The first of White's eggs hatched today. It's a day early, but who's to argue with eggs? I thought something was up when I saw, on the camera, her pulling bits of shell out of her nest. I went to investigate. Sure enough, there was a little dark-gray chick under her. Over the course of the day, at least two more of the five eggs hatched. I'd see three little chick heads peeking out from under her.
For all my armchair quarterbacking what a hen should do, White's instincts did the job. Her breaks, that seemed too long to me, the armchair broody hen, were apparently no big deal.
One difference I'd noticed in this broody hen from my earlier ones, is that she is staying on the nest while the other eggs hatch. With my other broodies, once the first couple eggs hatched, they were off the nest, showing their couple of chicks around and teaching them to eat, etc. This left that not-so-quick eggs to get cold and die. Almost every clutch had one or two that began to hatch, but without warm mama hen on them, they cooled off too much and died. Not so, with White. She's stayed squarely on that nest all day while the less-quick eggs hatched. I'm eager to see what's under her tomorrow morning.
Time to stop by Tractor Supply and pick up some chick crumble.