Hatch Day

 One little peep is here!!  21 days ago I came home from Sweden and found a broody hen in the coop!!  I rushed out to pick up eggs from Michelle and Patricia's farms.  I marked Michelle's eggs with a "M" in pencil and Patricia's eggs with an "X".   A week later I left my sweet animals in the care of my youngest son and headed east on another weekend vacation.  I knew that collecting any eggs that the other hens had laid in the same nest as the setting hen would prove to be something of a Olympic event!  So I instructed Grant to let the eggs be and I will take care of them three days later.  Just water and feed the hens!! 

Upon my return home the hen was sitting on another clutch of eggs in the next box!!!  I was scolding her for leaving the nest!!!  I felt the eggs, they were not warm like they should be and I lifted her up and took the other eggs and plopped her back onto the right clutch of eggs!!  But, I was already thinking this batch wasn't viable no more!!  I immediately drove out to Patricia's and retrieved more eggs!!   I marked those eggs with the number of the day I got them and tucked those under the hen when I got home!!  But I didn't remove the first clutch of eggs!!!  I couldn't abort project "M" and "X".  If broody hens were so fickle wouldn't God factor that into a chicken egg!!?  Seriously!!  So I decided not to remove her first clutch. 

Next day I went out to check on her and darn if there wasn't another concern!!
The other hens like to crawl into the nesting box to leave more eggs for her!!  They too have ideas about where they are to lay an egg and for what purpose!!  Unfortunately, when they squat above the other eggs one can get broken and then there is this mad frenzy to eat the yolk and some of the shell!!  There was yolk all over half of the eggs and the broody hens feathers matted!!  Now they are stupid!! Now she needs my help!!!  I drive out to Michelle's farm and pick up more eggs and mark those with a number of the day.  By sunset that evening I was putting up dog kennel panels under the lean to and making her nest in a large pail. I move all remaining eggs and add some more for insurance! Here she and her eggs are safe until she returns to the coop.  At the coop she will have to defend herself and her babies for days on end.  But a mother hen is fierce and vigilant.  Don't let her size fool you!!  She puffs up every feather like a wolf's hackles and screeches like a pterodactyl and she pecks at you with the aim of a rattlesnake!!

 I am quite excited about the first hatching and another peeping. Due to the staggered set dates I will have to steal the peeps away and keep them under lights till the rest are hatched [hens will leave unhatched eggs to follow peeps around the coop] then sneak them all back under her one night and let her do the rest!  In another month I will need a bigger coop!!!