This is really exciting, our broody is sitting on 12 eggs, due to hatch tomorrow. Just been out to check on her and can hear cheeping from inside the eggs. Can't wait! ;D
WOW! I wouldn't be able to sleep!! Keep us posted.
I'll keep you posted, I'll take some photos tomorrow if they venture out from under mother hen. Haven't told the children yet, we'd be up all night otherwise! ;D
That sounds sooo exciting. Twelve seems a lot for one hen. :o
Well one has hatched and most of the other eggs have teeny little holes or cracks in them and lots of cheeping can be heard. Mummy hen is very proud of her first little chick and is all fluffed up and acting like a broody hen should. She's a large breed hen so 12 eggs aren't too many (my Dad's had hens hatch out 24 chicks!), I don't expect all 12 eggs will hatch (there are usually a few infertile eggs) but if they all do hatch we'll be very happy. :)
Is there anyway of telling which are infertile beforehand? :)
They can be candled to check, but I don't, just leave it to nature and it's a surprise at the end to see how many hatch. :)
I'm sulking now because I want hens :(
Yes, I'm sure mother hen is saying "aggggrrrr, leave me alone and stop clucking around me like the proud parent!" ;D
I do keep her separate from the others for a few weeks, when the chicks are big enough to start scratching up the garden they go back in the run with mother hen and all the others. There's usually a bit of pecking order to sort out but they seem to get on okay in the end. Until now I've given away to family and friends all the extra eggs that we don't eat ourselves (we've only had the 3 hens laying) but once this next lot start laying I'll probably put a small price tag (£1 per dozen) on the eggs to subsidise the cost of keeping them, which isn't much.
Miers, do you not have much room in your garden? They don't need a lot of space and they're easy and cheap to keep and very satisfying. :)
Well done (both of you ;)). Concrete I'm afraid. :'(
As pomised here's a photo. Still some eggs unhatched, if they haven't hatched by tomorrow we'll assume they're not going to. Sadly two chicks didn't make it. We're very pleased with the three in the photo, they look very healthy. :)
(http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/jessco/jesseveve/chicks27jul05.jpg)
Awwww they're so cute.
They're wonderful, what sort of chook is mum (other than proud that is.)
She's a Barnevelder, a most wonderful hen who has a quiet docile nature. The chicks are welsummer and plymouth rock chickens. I've also hatched out dorkings which are very pretty, they're 3 months old now. :)
They're so absolutely gorgeous - now I really really want some chooks. :'(
It always tickles me that the chicks have such big feet compared to their bodies. I'm so green with envy now sob, sob. :'( Is there any way chooks could be happily kept on concrete? ::)
I'm not sure Miers, I'm sure others will know better or if you're serious about keeping hens try visiting the Practical Poultry forum, there's lots of people there that know about keeping hens. Hens like to scratch so if you could provide them with something to scratch on, like some sand or straw, then I don't see why you couldn't keep them on concrete, I'm sure I've heard someone on one of the other forums say that they do keep their hens on concrete and it makes things a lot easier during the wet seasons. You'd need to provide them with greens and a balanced diet of layers mash or pellets to compensate for the lack of greenery and insects. :)
Ok, now I know I'm going to show my ignorance here, but, if mum is a Barnevelder how come she has had welsummer and plymouth rock ? Why not baby Barnevelder or Barnevelder cross with something else?
you can put any type of egg under a clucking hen "even ducks" and the hen will rear them we put white leghorns under our marans
as long as egg is fertile it should hatch.
That's what we did :D, put plymouth rock and welsummer eggs under her. We don't have a cockerel because our neighbours would complain so no thingy = no fertile eggs. We bought fertile eggs off ebay and put them under her. It's nice to have a selection of breeds and I like to keep them pure, we've now got Maran, Leghorn, Barnevelder, Dorking, Welsummer and Plymouth Rock.
So how many chicks now? :)
Ah, all is becoming clear.
Hi Miers
Chickens will be fine on concrete, you can hang up greens (cabbage, nettles etc) for them to peck at for amusement and vitamins. Just make sure you use a good layers feed.
I use bark chips (from a garden centre) as a base covering from my breeding stock although old bark which has rotted may casue a problem with fungal spores. Some people will use 2cm gravel as this can be hosed out to remove all the poo.
Loz