farmsteadsmith farmstead baby chicks quail

So a while back, I shared with you guys that I had a broody hen! And I was so excited to get some eggs to put underneath her!

Fast Forward to... Today.

So today some babies hatched! It's so exciting! They're so damn cute when they're brand new to the world. So sleepy and wobbly. But I have to tell you about yesterday...

Now Rewind... Yesterday

Today is supposed to be hatch day for my broody hen... Well.. She has been doing a decent job sitting on the eggs, until today! This morning, I went to the coop to check on the chickens and no one was on the nest of eggs and supposed "broody" was just out laying in the sun, like a fucking bum.

I decide, hey, maybe it's just her time that she goes out and poops and does some foraging. She'll be back on the nest in no time.

I go back out, a half hour later and empty nest still. Shit, what do I do? I don't even know. I resolve to remove the eggs if the next time I go out there, no one is setting.

I bring my egg basket, open the nesting box and one of my Australorps is setting. Okay fine... I guess I will let her set there. This is not original broody, by the way.

Then, a while later, I hear the egg song. I go out to see if the 'lorp laid an egg. She's walking around singing at the top of her lungs. Fine. Okay, I open the box again and one of the Welsummers is sitting on the eggs... Shoot. Well, let's see if the 'lorp laid.

No... But there's a giant shit on the eggs now, and my Welsummer is sitting on it. I am at a loss as to what to do. Do I take the eggs or what? I don't even know. Someone's sitting on them, which is fantastic, I don't really care.

The whole point was to experiment with using a broody to hatch eggs, cause I didn't want to brood more babies in my house! Since I am already broody quail babies.

And this broody butthole dips out on THE LAST DAY?! What on earth?!

I don't even know if I should attempt to take the eggs or... clean out the nest box some how. Today is supposed to be hatch day! I really don't want to bother them... Ugh. Usually I get a feeling of what to do, of what "feels" right to do. I've got nothing. Hahahha. sigh

Finally, I went back to the coop and found that no one was on the nest. So I took the eggs and yelled at the broody hen. "I am taking your eggs! You're a horrible mother!" and put them in the incubator with the quail eggs. I know this is not an ideal situation. But, it's all I could do. Damn.

Back to Today!

I had been looking in the incubator all morning. We even heard some peeps coming from inside the unhatched eggs! Saw a few wiggling a bit... and finally at around 1:30pm, I checked in the incubator after cleaning the chicken coop and doing some chores, and voila! BABIES. One baby chick, and one baby quail!

I'm actually quite nervous now, I keep looking in the incubator, because no one else has hatched yet! Okay, I am freaking out a little. I hope that more hatch, neither of these babies can really be raised together nor alone! I really hope more hatch tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for more babies to hatch!

The baby chicken that hatched came out of a blue egg! So it is either one of the Olive Egger eggs I purchased or one of Lady's eggs! Lady is my Bestie Chicken. It would be so cool if it were one of her eggs that hatched! Eeek.

Here's some videos. :D

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Farmstead Update - Babies!