6 2009-10-30T04:03:44-07:00 false One of my hens went broody on Wednesday. I've been waiting for a broody since the girls started laying again after winter - because we now have a rooster, I'm really keen to breed my good hens & see what colours come out. Unfortunately, the one I was most keen to breed was the one who went broody. This is a shame because I have another hen who is a superb broody & she goes broody quite often - I let her set eggs last year but unfortunately none of them hatched (dodgy eggs, I think). Esme (the one who is broody now), has not been broody before (& she's three years old, so quite old for her first time) - she's a bit of an unknown quantity. I have 4 hens & 1 rooster - all Pekins. Of the hens, one is a cross-breed (Bella...most likely a Pekin-Frizzle cross but she is a straight-feathered Frizzle)...I don't want to breed from her not only because she isn't pure-bred but also because she has a sometimes troublesome temperament & I don't want to perpetuate that in any offspring. The only reason I keep her is because she's a good layer. Of my other hens, one is black (Hera) & the other two are wheaten (Esme & Rosalind - sisters...they had a third black sister, Cleo, who had to be put down earlier in the year). My rooster (Artemis Fowl or Arte for short) is also wheaten. I have set 5 of our eggs - 2 fresh from Hera & 3 from the fridge (as a test - they're only a few days old at the most) - 1 from each bird. Now, I know that most places will say not to set eggs that have been in the fridge as it supposedly kills the blastocyst but I have read numerous accounts of people successfully hatching eggs that have been in the fridge for extended periods of time, so I am testing these three to see if we have any success. It's the only way I can get one of Esme's eggs (as she stopped laying before going broody) & Rosalind (the other wheaten) has only laid one egg since Esme went broody & it had no shell (the only time I've seen this happen). I have supplemented our eggs with some blue splash Pekin eggs from "Shrimani Farm":http://www.shrimanifarm.com/shrimanifarm. They should result is some gorgeous colours in addition to mine. Day 21 (hatch day) will be 18-19 Nov (depending on the egg). Here's hoping for a good success rate & a low number of cockerels! *** Pic 1 - Esme with the last of the eggs put out for her (she'll move them under her after I've closed the lid to the coop & leave her to it) Pic 2 - Hera, Arte & Bella Pic 3 - the parents of the blue splash eggs (I've copied this pic from the Shrimani Farm website to reduce Shani's bandwidth) Pic 4 - heads down, bums up - a not particularly good photo showing my wee flock wandering off, perusing the grass for tasty morsels (or, in the case of Esme, having a wee scratch & looking headless on film) 8 false 70297 false false false Entry 2009-10-29T06:00:00-07:00 DMY 85865 Public 2009-10-30T06:09:03-07:00 9591 26 C