AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi Kirsty. I had the same problem of the non-broody girls laying in the same nesting box as the broody. She hatched three of them, all one day apart, so I'm guessing they were laid on three consecutive days. Cheeky girls aren't they. I also had some I "discovered" under another broody (sometimes a bit scared of my sussex rooster and don't collect eggs every day) so I wasn't going to eat them as they were three days "old/young". So I slipped those in the incubator and we got three from that as well. Babies everywhere, but all staggered ages.

Keep us posted.

Cheers for now.
Luv
Ann

Hahahaha, yeah they are a bit silly sometimes, It is quite funny to see them piled on top of each other. You and I have the same problem I see!! I also am a bit scared of my Sussex rooster "Ronnie", I have another 4 eggs in the coup he is in but dare not go in there if he is around. He had never been a problem till I took his girls away from him and put them in with a RIR for a while, since then I have been chased on numerous occasions and my eldest daughter (16yrs old) was bailed up into a corner by him. He looks at you sideways and you just know he is about to charge with his feet extended. I have since given his girls back to him and he doesnt seem too bad now, although he wont let me get anywhere near them, and if I pick his girls up he will attack, very protective of them. He is soooo big aswell, I am 5ft and he stands as high as my hip and comes up to me 3yr old sons neck (although my 3yr old and 6yr old cannot be around him anymore).

Hi again everyone,

Well my 10 RIR X Sussex eggs hatched. They were due on the 8th Nov but 2 hatched out on the 5th and then another 3 on the 6th with the last 3 on the 7th. I had a early quitter and a poor little guy who had pipped quite a large hole but the egg got stuck to mums feathers and some how he has dried up inside after not being able to break out. I put the early hatching to the fact that S.A. had a very bad few days of high temps. I recorded 3 days of 41c out where we live followed by a couple of 38c, all the coups are made from steel and galvanised roofing which means it was even hotter in there. Poor girl looked dead on her eggs, so I rushed her still sitting on her eggs in her box inside to our bathroom and sat with her while she drank from the bowl of water I was holding up for her. She started to get figgity and hopping out of the box after the first 5 hatched so I thought I would take those chicks away and put them in a broody box, this worked well and they are now all back together with mum out in the coup, although we are having another scorching week of heat again and I am out spraying down the coups around 4 times a day.
The funny thing is, I wanted this cross between breeds cause of the colour sexing at a day old but if you asked me to tell you what I have, I would have to shrug cause they all look the same....lol Not sure if that means I have all girls or all boys although I would be leaning towards the girls as some now have started getting tiny feathers and most look like they have a buff tinge to them.
Anyway YAY again, they are lovely and I will soon find out what they are.
Now I just have to wait till 15th nov for my 10 oeg bantam and 10 light sussex eggs to hopefully hatch out of the incubator, I am praying we get a better hatch rate than last time as just 1 hatch would be better....lol the funny thing was my bantam girl went clucky just after I set her eggs in the incubator, she had laid another 4 eggs so I put 2 sussex eggs I had just collected fresh under her, these will be due on the 23rd nov.