Tag: baby chicks

What observing broody hens taught me about incubating eggs: A how to

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Last week, for the first time in five years, I cleaned up the nice incubator and prepared it for hatching eggs. Last fall, the meat chickens we ordered came with some kind of respiratory illness. I do knot know if they had it from the hatchery or picked up something along the way, but some very sick chickens arrived last fall. We lost 11 of 26, and I think the only reason the rest survived was because of my experience with respiratory illnesses in chickens and Ron’s ability to remove and cull quickly. It was a nightmare for sure.

And, to add to the stress of all of it, we had to worry about our main flock getting the sickness. We had to wash constantly and never let anything that touched the sick chickens touch anything that would go to our main flock. And keeping Ruby away from the baby chicks was an extra challenge because you know how she is.

Thankfully, we succeeded in keeping our flock from getting sick, but the whole experience led to some deep thinking about ordering chicks from the hatchery moving forward. I am sure getting sick chicks in the mail is overall quite rare, but with the state of things and our deep connection to our flock, we decided to not risk ordering live chicks this year and just order hatching eggs.

This means my incubator skills from years ago will come in quite handy–only I’m nervous I don’t have the skills I used to. Still, I am going into this experience with a lot of wisdom learned from my broody hen mamas, so I wanted to share instructions for hatching chicks from hatching eggs with notes from my observations of what a broody hen does to ensure a successful hatch. After all, Mother Nature knows best, so if I can copy her, I surely will.

And I have to add that, so far, so good because I candled the eggs on Saturday, and out of 36 hatching eggs, we had just one that wasn’t developing. It’s early, but I am hopeful for good numbers.

Instructions for Hatching Chicken Eggs (with broody hen notes)

Choose a Good Incubator

The first step is to choose a good incubator. You want to choose an incubator that measure temperature and humidity, and I highly recommend one with an automatic turner. Good visibility and easy cleaning are perks, and one thing I learned from experience is that, if you live in a colder climate and want to start incubating in the spring when it might still be chilly outside, a styrofoam incubator holds the temperature better. I haven’t researched incubators in a long time, but read for real reviews and consider your price range. We have a Hova Bator, and I have had good success with it. I had a plastic shell incubator first, and it did pretty well as well; however, I had to add heat on the outside to help ensure the temperature stayed proper on the inside.

Choose a Good Space

I learned from my broody hens that a good space can make a big difference in success rates for hatching. You want to choose a space for your incubator that is out of the way and dark. I cleaned out a closet for ours because I want to make sure the eggs stay in the dark. After all, under a broody hen, it’s warm and dark.

Prepare Your Incubator

Even if your incubator is new, you will want to clean it. It’s best to not use harsh chemicals because fragile little babies are going to be born in that incubator. I use vinegar and water to wipe down any parts I cannot submerge in water, and I then I submerge and scrub any parts that can be submerged, like the flooring. Again, no harsh chemicals, just some vinegar and water.

After you have your incubator cleaned and dried, it’s time to set it up and test it out for a day or so to make sure it can maintain the temperature and humidity you want. You will add water to the water reservoirs, turn on the incubator, and then start monitoring things. You want to ensure consistent temperature and see how much water you need to add to ensure consistent humidity. You also want to make sure the turner works.

A broody hen is magically consistent. She sits for 21 days, only leaving for some periodic bathroom breaks. I keep food and water near our broody hens, so she can have easy access to nourishment. And I always hear the turning of eggs at night. I am sure she probably turns eggs during the day too, but in the quiet of night, it’s so cool to hear a broody hen in there turning her eggs with such care. You definitely want to make sure your incubator is consistent like a broody hen.

Temperature and Humidity Level

Temperature: 99.5 degrees if your incubator has an air circulator, 101-102 degrees if your incubator has still air

Humidity: 45-55% until lockdown on Day 18 (I have seen varying thoughts on humidity, but this is a good range for our incubator that circulates the air.)

Humidity: 60-70% for lockdown from Day 18 to Day 21 (You have to work pretty hard in the last few days to keep that humidity up, but it’s important to prevent the membrane from sticking to the chick during hatching.)

