This weekend I picked up 4 Splash Orpington chicks – they will be white speckled with black.

I had hoped the broody hen’s chicks would hatch and I could slip these in with the rest, but the way it worked out I just cleaned out the brooder and set it back up for these little guys. They spent the first couple days in my friends brooder (she got six of them), so now they have to get used to being in a much smaller group. We’ll see how they do.

..before they hatch! Today I finally moved the broody hen to see what was going on under her. She has been sitting on 12 eggs for 24 days, which is a few days overdue from the 21 days it should take to hatching – and there was still no sign of chicks. I moved her off the nest and had a look at the eggs – two were rotten and broken, just the membrane holding the goo inside, and two were uncracked. There were signs of other broken eggs in the nest, and she had kicked out a couple shells last week. I removed the whole thing and dumped it in the compost pile. I don’t know what went wrong with those eggs, but it was time to let her get off the nest and walk around again. She’s out scratching around with the other chickens now.

What a nice day! I let the chickens out to explore the yard. They seemed to really enjoy getting out into a new area. I’m sure it’s boring always being in the orchard.

I even opened the tractor and let mam hen and her chicks out. I had hoped this would help start to integrate the chicks into the flock, but instead mama hen ran off to terrorize the other hens, and the rooster had to break up a fight between her and one of the other hens who hadn’t been doing anything! Then she wandered away and completely ignored her babies while the teenage roosters went over and picked on them (probably because they are at the bottom of the flock, and were relieved to see someone who would be under them!). So I tossed the teenagers into the extra tractor. By evening all the chickens had gone to roost, including mama, leaving her chicks in the tractor to huddle up for the night alone. I think they’ll be fine, she’s just not as good a mama hen as some of the others I’ve had. She decided she was done with them, and has been trying to escape the tractor for the last few days.

The three blue/buff chicks are very pretty.

 This poor guy looks like he’s put together with spare parts! It will be interesting to see what he/she looks like all feathered out.

My little black cochin with one eye has been living in the tractor with her ‘brother’, and I think I’ve finally found the perfect home for her – in fact I have two great homes lined up in case one doesn’t work out. Her eye seems to be improving, she might even be a normal chicken someday.

I feel a little bad though, because here and her buddy are so happy together. Here they are snuggling up in the corner of the tractor after breakfast. Unfortunately she’s going to an urban home, and roosters are not welcome. He’ll just have to settle in with the rest of the flock after she’s gone. She’ll be getting lots of attention at her new home, so I’m not worried about her.

I had my black hen go broody, so I saved up a dozen eggs to stick under her, and moved her to the chicken tractor with the eggs in a crate. This worked fine last year, and she sat and raised her chicks in the tractor, but this year, she didn’t like being out in the tractor, and decided not to be broody anymore!

So with a dozen eggs I didn’t want to waste, I started looking for an incubator. I had several people offer me one, but then I thought to ask Martha if she happened to have a broody hen, and she did! She said she was stealing eggs out from under her every day (broody hens are kind of annoying if you don’t want them to raise chicks for you). So I went over to try and catch her, and she got away. The next day Martha caught her and put her in a crate, then I came over and we put her in a smaller crate, then I took her home. Martha said she’s moved broody hens before, but never across the county! So we didn’t know if this would work. I put her in the brooder box with the crate full of eggs, food and water, and left her there to relax.

The first night she spent sleeping outside the crate, and I was thinking this wasn’t going to work. This morning I went in to check on her and she was sitting on the eggs! Yay! There’s no better incubator than a mama hen! I hope she settles down in there and keeps sitting. I’ll keep it quiet and try not to disturb her. 21 days to more chicks (I hope)!

There were six eggs, but so far we’ve only seen four chicks. I didn’t want to bother her. Have you ever seen a look that said more clearly ‘bug off’?! I’ll leave her alone. It’s so fun to see how devoted broody hens are to the idea of hatching those eggs, and their reward is having a little brood of chicks to take care of. It’s one of my very favorite things 🙂

Look at those little fluffy-kins! They are all Big Blue’s babys. Now we’ll see what happens when you mix a blue cochin with buff orpingtons, white cochin, or whatever the heck that black hen is.

Update – Momma took them out of the nest this morning and there were SIX little fluffybutts following her – three grey and three black!