About a month ago, Stripey stopped laying eggs. I had to remove her from her nest twice a day to collect eggs. She was very very broody. We had three hens doing this but she was the most insistent about staying and gentle about being puled off the nest. She was also very protective of her space.
So we decided to give her a chance.
We created a separate pen for her. Collected a days worth of eggs from all the hens, in hopes that most of them would have been fertilized. We were not really sure that Stripey's eggs had been since she had not really spent time with the rooster of late, but we put her one egg of that day in with the clutch. 9 eggs total. We fluffed a nest for her, secured it from predators, set up food and water......and waited. She immediately inspected the eggs. When she settled on them they rolled out of the nest. So we built up the sides with more hay and tried again. This time she rolled the eggs back in and settled on them proper.
21 days later....
She has hatched 7 of the 9 eggs. We got to see one of the chicks make the final push and cuddle up still wet with mama Stripey. The last two we cracked open on day 23 and inside one was undeveloped yolk. The other held a half formed chicken that would never have hatched. Lily was really sad to see it but it was a good lesson about biology and nature's way of taking care. Still 7 of 9 is a good hatch! The babies are all doing well, she taught them all how to drink and eat. She also is camera shy and gathers them under her wings whenever she sees me with my camera. I check on her a couple times a day and make sure she's doing well and the chicks are still fine.
It is neat how we didn't have to clear their butts or teach them to drink water like we do with mail order chicks. No, the nature of the birds and the parental instincts were just perfect.
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