We have this sweet, two-year old blue Ameraucana hen, whom we've had since she was a chick and she has never before wanted to be a mom.
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| "Misty" AKA "Mrs Broody-Pants" before motherhood |
Until now. We tried several times to discourage her, taking her eggs away, moving her, locking her completely away from where she thought would be a good place to brood. No such luck. We finally decided that we'd give her a chance to see what she could do. We let her have 4 brown eggs (not her eggs, as the only active rooster we have right now is either her nephew or her son). One of her coop mates decided to lay her eggs right beside her about a week after she starting setting, so Mrs Broody-Pants adopted these eggs too! Problem is, I think, obvious. The other 2 eggs would hatch 10 days after the first 4.
This is where having an incubator comes in handy. So, seeing how today is day 18 for the first 4 eggs, we candled all the eggs, figured out which ones would be the ones to hatch on Tuesday, and put the rest in the incubator to hatch with the Salmon Faverolle eggs and Mille Fleur D'uccle eggs already in there. Oh, what? I haven't mentioned those? They were a gift for my 4H daughter. We couldn't really say "no", could we? Even though I feel like we are totally bursting at the seams of our little place here. Oh well. We'll just have to get picky and sell some birds. Or build another coop. Ahem.
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