Sooo, I'm going to candle the eggs later..

[duchesse]

Found a hen I thought missing, sitting on a massive clutch of eggs in the hedge. She had 12 eggs and clearly couldn't manage them all. So I moved her indoors under cloak of darkness a few nights ago, and gave half her clutch to a fellow broody.

They managed to squash one (don't think it was fertile anyway) so are now sitting on 11 between them.

Who wants a sweepstake (for fun) on how many are fertile? Judging by how long the hen was missing, they could be getting quite near to hatching.

I don't know a thing about hens, I'm afraid, but I'm excited for you. What a lovely thing! I'm going to guess 7 (and hope for more). Keep us posted?

Well. Hen was apparently menopausal and only one hatched, last week, under the second broody. Due to bungled dating however, and the fact that I had no idea when any of the eggs had been laid, and the hen's apparent willingness to continue sitting and sitting, another one hatched yesterday. Bizarrely the hen abandoned it and moved her 3 remaining eggs away from it. I found it at dusk during a routine check, lying in the nest. Picked it up thinking it was dead and it moved feebly. So I did my usual chilled chick resuscitation techniques on it and it survived! Now living on a hot water bottle in a cardboard box as the mum wanted nothing to do with it.

I only manage to hatch about 6 out of 20 fertile eggs, but that's with an incubator as my chickens are not old enough for laying yet. How is little rescued one?

Chirpy and fine and managing to stay one step ahead of the cat! Thank gawd for doors.