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It's just not a farm without chickens! We have a small
free roaming flock of 5 hens and 1 rooster. They are so
amusing to watch, always busy scratching around. The
kids love collecting the eggs from the hay loft each day
and trying to catch them is always a big hit when they
have friends over!
Above is Nathan with Lucky, a hen he raised a few years
ago. He loves the chickens so much, he asked for an
incubator for his 7th birthday! We've just added poultry
to our rabbit 4H club, so Nathan and the boys will
expand their small animal projects this year at Fair.
Should be fun!
Our chickens roam free range in our barn area...and
wherever else they wish to go!
There are 5 hens and a Rhoded Island Red Rooster named
Cordell.
Cordell is Nathan's Rhode Island Red rooster. A friend
asked if he could give Nathan a free chicken that needed
a home. We said "Sure, as long as it's not a rooster!"
This free "hen" supposedly laid eggs too. Nathan loved
him from the start, so he stayed...we have yet to get an
egg from him though!
Nathan's Project...
March 24 ~ Nathan decided on what breeds he
wanted and the bidding began! We won 3 ebay bids for
hatching eggs.
March 28 ~ The eggs were delivered to our door by
our postman on a snowy afternoon...not one broke! The
green egg in the top right corner is from our own hens.
Now to incubate for 21 days...
April 16 ~ Three days until hatch, so we removed the eggs
from the egg turner and set up the brooder (tub with a
heat lamp).
April 17th ~ Nathan can hardly wait! With 1 day
to go, I got a bit nervous (we've raised baby chicks
before, but never hatched them ourselves) that the eggs would not hatch. We picked one up and held a flashlight to
it, then shook it a little bit. I actually heard a peep! And
then another! Now the kids can hardly bear the
anticipation! One more day...
April 18 ~
4:30Am, one egg has pipped!
April 18 ~ 6:00Am, the progress is slow, but the kids
are glued to the incubator! We see a beak! Another egg
has a small crack and is moving and peeping...
April 18 ~ 6:30Am, slowly but surely...
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April 18 ~ 7:00Am, progress! The kids are playing hooky
from school to watch...
April 18 ~ 7:30Am, almost here...looks like a Black Orpington. You can see the little "tooth" that chips the
shell.
April 18 ~ 8:30Am, this could take all day...what a lot
of work!
11:30Am ~ The chick appears to have dried membranes...oh
great. The humidity must be wrong. He's stuck and dried
to the shell.
11:45Am ~ Not sure he'll make it, but we used a damp
paper towel to loosen the dried on membrane to free the
chick. Things obviously didn't go quite right, but for
now, the little guy is chirping away. We'll
see....
The other egg with a crack is peeping, so we're hopeful
it should hatch soon...kind of stressful!!! We added
more water to the incubator to raise the humidity.
12:15Pm, The chick is trying to stand and move about,
which is a good sign. He's slow to dry and fluff from
the sticky membrane, but has lots of spunk. Time to get
something else done besides chickens. Will update later...
2:15Pm ~ "Peep" is doing well and is walking around the
brooder. Nathan is a proud papa!
4:15Pm ~ Here we go again....egg #2 !!!
April 19 ~
1:30Am, The second chick is hatching, but still has a
ways to go. Too sleepy for pictures this time!
4:00AM ~ My husband woke me up...the chick is hatched,
dried and fluffed up in the incubator! He's a Blue,
while our first chick is a Black. We moved the Blue to
the brooder. Nathan will be thrilled!
10:00Pm, Both chicks are doing well...
No signs of anymore pipping, so I think that may be it
until Monday when the Wyandottes and Barred Rocks are
due to hatch. This was fun!
April 21 ~ There are now 11 healthy chicks. There are 2 Orpingtons, 3 Wyandottes,
4 Barred
rocks, and 2 Rhode Island/Araucana crosses from our own
hens.
April 29~ The kids have had a lot of fun playing with
the 11 chicks. They are slowly getting some feathers.
Today is the first day that I found myself thinking
maybe we'd move them out of the house soon... maybe it's
changing their water 12 times a day that has me annoyed!
I can't believe Nathan has a box of 25 day old Polish
chicks coming in May!!!!!!!!!
May 3 ~ We set up a larger brooder pen in the barn
today. They are growing so fast!
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