It was today. I didn't get home until nearly 9:00 because Mo had a super play date with one of his Pre-K buddies, and we let the boys play way longer than we should have. They were just having so much fun! But it put us home fairly late and Mo fell asleep on the way home. He woke up just long enough to put on pjs and go to bed. Cute, tuckered little guy.
So it was dark before I got down to the chicken pen to close up the coops. When I went in to check on a convalescing hen (she has bumble foot), I saw Crow in the coop! It's very unusual for a setting hen to be off her nest at bedtime. I thought maybe she abandoned her nest, and was very curious and concerned. I went to the Motel 6. I was so sad to discover that 6 of the 8 eggs hatched but all of the chicks were dead. They had been killed by fire ants, I think. I can only surmise that once the chicks began hatching, the wetness of the chicks and the eggs attracted the ants. It really makes me regret my decision not to move the nest. I was very afraid to, fearing Crow would have abandoned setting on it. Now I feel like I should have risked it.
The one bright side is that she had a really high percentage of her eggs hatch. Better than any that I've let Speckle hatch or that I've hatched in the incubator. I believe it's because they were her own eggs and she began setting on them very soon after laying them, and they were at optimum viability. I'm definitely going to let her set again if she gets broody again. But next time, I'm moving her into the Ramada. Sometimes chicken keeping isn't very fun. Lesson learned the hard way.
