Our 2018 chick brood and hatch is underway!

We're only setting one group of eggs from our flock this summer and now's the time! We've had no shortage of broody hens but only one will be hatching this year. Who will it be? Little black silkies, noooo.... they've already had 1-2 chances each. Bigfoot the black cochin- no she's already had a turn too. The candidates included most everyone else who is currently broody. Blue Belle, our blue cochin, Tiny our blue-cream silkie, Spotty our paint silkie hen, Pansy-our own home grown little mixed bantam, Goldilocks-our golden laced cochin, Miss White our white silkie girl, Snow White our white cochin...and probably a couple others. No shortage of broodies as I said!

The requirements- persistent broody who will stick with the eggs for the full time, hasn't had a turn brooding eggs yet and most importantly willing to sit on her eggs in the house. Yes I said IN THE HOUSE. Why, that's not natural, why can't she sit in the coop or in the fenced run and yard? Yard is a big no. It may be fenced but it's not safe for a hen to sit out all night! Most predators do come in the night time and broody hens are vulnerable. What about the coop. Again a big no. For us we have too many hens wanting to steal each other's eggs. It just gets confusing and complicated when they play musical nest boxes. Okay what about a cage in the coop- sometimes. That would be a case by case situation. It's a no for right now we're having a heat wave and a broody doesn't always take care of herself very well. Broody girls with eggs typically get up only once a day to eat, drink and do their business. They should not sit in a coop for 23 3/4 hours a day when the temperature is in the 90's every day.

We had a few trial girls come into the house to see what they thought. All were a big no thank you! Most of the broody hens eventually stopped brooding and with the few left I tried bringing them in the house as a break the broody cycle or sit on the eggs trial. I really didn't mind if they decided to sit or to quit being broody. I knew I wanted as many broodies broken by the time the heat wave really set in.

Finally two candidates were left and it appeared they were both going to choose to quit brooding rather than sit on eggs in the house.

The Final Candidates, Miss White and Snow White!

Hours passed and neither seemed very interested in the eggs.

Until finally someone was interested....

And five days later she still is!

Snow White's clutch is due on or around July 18th. She has a mixed assortment of 10 large fowl eggs (no bantam eggs this time). I would expect about 50% fertility since only one rooster keeps up with the large fowl flock. The silkie roos mingle with the large fowl girls on occasion but mostly they run with the bantam pack, same coop and yard but different cliques. We really want a Mo baby or two he's our large Spitzhauben rooster so I tried to choose eggs from his favorite girls or girls we hope for a chick from (Crested Cream Legbar, Easter Egger, Turken) some are just random for the surprise factor. We'll see what we get in a couple weeks' time!