Thursday, July 19, 2012

Mother Nature: 2, Carolyn: Zip

I attempted two incubator hatchings this year, together totaling over ninety eggs. Out of those, I only had one live hatch.  It was a bummer of a chick-raising season.

Earlier this year, I had a hen set on eggs underneath the shed and she hatched out our lonely Easter Chick.  Which just so happens to be a rooster.  And a colossal pecker-head at that.  It's only a matter of time before he graces our supper plates.

About a month ago, I had another hen go broody on me.  No matter what she did, I couldn't get her off the nest so I gathered nine decent looking eggs and let her at 'em.  The weather has been insanely hot - like in 100 degrees or darned close to it for the past three or even four weeks.  Because of the scorching heat I didn't expect any of the eggs to survive the inevitable slow-cooking.  I figured after several weeks of unproductive setting, the hen would finally realize that nothing was going to happen and she'd break the nest up or she's just get too danged hot and leave to cool off in the dirt under the shed.

Well, yesterday when I was milking, I heard the broody hen doing the mother-hen-clucking-noises.  I can't describe it, but if you have chickens and you've had them hatch chicks, you know what I mean.  If you don't have chickens or if you haven't had the privledge of one raise chicks for you......well, you'll just have to trust me that once you hear that particular "clucking", you immediately know that there's a chick somewhere under that puffed up and pissed off bunch of feathers.

I quickly finished milking, ran inside to process the milk then ran back outside and opened the empty kidding pen (where the broody decided to set).  I was greeted by a clucking, puffed up and "I'll peck your eye out if you come any closer" chicken.  And I heard peeping!

Luckily, this hen is all cluck and no bite.  She let me lift her off the nest and I saw one dry and fluffed chick, one half-way out of the shell and three other eggs with chicks cracking around the shell!

As of this morning, there are three fluffy chicks, one chick just about to pop out of the shell and still one continuing it's pecking to free itself.  I haven't candled the other four eggs but may do so in a few hours to see if there are any more chicks.  If not, I'll take them out of the nest and dispose of them so the mother hen can get on with the business of raising her little brood.

12 comments:

  1. You may have not been able to hatch any chicks, but at least you got a few out of it all! Baby chicks, well baby anything for that matter, are the cutest things in the whole darn world!

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  2. Isn't it funny how life goes on, despite our best efforts? I don't think any of my hens went broody until I bought an incubator...they know...

    Cute chicks!

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  3. We just got an incubator...I always use broody hens. Easier and less work for me :) We had one hatch out of 5 eggs early this week. And I just had another go broody- hoping to transfer the peacock eggs from the incubator to her :)Love baby chicks!

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  4. Congrats, they survived in the heat! The wonder of nature :)

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  5. Oh, lucky you! I love chicks!!

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  6. Hey, congratulations! A broody hen's body must be regulated to just the right temperature for hatching eggs. Funny to think about but maybe her setting on the eggs kept them cooler than the soft-boiled egg making air temperature!

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  7. Just catching up on your week of posts and LOL - thanks for counting those beans for me!!! Ha, I always wonder exactly how those compared but never ran an experiment, so you are awesome for posting it :) And I need a porch goat asap !

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  8. Well, congrats on getting some chicks this year after all! I just hope they don't all have the disposition of Mr. Easter Chick!

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  9. Hey, you got some chicks after all. YAY!!! I still have a hen sitting on 14 eggs. 21 days have come and gone. 23 days come and gone. They guy I got them from told me his hens always went 28 days. That puts me at this coming Sunday. I love the noise they make when talking to their eggs. I have one hen that talks when she's getting ready to lay one.

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  10. Aw, cute chicks. Hubby won't let me do that here yet. He's afraid we'll get too many roosters, and the butcher is a one hour drive. Not worth the gas, and we don't butcher ourselves yet.

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