Our clutch did not make it! Truthfully, we were not too surprised as we’d feared they had gotten a tad too hot in our new and improved home-made incubator, but we were disappointed not to have the peck, peck, peck of little beaks breaking through their shells all the same…and checked them often on their ‘due date’ with great hope.
A week of egg disappointment followed, where all we did with our eggs was eat them. (They are very, very delicious.) However, we were not ready to give up. I was sure My Loving Spouse could make the proper adjustments to the incubator to hatch the next set of eggs, and so we started collecting them again. We were just at the ‘magic’ number 13 when fate intervened. We found an old-fashioned/new age solution…we got a surrogate.
Some people are crazy about their chickens, a tad like some people and cows. One such Chicken Lover had posted on the Ellensburg Farm Exchange Face Book page that she had a hen that had gone broody and was trying desperately to hatch a clutch of non-fertile eggs. Did anyone have a few fertile eggs that she could get/buy/procure/borrow to put the hen out of her misery? Chicken Lover just wanted to make her hen happy.
“I’ll give you some eggs…” began the conversation and the great egg surrogate hen plan was hatched…(sorry bad pun). I handed over the eggs to Chicken Lover, and explained why there were 13 (because that is how My Loving Spouse’s Dad always did it). I knew that her hen will turn them and cluck over them, so all Chicken Lover needed to do was get eggs under her. We were told we could come look at them anytime we wanted. The final custody arrangements and splitting of the brood will be handled at a later date.
For now, all seems to be going well, all 13 eggs got tucked in and sat on…life is good.
What a great trade for both sides! Hope all goes well.
What a great way to handle your egg problem! That must be one hefty hen to be able to sit on 13 eggs! What a good Mama!