Two more chicks

I'm wondering if we're only going to end up with three chicks this time. Two eggs still show no signs of hatching. Here are the two that hatched Friday and Saturday -- this morning they followed their mom out of the nest.

Update: the other two eggs were undeveloped -- so this is it.

First silkie chick hatched

Fancypants Johnson is sitting on five eggs -- the first one just hatched. The breeds should be brown silkies and cochin frizzles. This little guy would be a brown silkie -- it was already incubating when the breeder gave it to us. The other eggs should hatch in early September.

Two roosters rehomed

The chicks we hatched in May are now maturing and two of the roosters started crowing last week. The two pictured here (in a very roostery stare-down) were sold today to a family who wants to breed chickens that lay dark eggs. These guys are very lucky that they'll get to go live on a farm.

Five eggs set today

One of my chickens (Fancypants Johnson) is back on the nest for the third time this year, so I'm finally letting her hatch some eggs. Today we all went out to a farm where they raise bantam chickens and got 5 fertilized eggs. The chicks should hatch on around Sept. 3. The breeds are silkie and cochin frizzle, which are small, fluffy and very tame.  Do I really need more chickens? No -- I'll probably have to sell these.

One hen off to a new home

Today we sold Penguin to some people in Cloverdale who are just starting out with chickens. For the past several days, she had a trial separation from the rest of the chickens; this seems to have resolved the pecking order problem we were having. The younger ones are now integrating well with the rest of the flock. Penguin was always such a sweet chicken -- we hope a change of dynamics will do her good.

So now we're down to 5 hens and 3 young roosters. The roosters are also advertised on Craigslist. It would be great if they also sold soon -- they'll probably start crowing this month. We won't be able to keep roosters with our neighbors so close.

Life without Mom

Penguin, the mother hen who was so faithful to her eggs and chicks, made a dramatic transformation back to a regular egg-laying hen this week. She laid her first egg in three months and now chases her chicks away. Here's a photo of them on their own.

Update: She's getting quite mean -- even tackling them to peck them if they get close to the food. I'm having to put food out in multiple places. This can't go on for much longer...

Don't let a chicken get this close to your eye!

I was happy that this guy jumped up on my shoulder when I was in the coop so I tried to take a photo of  "us".  Just after I snapped the picture, he pecked me right in the eye. It still hurts!

Update on chicks

The chicks, pictured here with their mother, are almost two months old  now -- they run so fast that its hard to get a picture unless they're eating. Four are Black Copper Marans.

The one on the left is a cross between a Maran and one of the red hens  that the breeder had on the property (we wanted 6 eggs and he didn't have enough from the Marans). This was the little yellow chick that we helped hatch -- see previous posts).

It looks like we'll have 2 females to keep and 3 roosters to eat or sell.(I only want to sell them to someone who wants this breed, not someone who's just going to eat them.) Black Copper Marans are known for their dark brown eggs. They'll also get pretty black, copper and green feather colouring when they mature.

Time out or time up?

The aptly named "Vulture" has always been the meanest hen and is pictured here with telltale feathers in her beak. They say that if you hold an aggressive chicken periodically it will mellow them out, but it doesn't seem to work with this one. She has always had it out for Penguin and she shows no mercy for the chicks either. We're thinking that she'll go into the stewpot next month if we have a female chick to replace her.

This chick shown below looks like a female so far. At this age they're so feisty -- this one jumped up on my shoulder.

Baxter foiled

Our favorite neighborhood cat spends a lot of time watching the chickens through the new netting.

Netting over chicken run

This week the chicks -- 3 weeks old -- are joining the others in the coop. To keep out the neighborhood cats and other predators, we put a net over the whole run. Covering every gap was a lot of work. We've been meaning to do this for a while -- it will be safer for the full grown birds as well.

Second photo: Chicks still get warm and sleep under mom.

First outing

The hen and chicks spent some time outside today. Mom is teaching the little ones how to follow her around. I was surprised when she headed down the stairs, so I lured them into the chicken tractor (with food) so they could stay out for a while.

Indoor chickens

It was raining yesterday and we wanted to be able to watch our hen Penguin and her brood, so we set up a rubbermaid bin and brought them inside for the day. Most of the chicks are 3 days old.

Yay -- Mom and 5 chicks!

Helping a chick hatch

With 4 chicks hatched, mother hen Penguin left the nest yesterday to take the babies to the food and water. The last 2 eggs were abandoned. One had a pipped shell and chick peeping inside, so we took it to take a closer look. This egg, which was the largest of all of them, was pipped on the small end of the egg (the wrong end), which maybe was the problem. We brought it inside, but without a proper incubator set up, we decided to help it hatch.

In the photos you can see where we chipped off the shell without removing the membrane. We were trying to keep plenty of warmth and humidity -- and ended up pulling out the steamer pan! We used a washcloth and spray bottle to keep the membrane moist. Finally the chick hatched out of the membrane and we put it under its mother. 

More chicks

As of this morning we have 4 hatched chicks, one egg pipping, and one egg with no sign of hatching yet.

When Penguin was just sitting on eggs, we could lure her off the nest with food, but now she won't budge. To show the kids the chicks this morning I had to lift her off, wearing gloves since she has a mean peck now.

Hayday

We're getting the coop and run ready for little ones, so we cleaned it out and brought in new straw mulch.

Are you my mother?

New chick and Charlie (our bearded dragon). The other 5 eggs still show no signs of hatching yet. They are due to hatch Friday or Saturday, but for some reason this chick hatched early.

Starting up a brooder inside

We've got the little guy inside in a heated brooder now. We'll put the chicks in here as they come out one by one, then return them to their mother when the last ones are hatching.

First chick -- quick photo

Mom got off the nest to chase another chicken away, so I got a quick photo. With this unexpectedly early hatch, we're scrambling to separate the mom and chicks from the other hens. Just now I shut the other chickens out of the henhouse and set up a roost and nesting box for them below.

This afternoon, I'm taking a crash course by reading on  BackyardChickens.com about this kind of situation, (called a "staggered hatch"). This can be a problem because the mother will want to leave the nest with the first chicks to show them where the food and water are, leaving the other eggs to get cold.  So to keep this from happening, we'll need to remove the chicks one by one as they hatch and bring them into a heated brooder. Then when the last eggs are hatching, we'll put them all back under their mother.