Countdown To Chickam!

So we're tired of waiting for our uncoopperative big fluffybutts to get on the stick already and go broody.

It's still just little Sophie, the half Sicilian Buttercup bantam mix, who is broody right now. So we've gathered 12 eggs to hatch for Chickam and we'll start them in the ReptiPro this Satruday morning, the 9th!

Hatch day(s) should be April 29th-30th!  This is allowing, of course, for the probable early hatch of the bantam eggs, those little suckers love to hatch at 20 days instead of 21.

This year's candidates, we tried for an interesting mix:

Our plan is to move Sophie into the brooder box one or two days before hatch and place 6 (or fewer, don't want to overwhelm her) of the eggs under her, the other six will stay in the ReptiPro. After the hatch, however many chicks we end up with will all be transferred to Sophie so she can mother them all.

Hopefully all goes according to plan and on hatch day we end up with chicks hatching in the incubator AND under Sophie. In the event Sophie doesn't work out or drops her brood before hatch day, we'll do it like we usually do, all the way in the incubator.

Of course if one of my BIG girls would go broody, THEY could be mama and successfully cover all 12 eggs...we'll see!

Now to turn eggs 5 times a day for the next three weeks...