Category Archives: Chickens

Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

Buff Orpingtons, Chickens, Chicks, Jersey Giant, Reflections

Here in the U.S. Sunday, May 12, was Mother’s Day. It is also the day our two broody hens became mothers.

On Sunday we had four out of ten eggs hatch. We found three under the Jersey Giant and one under the Buff Orpington.

Oddly enough the three Buff Orpington chicks were under the Jersey Giant and the Jersey chick was under the Buff hen.

We waited until Tuesday morning but when none of the other eggs hatched my husband disposed of them. I will admit that we were a bit disappointed that we only had four chicks hatch.

The two hens are raising the chicks together, but it does seem like the Jersey hen is taking on more of the mothering role, teaching the chicks how to peck and scratch. The Buff stays nearby and definitely helps protect the chicks.

Today, Thursday, was their first day out of the coop.

Sometimes it seems like other hens are helping with the chicks as well.

At one point when Ranger decided the check out the babies. Both momma’s, several other hens and the rooster let him know that he was not welcome. They squawked and flew at him to chase him away. After being chased off again today Ranger has decided it’s best to avoid the group.

On Saturday we gave one of the other hens 5 eggs to sit on. This hen is so determined to brood. She has been sitting on a nest for about three weeks and each day my husband takes one or two eggs out from underneath her, trying to break her broodiness. It hasn’t worked. She just sits on her nest in the corner all day and hisses or squawks when he takes the eggs from her. After my husband gave her the 5 eggs she made some very happy clucking noises. So, in a few weeks we might have more babies (and more cute pictures). But we won’t count our chickens before they hatch.

Thanks for visiting.

If I Were A Bird

Birds, Buff Orpingtons, Chickens, Chicks, Eggs, Killdeer, Nature, Reflections

A few weeks ago I gave my sister a pot of pansies. She has had it on her porch on a table between the chairs that she and her husband sit in to enjoy the outdoors. Last weekend she sent a picture of the nest a robin had built in the pot of pansies. I told her “If I were a robin I would build my nest there.” She wasn’t sure if the robin would lay eggs and raise babies there because she and her husband sit there often. Apparently, the robin is undeterred. 🙂 When I last talked to her there were two eggs in the nest.

If I were a bird I would not want to be a kildeer. On Thursday my husband and I witnessed a pair of kildeer with their three young babies. If you are not familiar with kildeer you can learn more about them here. I didn’t have my camera with me, but I doubt if I would have gotten any good photos as they were always in motion. The babies, which are up and running around within hours of hatching, are so cute, but boy do those parents have their wings full keeping track of the babies. It’s a good thing that both parents raise the young together as they usually have 3-5 babies (running every which way) and while the babies feed themselves, they are unable to fly until they are about 25 days old, thus they need protection from predators.

If I were a bird, I would likely be a chicken – in fact I’m sure I was called a mother hen more than once when my ‘chicks’ were young. 🙂 Much like kildeer, baby chickens are up and out of the nest very quickly. They also eat and drink on their own but rely on their mother (or humans) for warmth and protection. The rooster does not help raise chicks, but mother hens are generally very attentive and protective of their chicks.

We currently have several hens that are broody. If Buff Orpingtons have any fault, it’s their tendency to go broody. About two weeks ago we gave 10 eggs to one of the hens, the Buff Orpington in the corner of the picture below. Since then one of our Jersey Giants (the black hen pictured below) decided to share the parenting responsibilities.

Most of the time when the buff was on the nest the jersey would nestle up beside her. Sometimes the jersey would sneak a couple of the eggs and put them under herself. If the buff would leave the nest the jersey would take over. We did mark the original 10 eggs because sometimes we find an extra egg or two in the nest. Saturday my husband split the eggs giving each hen 5 eggs and so far the hens seem content that they each have their own clutch. We don’t know how long that will last.

We have about a week to wait until the babies are due to hatch. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I would love to have some little chicks running around and watch momma(s) raising them. I’ll keep you posted.

If you were a bird what kind of bird would you be? What kind of bird would you not want to be?

A February Walk at the Farm

Chickens, Dogs, Eggs, garlic, Horses, Pond, Reflections, The Farm

Hello and welcome.

