Our hatching is going well, we have nine Marans under our Indian Game (with all nine eggs hatching) and we have put a total of eight Legbars and two Shetland under an Indian Game cross that had been trying to help Berry hatch her duck eggs in the barn. The photo shows the Legbars being transported (keeping nice and warm). We have five male (lighter with a yellow spot on their heads) and three female (darker with more stripes) we think... Time will tell.
We have also (a little nervously cos she is a tad unpredictable) given three White Leghorn chicks to another IG cross who has been broody for ages but not great at staying on a set of eggs. We think that might be it for these sets now. So from a total of 48 eggs we have 22 chicks, almost 50%. If we look at the ‘fertile to hatch’ rate though we have 22 chicks from 32 eggs which gives a much nicer figure of 69%. And in getting nine Marans from 12 eggs, that was an individual success story of 75%!! We just have the last six 'Sexlink Future Green' eggs to go and these are due from tomorrow.
So, all in all, as long as they are not all cockerels, the future looks quite bright for having some great coloured egg layers for the autumn.