I have a broody hen in my broody house!

[brambleschooks]

my lovely cochin is, I hope, going to be a first time mum. She has been sat on non fertiles in my eglu and will have fertile eggs placed under her tomorrow night. I am v excited!

Any advice from you experienced ones? Especially if you've hatched in an eglu as I'll need to convert it so it's suitable for chicks.

Glad she's taken some water. How on earth did you get her to drink from the syringe? Don't think that mine has drunk much so I'll give it a try.

I have hatching eggs arriving tomorrow, and a broody serama. I'll give her 3/4 eggs to sit on, and put the rest in the incy. As a serama is no bigger than a pair of rolled up socks, I'll be keeping a very close eye on her.

Not sure how much 'missage' there was !!! Still we've propped up the hatch door to get a bit of air through in this heat. Can't believe she is going to do this for another two weeks! Still I'm off on a week's trip tonight, so if I receive news I'll post it up... Good luck Chickens and chooks....

Have a lovely break. I'm off later in the week.
Love the description of serama size!

I'm going to candle a couple tonight, I think, it's day 6 so I might see something and am too excited to leave it longer! Will candle again before I go.

I'm going to struggle with candling. It's not recommended to candle serama eggs, as the chicks are so tiny and sensitive. I might have to break my candler.

I am trying wyandotte banties, do you think it would be ok to candle them?

Well excited but a bit disappointed as there is only one definite yes amonst the dozen. Tbh I think the others are duds, but I'll candle again in a couple of days and see what's going on.

Yay! Candled again and there's a possible 9 fertiles. Two I can see the pips floating around and one of them I saw the vein network. I'm only using a torch for candler, so the 'hope and wait' aspect will come in. All 9 compared favourably in looking similar with the balance of yolk and albumen areas and the air pocket.
I have ditched one definite dud, very clear with a thin shell. The other is probably dud, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow night when I'll candle in the dark in order to see what's going on. how exciting!

How're you doing on chickybrows?

My girl has been refusing food, but drinking plenty of water from her ramekin. We got some live meal worms today and she's had a couple of good sessions tucking into them which will do her a great deal of good, bless her fluffy pants.

Definite nine embryos tonight :) discarded another dud where the yolk was floating free and there was no airspace. We could see some of the embryos moving - magical! We'll leave them to develop now.

How's she doing brambles? :)

Hello, back from my trip..... Megan is still sitting but we haven't candled yet. I might brave it tomorrow..... So looking forward to Saturday to see if we get any results.

So we have four chicks so far and two eggs remaining....two chicks yesterday and two today. So sweet and exciting. They have their chick crumbs and their water in a coffee jar lid filled with marbles so they don't drown.

So, still with four chicks tonight. The other two eggs didn't hatch, so we should have two Sussex White and two brown bantams. Two of the chicks are darker so they should be the bantams. Not sure when we can sex chicks, but we have agreed to give back the boys to the chicken breeder, so we are hoping to keep at least two. Does anyone know when we can sex them? or how for that matter?

How did your pregnancy go, Bramblechooks?????

Yay! We have four surviving and out in the run with mum. Five hatched, one died soon after. One didn't make it out of the shell and two didn't hatch. One was dead in run a couple of days before the hatch. Trauma city but all v cute now.

So when will Megan start laying again.... she's being a very good mum to the chicks. The other chickens are quite wild with jealousy and intrigue!!!!!