[babe]

My Chooks have a large area of my garden to call their own and freely wander around as they please and get up and go to bed in their own time.

my banty called pavlova recently went broody and had settled herself in one of the nesting boxes in the hen house, being the first to go broody i went to ebay and bought 6 japanese frizzle eggs (meant to be fertile, we'll see) and pavola accepted them without a second glance.

my dad has spent all weekend making me what we have named "maternity ward no1", she now has her own hen house and run right next to the main hen house, so she would feel nice and safe. i was alittle worried about moving her but pavlova soon settled back onto her adopted eggs.

have i done the right thing or should i have left her where she was. i know buying eggs from ebay was probably silly but 17 days and counting until we see.

any help or advice on what i should be doing would be great,

thanks x

[The Chicken Lady]

I have bought eggs from ebay. Some have not been fertile, I have been coned with some and I have hatched 6/6 with some. With experience you can spot who the genuine sellers are with good eggs. Yes you have done right by seperating her from the others. I usually put pot eggs under a broody then get the fertile eggs when I know that they are going to carry on sitting. Like you I have a maternity ward - out building above the stable divided up into bays. Three lots with broodies and two lots of chicks from the incubator. The girls at work say it is taking my work too seriously as I am a midwife!!!! :roll:

[The Chicken Lady]

Sorry forgot to say: make sure she has fresh water and I usually feed just mixed poultry corn - no layers pellets this makes droppings drier and easy to remove.

[babe]

thanks for that i shall sort that now. it never entered my head to stop feeding her layers pellets. she does have her own food and water.
i did read the feedback on ebay and the seller did have some saying they had hatched well. im so excited.