Welp, it looks like y'all will be getting a bonus Chickam WITH at least one broody mama in about 14 days.
Look who successfully managed to hide a damned nest:
That's Uptown Bus, a one year old bantam buff Orpington hen. The weather warmed to the point where we didn't have to coop the chickens every night any more, and the little snot immediately snuck back behind one of the propped-open (we do this so our Nevada winds don't slam them around) coop doors, went broody and made a nest.
We didn't notice.
Mother of God, she had NINETEEN EGGS under her.
Here is the traitorous little bitch with her pre-spawn
Horrified, I tried to remember when the last time we KNEW there was no nest back there. About two weeks, we decided...
I just now candled the eggs.
Seven embryos. All roughly 10-12 days along.
Are they all at the same stage of development, so they'll hatch together? Of course not. Can I really look into my kid's pleading eyes and tell her I'm just gonna toss these eggs? OF COURSE FUCKING NOT.
Sigh...
Okay. So the four chicks in the brooder box will be 5 weeks old this weekend, they will go out into the flock for good at 8 weeks. If things work out right, there will be no overlap and we can smoothly transition from older chicks going out to Bus coming in and hatching her brood...
Who am I kidding?! Bus will hatch her demon spawn before the older chicks are okay to go outside, we'll have to section off the brooder box, madly dash to and fro bringing hatching chicks + one VERY pissy broody banty hen into the house the moment hatch begins so the other hens don't try to steal the chicks, and the babies die in the unsuing henfight...
...and I can practically guarantee, because it's US, that Bus will abandon any unhatched eggs once she has some chicks, and since I DON'T KNOW exactly what stage the eggs are at so can't reliably use the ReptiPro, I'll have to take the close-to-hatch eggs she's left and place them under ANOTHER broody hen so THEY can hatch. Since we have 8 broody hens right now, at least there's that. The kid has been told to keep an eagle eye on Bus, remove any fresh eggs the other treasonous hens lay with her, and watch for peeping/pipping. Once pipping starts it's game on.
That sound you hear is me screaming in mouth-frothing frustration. DAMNED SNEAKY BANTIES, ANYWAY!
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