Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Caralou on April 27, 2021, 10:35
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This is as much a reassurance for new chicken keepers as anything - even those of us who have had poultry for years have the odd disaster streak.
We decided this year to incubator hatch (I prefer broody hens normally, I'm a lazy hatcher) extras for the flock and it has been quite a rollercoaster ride! The first set of eggs ended up slightly "cooked" after little fingers played with thermostatic controls... The second set of 6 eggs seemed to be doing well, although at day 18 we were down to 4 (all of which were thriving at this point). Yet come day 21 and nothing, not a peep. Day 22 one little one pipped and by the evening we had to help it a little as the shell was drying out and it was really struggling. I'd checked humidity and temp and both were spot-on. The other 3 eggs we gave until day 24, but alas nothing happened. All had fully developed, but something went awry at hatch itself.
This meant we had one little Brahma all alone so then the fast finding of day olds started. We were lucky and a local lady met us with a selection of Welsummers (all most likely girls, as sexed day-olds), Light Sussex, and Mottled/Spangled Orpingtons to keep the lone survivor company. They come from beautiful stock and are all thriving, as is the little Brahma thankfully. Gabe has named the Welsummer girls - Daisy and Cheepy - and the little Brahma is called Little John (as it was born on his grandad's birthday).
At the moment we are just really hoping Little John is actually a girl as I can't see Gabe being too happy with the cull/eat policy we have for boys here for this one!
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Lovely looking chicks. Fingers crossed for all girls as I think you are right about the cull/eat policy ;)