 2 June 2015

..and another one goes broody!

Another of our hens has gone broody!

This one though chose one of the main coops to be broody in, and yesterday she was sat on just 5 eggs, today she is sat on 9 - every time she gets up to go for a drink or something to eat one of the other hens comes along and lays another egg in her nest!

So, she had to be moved into her own broody coop, or maternity wing, and the logistics of moving both a hen and her eggs means it is a two handed job.

First up, we made a new nest in the new coop, then I picked her up and Vicki picked up the eggs, all nine carefully moved and re-laid in the new nest, unfortunately she (the hen, not Vicki) panicked and broke one egg when being put gently on top of the eggs.

Still, that left eight, and the egg had hardly developed so I don't feel too bad about it.

She left the nest immediately, which is a worry and it was a good two hours before she resat on the eggs in the proper manner, but I have read that the eggs can be left  to go cold for up to 3 hours with no adverse affects, so time will tell. A short time as it takes just 21 days from being sat on to hatching out, so in 3 weeks time we'll know for sure.

#fingerscrossed

This is an annual event, last year we had three hens go broody, two were moved and both hatched out some nice baby chooks and I am sure we will get quite a few from this hatching!

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