Mama talking to her baby, and baby is trying to hatch! Olive is doing such a good job with her 4 remaining eggs and I can tell she really loves her babies. I won't be handling this egg anymore after this! Best thing to do now is leave them alone. 🥰
Previous Post:
Our black orpington hen, Black Olive, goes broody every year. A few weeks ago I let her have 5 eggs to hatch, at Dallace's request (for a 4-H Homeschool Project). I thought we had another week (21 day cycle) but one of the eggs is peeping and has a little beak trying to break through it TODAY!
...
It's her first time doing this for real, getting to the end - and all mamas make mistakes. We will just have to wait and see what happens this week.
I do make sure to get her out of the nest every morning to use the bathroom and exercise. I also have food and water so she can eat anytime. She is caged-in most of the day because the last time she went broody the other chickens ate every single one of her half developed eggs. And when I had tried to move her to another location, she just would not have it. So this time I didn't argue with her, I let her remain where she is. And we've figured out the only system we can, which is caging her in.
This week I deep cleaned the entire chicken coop in preparation. I also have a large feed/water trough available, chick feeders, and red chick brooder lamps available just in case we need a backup plan - so that after they hatch they will survive. I also have this as my backup plan because I'd like to try to move Olive and her babies to another location after they're all hatched to protect them from our other birds. If she refuses to move and possibly abandons them after hatching, then I can still set them up for success. I don't want to take away her babies at all - nobody should ever take a mamas babies away! I just want to protect her and them from our other birds.
So far I'm confident that ONE IS HATCHING TODAY (OR TOMORROW)!