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Post by mikemurphy on Nov 18, 2010 7:28:50 GMT 8
While she was sitting on the eggs one of my GLWs would come out every morning for about a quarter of an hour to peck around and stretch her legs, then go back on the eggs again. Yesterday she came out with three chicks - two brown and one patchy yellow and brown - stayed out for the regular 15 minutes and then went back to sit on the remaining eggs, one of which had a hole in it as if the chick is starting to come out. I haven't seen a hen do that before. Usually they stay sitting once the hatching commences - unless I just haven't been around to see it before. Anyway, three chicks is fine especially if they turn out to be HENS!!!!
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Post by annieyokie on Nov 18, 2010 14:07:38 GMT 8
Mine have done that too especially young first time mums ,the other chicks hatched .
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Post by mikemurphy on Nov 19, 2010 9:11:00 GMT 8
Sadly it seems three is my lot. After a couple of days the other eggs haven't hatched. I've taken them out of the nest and later I will break them to see if they were fertile. The sire was my old rooster that I had to cull when he got sick, so maybe he wasn't doing his job.
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Post by mikemurphy on Nov 23, 2010 6:47:42 GMT 8
Turns out all but one of the remaining eggs was infertile so the old rooster was obviously not up to it. It means some of the eggs I have under other hens could be the same so will have to wait and see. Next hatch is due today or tomorrow. Meanwhile I'll stop setting eggs aside for hatching until the new rooster has been a week on the job and had a chance to do his stuff.
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