Hatching Day--June 25, 2011

After a few bumps in the road during Clucky’s incubation, hatching day arrived last Saturday. At about Day 13 I had come home to find her on the wrong nest box with her clutch exposed and cold on a 60-something degree day. I quickly got out the dog crate and set her up in there, but was now wondering if anything would hatch after about 4 or 5 hours of chilling. Rookie mistake not to pen her up with her own nest right away, but a survey on the Backyard Chickens site gave me hope, and I waited out the last week with fingers crossed.

The housing dilemma remained unresolved until the last possible moment. The spa is unfinished and the two A-frame coops I ordered the day I bought Clucky’s eggs have not yet arrived. Meanwhile, driving home from Marysville last weekend, we passed a most excellent dog kennel for sale by the side of the road. The price was right, so I now have another enclosure. It’s a monster at 10 x 10 x 6 ft., and once covered in hardware cloth, set up with an A-frame, and added to the run with another length of electric fencing it will be just the thing for broodies and babies. I can see it from here, but there’s a long way to go with it. Meanwhile, Zen has gone broody for sure and Rachel’s giving it serious thought....

Friday afternoon I got home from work and noticed Finn was not among the (diminishing) group of non-broody chickens that met me at the gate (as they do every day when I arrive anticipating the scratch I give them). He came barreling out of the coop when he realized I was there, but he’s usually right there to meet me. Found Clucky on her nest as usual, clucking softly. Hens and their chicks “talk” to each other right before hatch, so I was feeling hopeful. And after dark when I went to close them up, there was peeping!

Saturday morning, there was still peeping, but there was also a strong smell coming from underneath Clucky. I was afraid a chick had died, so in the afternoon I checked underneath her as well as I could since she was sitting in the back of the crate beyond my easy reach. I had to actually put my head and shoulders inside the crate and I seriously ruffled her feathers in the process. She was nice about it though and did not go for my head! I found her on 6 live chicks and two unhatched eggs leaving one unaccounted for (apparently hidden up under Clucky’s wing). One of the eggs was peeping madly, and I found no evidence of a dead chick or exploded egg so I removed the broken eggshells and quickly put everything else back under her. More waiting......

A stupid amount of mental and physical effort early Sunday resulted in a temporary enclosure attached to the inner compound where they will stay until they are big enough to handle the electric fence.

By Sunday morning there were seven.

We ended up with two lavender Orpingtons,

....one blue-laced red and one gold-laced (I think) Wyandotte,

...two Barnevelders and one speckled Sussex (Finn and Rachel’s baby). They’re all doing fine and are very cute. Clucky’s being a great mom, except for abandoning her chicks for the coop in a sudden rainstorm. She called them, but they couldn’t figure out the ramp, so I ran out and rescued them.

It’s a little stressful. My numbers have doubled in one fell swoop and I still have more broodies. Some of these babies will be boys (I can already make some guesses), so they will have to find new homes. But for the time being, all is well.

Counting My Chickens

A day or two after Memorial Day I noticed that Clucky might be broody. I watched her for a couple of days and she was showing all the signs: spending days and nights in the nest box, “growling” and raising her hackles at me when I tried to pet her, and puffing up once out of the box. She’s pretty young still at just 30 weeks--I didn’t expect this until next summer, if at all. I also recently read that young pullets sometimes try on broodiness for size and then snap out of it, but I also know that it is sometimes impossible to “break” a broody and they go on to starve if not allowed to raise chicks.

I considered my options. I could try to “break” her, but if she was serious about being broody, I’d rather let her raise some chicks. My plan would be to sell the boys and keep the girls. I didn’t want her to set her own eggs (or those of any of my other pullets except Rachel) because then the offspring would be mixed-breed, and while that would be fine for the females, it would make it hard to sell off the males. I could set Rachel’s eggs and get more speckled Sussex, but I saw this as an opportunity to get some additional breeds I’ve had my eye on.

Some time on the internet led me to Nellie from TheFancyChick.com who sells hatching eggs from some of the breeds I’ve been interested in and who is also located near enough that I could drive there to get the eggs rather than risk having them sent through the mail. So after a day of phone tag, it was arranged, and yesterday morning I went on a road trip and picked up my eggs (after checking on Clucky one more time).

I didn’t want to get too many for this first time, especially if Clucky snaps out of her broodiness before the eggs hatch, but some extras were included. So I ended up with 2 lavender Orpingtons, 1 blue/black/splash Orpington, 3 Barnevelders, and 2 blue-laced red Wyandottes. I also put 2 of Rachel’s eggs under her for good measure.

We didn’t get off to a great start. When I arrived home, I went out with the eggs and some scratch, and knowing treats were in the offing, Clucky came off the nest for her share. This was fine--it’s what she’s been doing every day, and it gave me a chance to put the eggs in her nest without disturbing her. I went back inside to give her a chance to settle back in. Meanwhile, my farmer neighbor (and the rest of central Ohio) has been taking advantage of our dry spell this week to get his crops planted at last. The tractor in the field right behind the coop must have spooked the chickens because when I went back outside, Clucky, Finn, and Goldi were pacing outside of the electric fence. I hazed them back in, but Clucky stayed off the nest long enough for me to think she’d given it up for good. She did return eventually, and now this morning seems dedicated to her task. So now we wait.....

I also have to consider how these potential babies will be raised. Best case scenario is that I can leave them in the coop and Clucky will keep them safe from the other chickens and raise them. This would be the easiest for me since I wouldn’t have to deal with re-introductions later and wouldn’t have to worry about additional housing until the boys got old enough to be a problem. However, the electric fence would be a hazard to little chicks for at least a few weeks--they could get trapped outside, or worse, entangled in it, and I would also have to start feeding everybody chick starter again until the babies got to be 18-20 weeks old.

I’m planning on another coop for Clucky and her brood--I know I need one anyway for any birds that would ever need to be separated, but the additional expense gives me pause. We could use the as yet unfinished “spa” for the inner run, and I could buy another string of fence which my charger should be able to accommodate. Steve, with visions of chicken hoarding is mentally rolling his eyes. Stay tuned.....