Our Simple Crazy Country Life: Ups and downs of our staggered broody hatch!

Clarabelle's eggs started hatching last Sunday! She had two hatch on Sunday, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.

We also had an egg that she accidentally broke. I left it for a day, but then assumed that the chick had died. I brought it in the house and candled the egg, and didn't see any movement or anything. I peeled the top of the shell off at the air cell and saw a perfect little chick. I was getting ready to dispose of it when the chick wiggled. I proceeded to wrap the egg up and put it in a make-shift incubator in our bathroom. The chick survived all day and tried to hatch, but wasn't able to and didn't make it. I felt really bad, but there wasn't anything else I could have done, and if I had tried to help it anymore I could have done more harm than good.

Yellow are Bantam Buff Cochin and Black are Black Copper Marans

I also found a lady about 45 minutes away from me that had Black Copper Maran chicks that also hatched on Sunday. I made the trip with a friend and picked up 3 of those chicks to try to add to Clarabelle's little family! I introduced them right at dark and was a little worried when she first pecked them and didn't want to have anything to do with them. I snuck them under her and checked on them several times through the night. The next day she was much better and they were eating with her and her hatchlings. After that, she took them with very little problems, just peck here and there.