I wanted a happy ending......................

But it didn't end that way.  It's been a crazy, bummer kind of a week.  

First off, I got kind of worried that the eggs I slipped under Little shit weren't going to hatch. I did the float test and the eggs floated, but they didn't move much in the water. I knew then that there was around a 50/50 chance that the egg (btw I say egg because somehow the other one ended up a dud and wasn't fertilized) was still viable and would hatch at that point. Because its been so hot (103-105 daily) my thoughts were less hopeful, leaning more to the 50% failure rate. Incubated eggs do best with 40-50% humidity and a 99.5-100 degree temperature range from what I've been reading. I started to worry. 

On Saturday, I decided that I wanted to try to slip two chicks under Little shit so she could mother them and hopefully break her broody behavior, just in case the egg didn't hatch. This is a technique that is used with success many times. In theory, the mother thinks she hatches the chicks and immediately switches to mother mode. Saturday morning I headed to the feed store, it was National Cowboy Day there that day, to buy two chicks. They had an excellent selection and I ended up picking out a Light Brahma and a Salmon Favorelle, both two days old. The man in the chick room, who I happen to chat up frequently really wanted to give me a chick because of my "valued customer" status. Love those boys at the feedstore.  So, I ended up taking home three. I told myself and Claire that I would only get two while I was there, but was secretly happy I had an excuse to bring home three. He gave me a beautiful little Ancona on the house. YeeeeHawww.


Saturday Night at around 10:00 pm we headed out to slip the new girls under their sleeping, waiting mother. Little shit fussed a little but settled back down after the little ones were slipped under. As I strategically placed the two under, I took out two eggs. We left her alone and after about an hour, I went back to check on her. The girls and their independent spirits had jumped out of the nesting box. I put them back in and they settled in nicely. I reluctantly went back to bed and hoped for the best in the am. I wanted to watch them all night. 


Unfortunately, sometimes this technique does not work and in this case it did not. When I checked on them at sun up, the little Ancona had been killed and the other two were hiding in a crack were the big girls couldn't get to them. I was devastated. I couldn't believe it didn't work. I worry now, big time that I didn't check on them enough and I wish I would have gone at sunrise to make sure she would not kill them. I honestly thought she would take them as her own. Ugh. I regret doing it for the sake of that little one. I talked to some people from the poultry forum and was reassured I did everything ok. It's just sometimes some chickens, even though they are broody, don't want to be a mother. She obviously doesn't.  Much to the dismay of Claire, we now have two little chicks brooding in the laundry room again. We will have to raise them and integrate them with the flock later.  They still don't have names, so if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. 


Ya'll are probably wondering what ever happened to the fertilized egg? The answer to that is another big let down. I did the float test again this morning and no movement. I made the decision to crack the egg open and see what was in it.  Little shit had done her job of setting well.  I'm pretty sure the heat was working against her because inside was a dead fully formed little chick. Ugh. Seriously. 

So now I have to figure out a way to break little shit. Surprisingly, today she was out and about with the rest of the crew. I noticed she made a beeline to the coop a few times, but for the most part she hung with the other girls. I think taking away that one little egg and 30+ days may have finally snapped her out of it. 


I hate that a month later Little shit wasn't able to become a mother (even though in reality she didn't really want to be) and that this situation wasn't able to have a different ending but at least I ended up with two things that make me smile............................

Once again, chicks are really hard to photograph. These are the best I could get