Chicks

The eggs that I was incubating never hatched. I'm not sure what happened to them. As I wrote last time, several of them seemed to be developing but it's hard to know what you're going to end up with.

I resorted to a much more dependable, and expensive solution. I got a box of chicks from a hatchery. These travel through the USPS and it looks like they made a stop at LAX, poor things.


They all survived the trip though. There are 20 Black Australorps and 5 Polish that I got for Alex.


As I moved each one from the box into the brooder I dipped their beaks in the water to let them know what it was. Some things you have to teach them, but they learn fast.

Once one gets the hang of it the rest copy it.


I started out with one box, but after a week they were starting to crowed it a little.

I added another box that doubled their space and gave them room to run around.


This is what they looked like a week ago.


And this is them now.

They grow so fast they'll need a bigger space soon. I'm going to move the pullets up to the coop and then the chicks can go in the tractor. I just need to move one of the heat lamps out there to keep them warm. I figure I'll give them another week inside and then they'll be a month old and will have a lot of their feathers. They will only need the heat source now and then to warm up in between running around and scratching in the dirt.

Incubator

The eggs that I put in the incubator a while back went into lock down this morning. That means that I took them out of the egg turner and I won't open the incubator again until the chicks hatch.

The turner has a little electric motor and a gear that turns the eggs back and forth so the chicks don't get stuck in the same place. With out the turner I would have to turn them by hand twice a day. A mother hen would also shift the eggs periodically throughout the day.


Out of the 20 eggs that I put in the incubator there are only 9 still in there. These two won't be going back in. I think they were cracked during shipping. The cracks allow bacteria to enter and turn the eggs rotten.


Rotten egg comes bubbling out of the crack. This egg was stuck to the turner. It smells about as bad as you would expect.


This egg had just a pin hole with egg coming out but it was enough to turn the egg.


The other thing you do at lock down is add water to increase the humidity inside the incubator. This will keep the chicks from drying out as they hatch. If it's too dry their fluff could stick to the eggs and they won't be able to hatch. I also add a wet sponge which helps add humidity. You can see the condensation forming on the window. It disappeared after a few minutes.

I added a little computer fan to the inside. The fan helps to even out the temperature inside the incubator so every part is the same. When it gets closer to the time for the hatch I'll turn the fan off. It could also dry a chick out.

I'm not sure how many chicks to expect. There is definitely something developing in 7 or 8 of them but you never know what you're going to end up with. As long as I get a decent cockerel out of this batch I'll be able to breed more next summer with the three pullets that I got from Dare 2 Dream Farm.

Obligatory New-Chick Video

I had two hens that had a broody relay race. One of them sat on the eggs for 2 weeks and gave up and the next hen finished it out and won the prize. The prize is 3 Mottle Java chicks and one Australorp hybrid.

I'm excited about the Javas. I drove out to Mira Loma, CA a month ago to get the eggs from a nice lady that has a giant garden interspersed with a few varieties of chickens and a fair number of cats.

Javas are credited with being the foundation of several popular American Breeds like Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks. I read some great things about them so I thought it would give them a try.

Although the chicks are mostly yellow they should be mostly black with white mottling when mature:

©2005-2010 MY PET CHICKEN

Mauraders

I've been letting the hen out with her chicks cuz it's so fun to watch them running around the yard. It does have it's risks though. I usually worry more about hawks and cats, but sometimes I have to worry about my cucumbers.

These two are doing a good job of looking nonchalant. They're just hanging out, no big thing.


But when I came back later they were stomping all over everything. They aren't so interested in the plants as what's under them. They scratch through all the dirt looking for bugs.


Here they are high tailing it to escape my rage.

The chicks are at that awkward stage of half feathers half fuzz and all legs. It's not a good look.



And back in jail, where they belong

New Chicks V.5

I used to think that chicks were the cutest thing ever, but now I think that chicks with a mother hen are the cutest thing ever.


She's teaching them the all important skill of scratching in the dirt.

Chicken Shuffle

So the latest batch of chicks have been living in a box on my desk.


It makes it easy to take care of them and I can see them as I work. The problem is that their constant scratching and running around sends up a plume of dust that settles on everything. These chicks are two weeks old now so I decided to move them somewhere a little more appropriate.


This is my first coop. I built it to house two hens. The wooden part on the left is the actual coop and the part enclosed on the right is the run. Theoretically the chickens run around in the run during the day and then go into the coop to sleep. I say theoretically because the last batch of chicks, which are 6 weeks old now have other ideas. They only use the run. They sleep in a pile in the corner next to the food and water. For the first few days I would move them into the coop every night thinking that they would get the idea but they never did. Now during the day they run around in the yard if I'm home and then go into the run to sleep. This leaves the coop entirely unused so I thought I would move the new chicks in. They'd have twice as much space and it would keep them out of my hair.


That was my plan until one of the hens in the big coop went broody. This means that she wants to sit on the eggs rather than lay them. You can tell a hen has gone broody when they hunker down like this and by the mean look in their eye.

I love a broody hen. If they are willing to sit on the eggs it means that I don't have to incubate them and raise the chicks myself. The broody hen does it better and saves me all of the work. The problem is that a broody hen needs a secluded place to hatch out her eggs. I have four nest boxes for my ten hens and they all lay in the same one, the same one that this hen has claimed for her own. In this photo she is sitting on about 12 eggs laid by all the different hens in the coop. That's not so bad except that all of the other hens will continue to come in here to lay their eggs and the broody will scoop them up and try to hatch them. Eventually she would be sitting on a pile of eggs that all started incubating at different times which would be a recipe for disaster.


I decided to scrap my original plan to move the chicks into the little coop and move the broody in there instead. She would have a dark, private place to hatch and there wouldn't be other hens to lay more eggs. Again the chicken had other ideas. I made a little nest for her with some eggs to give her the right idea. I put her in the coop thinking that she would see the eggs and settle down on top of them. No deal. She shot out of the coop into the run and struck up a loud ruckus. She was totally agitated and mad and wanted nothing to do with her newly dubbed broody coop. I caught her again and shut her into the coop this time so she couldn't get out. She never settled down and went so far as to over turn the nest box and scatter the eggs. I guess the environment was just too foreign and she was nervous.


I finally gave up and moved her to one of the unused nest boxes in the big coop and that seemed to satisfy her. Here she is looking much more comfortable:

This isn't a perfect solution since the other hens might decide that they like this box now too. I could close this box so the others couldn't get in but the broody needs to get up once a day to eat drink and poop. I'll have to keep an eye on things and make adjustments later.

So I returned to my original plan to move the chicks into the little coop. They have a light for warmth and food and water. When the older chicks move up to the big coop in a week or two I'll open the door for these guys and let them out into the run.





So I was feeling that I had bought myself a little time until I went up to the big coop this morning and saw this:

This is a different hen. I think she's broody.
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