Broody Hen 1

Several weeks ago one of the hens was acting "broody" and nesting and not wanting to move from under the nesting box. So I decided I'd try letting her sit on a few fertilized eggs. With two roosters, I was hoping that most of the eggs would be fertilized and able to hatch. So I moved the hen over to the small A-frame chicken coop we have. At first I put some wooden eggs under her to see if she would sit on them. Later when I saw she was going to sit on them, I put five eggs under her. I don't think any of the eggs were actually hers.

She was a very diligent hen and sat faithfully on the eggs for three weeks. I set feed out for her everyday but I couldn't tell that she ate much, if anything. After two weeks, I began to worry about her. When I'd lift her up to check on the eggs, she felt very light.

Two of the eggs hatched quickly and on time with little black chicks. One egg hatched later but the chick never seemed to come out of the egg shell. Two of the eggs didn't hatch at all and I'd guess probably weren't fertilized. In the first day one of the black chicks died for some reason, not sure why.

So I was left with one little chick. I was feeling a little sad for it, all by itself.

Stay tuned. I've broken this up into several posts.