On Sunday night, August 22nd, right before I made another trip to Seattle, I had a Welsummer hen go broody. She was still on her nest on Monday night and Tuesday night, and I was scheduled to fly out to Seattle on Wednesday.
After it was clear that she was sitting on two eggs, I tucked another super warm brown egg under her on Monday as I was collecting eggs. Just a day later, when I moved her and the eggs into the brooder room, imagine my surprise when two more eggs were under her, and those eggs were WHITE!
I don’t know if momma hen had gotten off her nest for some water and food, and Andalusian hens laid on top of her brown eggs, or whether momma hen rolled those eggs under her from a nearby nest. I am clueless as to how it happened! Regardless, by the time she was ensconced in the brooder room, she had 5 eggs under her – two brown ones that she had laid, one brown one that I had tucked under her, and the two white eggs from who knows where.
Exactly 21 days later, the first chick hatched, and the second one, not long after. Unfortunately, the other 3 eggs never hatched. As best I can tell, one of the chicks is a little girl Andalusian, and the other (the one with a bit of horn color in his beak), appears to be a little boy that is a mix of Andalusian and Welsummer. The very first Sunraven Farm babies!!
PS – By the time I returned from my trip, two more Welsummer hens had gone broody. One I have managed to convince to stop, and the other, well she still sits in the corner of the main coop. I take her out every morning for food and in the afternoon for treats. Hopefully one day she will realize that she does not need to sit on an empty nest!
The Feminine Farmer 