Cold turkey eggs

As always with keeping livestock there are highs and lows. The successful hatch of the Leghorn chicks yesterday was a definite high. We won't worry about the male to female ratio yet, for now they are just very cute, healthy chicks.

The low, this morning the Speckled Sussex was off her nest. Nothing unusual in itself, she usually gets off for food and water first thing, but when she showed no intention of returning an hour and half later I began to get a little concerned. She was also looking more alert than her usual dazed self. Normally if I approach the nest she quickly nips back on, not today.

The eggs were cold, so I placed them in a bucket of hay and brought them home. On candling them 6 out of the 7 were good, so I have popped them in the incubator.....too late? We will just have to wait and see.

The eggs have 12 days to go. The hen had been sitting for 21 including the first few days on china eggs. I guess we were pushing our luck really with her.