We have a very brood hen named Goldie. I broke her of it about 6 weeks ago, but she wants to be a mamma. Then, a noticed one of our Washington’s, Georgie was hanging in the nesting box too. I saw a woman (Pam) post on a Facebook livestock group selling fertile eggs, $8/12 or $15 day old chick. We discussed and felt best option was to see if these hens will hatch the eggs. She owns Chick’N Heart Farm and raises rare breed, straight run chickens: Lavender Orpington, French Blue Copper Marans, Plymouth Blue/Sapphire Gem, and Cochins.

It was recommended that I move the hens to dog crates and separate them from the other hens. I tried to put Goldie in a very large dog crate in her own coop, but she hated it and wanted to be inside her dark hen house. Knowing that she was not going to make a nest and relax, I let her back before placing the fertile eggs under her.

On Thursday night, April 7 I put 6 eggs under Goldie and 4 eggs under Georgie. Saving two. I’ll do the candle test in 5 days to look for veins, and remove any that are not growing, replace with these 2 others. It takes 21 days for the eggs to hatch, so we will be anxiously awaiting April 28! Yesterday, they decided to switch places, so these two are nesting buddies.