We been having some nice weather this week so I thought maybe you might join me for a walk at the farm.

One of the first things you might notice is that our neighbor to the east, who has horses, extended their corral. The fence that my husband put up last spring is their barrier to the west, so they come right up to our property line. For the first couple of weeks Ruby and ranger would go over and bark at them, probably thinking they were doing something they shouldn’t. But Ruby and Ranger have since gotten use to them being so close and while Ruby and Bernard might touch noses through the fence, she no longer has an issue with them being there.

Ruby greets Bernard and Colby Jack

My husband said that every morning when he goes to open up the chicken coop Bernard and Colby Jack greet him at the fence. He likes to have a couple of carrots or other treats for them.

Bernard

They are very friendly horses, especially when there are treats to be had.

Colby Jack

The chickens out enjoying the nice weather. The hens started laying more eggs this week. For several weeks we have only been getting between zero and two eggs a day, but in the last four days we have collected 18 eggs.

Rex, our rooster, is one of the chicks that we got last spring. Unlike roosters we have had in the past he not aggressive toward people or the dogs. It’s nice not to worry about turning my back on him.

Garlic Sprouts

They are a bit difficult to make out in the above picture, but the garlic is about 4 or 5 inches high. I spotted daffodils, lilies and irises sprouting as well.

While things have started to dry out a bit this week the pond is still running over its bank. This is the highest we have ever seen the pond this time of year.

Most of our beach is under water.

As I walked down the west property line I loved this view of the barn.

The thin layer of ice that covered much of the pond early this week has since melted since temperatures reached up into the 50’s and 60’s F on Thursday and Friday.

There is still plenty of time for winter weather to return but we will certainly appreciate these nice days while we have them.

Thanks for joining me.

How’s the weather in your part of the world?

First Egg

Chickens, Eggs, Reflections

Our young hens (the chicks that arrived back in March) have started laying. They turned 20 weeks old on Monday. On Tuesday my sister called and told me she had found 3 small eggs in her coop that day. Three of the 6 hens we gave her had started laying! Since we hadn’t seen any small eggs, which is evidence that a young hen is laying, I started giving our girls pep talks. “What are you all doing hanging out here? You should be in the coop giving me an egg and earning your keep.” Today my husband found our first small egg. In the photo below the egg in the center is from a young hen. It’s about 1/2 the size of the other eggs.

It’s hard to say how many of these small eggs a hen will lay before their eggs become normal size, but as more of the girls begin laying I’m sure we will see more eggs like this.

Thanks for visiting!

Downsizing Our Flock

Chickens, Reflections

Remember back in March when our new chicks arrived and I realized that we had 29 new chicks instead of the 18 that I thought I had ordered?

Over the spring and summer as we’ve watched them grow it became apparent that, coupled with the 9 old hens that we already had and even though we lost two of the young chicks, our flock had become too large. During the day, when the chickens were outside, we didn’t have problems, but at night when they were all going into the coop issues would arise. Old hens squawking and pecking at young ones and blocking their way into the coop, then the young ones began pecking at each other. 36 chickens are just too many for our coop. We also discovered, as the chicks grew, that instead of just three roosters that we ordered, we had four roosters. 4 roosters were also too many.

We decided to try to rehome some of our flock. I remembered when we were expecting our chicks that my sister said she and her husband were considering getting chicks again. I knew that they hadn’t acquired any yet, so I decided to offer her some of ours. After some consideration they decided to take six hens and a rooster.

My husband, who was still concerned about having too many roosters. was in the farm store one day and mentioned our abundance of roosters to another customer. The man said he would be happy to take any extra roosters off our hands. Come to find out he lived just down the road from us so last Tuesday morning my husband packed up two of the roosters and delivered them to their new home.

Then on Sunday my sister and brother-in-law were ready for their new flock, so my husband selected six hens and a rooster and took them to their new home, where my sister told me that they were settling in nicely.

I am happy to report that peace has been restored to our coop. There is no more pecking and squawking when they are going into the coop and as the saying goes “Happy flock – happy farmer”. (Okay. I just made that up :))

I hope you have a great weekend.

Thanks for visiting!