The saga continues; last fall one of my hens went broody and I dashed out and got fertile eggs I’d found on Craig’s List. I slipped these under the hen and soon had lots of chicks. These grew up and turned out to be mostly roosters. The two hens both developed prolapsed egg sacks and died. I wound up keeping one of the roosters, until the neighbor rightfully complained and soon had another clutch of fertile eggs.
This time there were seven chicks and they all survived. Out of this batch there are four most definite roosters destined for the pot, one mystery bird and two really scrawny looking hens that I think might also suffer from prolapsed egg sacks.
From now on I am going to get chicks from the Seattle Farm Co-Op or the feed store as this is one experiment that has not worked out!
I'd love to hear from you!