Schedule

When your incubator is ready, and your temperature and humidity are at proper levels, it’s time to start. You should not wash the fertilized eggs, but you can dust off any messy bits. I tend to avoid really dirty eggs just because. The whole journey will take a total of 21 days, but I have had eggs hatch as late as day 24. I also had a broody hen who ended up with a very cold egg in the middle of a process stay on that egg and hatch that baby at day 29! We still have that baby chick. She’s all grown up and will be four years old this summer.

After Day 7, you can candle the eggs. If the chick is developing, you will see blood vessels or a dark spot forming in the egg. To candle the egg, simply hold up a flashlight to the egg. If the egg has a dark shell, you will have to get into a really dark room and hold the flashlight up to the egg and then study hard. If you see just a clear egg and a yolk that just moves around freely, you know that one isn’t going to develop and should be removed to prevent it from rotting and exploding. If you are unsure and think you might see some development, leave the egg in the incubator for now and candle again after waiting several more days.

I used to stress out about candling and try to hurry so fast, worried that somehow being out of the incubator a few minutes would be harmful. I even accidentally broke an egg in my rush before. After seeing that a broody mama can leave her eggs for up to an hour and everything will be just fine, I no longer rush. Take your time and be careful with the eggs when you candle.

On Day 18, it’s time for lockdown. First, you will remove the eggs from the incubator and candle them again. Be careful that you have a good, safe places for holding and candling the eggs. Of course, remove any eggs that stopped developing. At this point, the egg should be full. You can sometimes see little feathers, which is just so cool.

While the eggs are out of the incubator, remove the turner. The eggs will stay still for the last three days. When a broody hen gets to Day 18, she stops leaving the nest. She will not even eat or drink, so I take them water. They won’t eat much though because they know they can’t leave. For the last days, the heat and humidity needs to be steady.

After you remove the turner, you may want to put down some shelf paper to help the chicks have traction when they hatch. I have not done this before, but I read about it and plan to do it this time. I read it can help prevent splay leg.

Be sure to keep the humidity up during lockdown! This is so important!

At this time, you should also get your brooder ready for the babies with food, water, and a heat source. (That will be a different post.)

By Day 20, you will likely start to see some pips in the eggs, but don’t panic if you do not. If all is well, most the eggs will hatch on Day 21, but you should definitely give them a few extra days. Hopefully, you will have a successful hatch.

After the Hatch

First of all, just like a mama hen, you are going to be so excited when those babies start hatching. When they first hatch, they look rough. They are wet and tired from all of that work unzipping an egg. They are also really wobbly. But the wobbly won’t last long. Soon, they will fluff out and get their legs under them.

Once they are completely fluffed, you can move them to the brooder. Definitely let them get good and fluffy before you remove them, and wait until you have at least two or three ready before they go to the brooder. If you put one in the brooder alone, that baby will cry itself to death. That may be an exaggeration, but I can see the possibility. Chickens are social right from the get go.

I have to admit that, after seeing the way a mama hen and a baby chick look at each other, I always feel sorry for the chicks that I hatch. I am a terrible mama replacement. Just terrible. But I do my best, and the chicks have each other, which helps. Plus, when you are the mama hen, you definitely get to know the chicks better.

If you are thinking about trying incubating eggs for the first time and have questions, please do not hesitate to leave a question. I hope these notes helpful, and I hope you get to see this very soon!

photo credit: Christian Bowen, Unsplash

Petty Lets Go

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Petty’s babies are nearly 13 weeks old. A week ago, we moved the family to the coop, and the transition went very well. I was worried the first night because Petty didn’t sleep with her babies, but we discovered that she would sleep on the roost and then, first thing in the morning, go find her babies and hand out with them all day.

It was the sweetest thing. Every morning, when I opened the little coop door, the babies would dart out first and follow me to their special bowl of food, and within about five minutes, Petty would show up and make sure the other chickens didn’t eat her babies’ food.

This morning, she was slow to get to her babies but still came to them. However, later in the day, I saw little Clara out in the middle of the yard by herself, and when I collected eggs this afternoon (all two of them), Ruby’s baby, who still has no name, was hanging out with one of the Faverolles.

Then, I saw Petty. She was hanging out with Rooster. I dropped what I was doing and ran inside to get her some treats. I am going to miss being so close to Petty, and I am hoping we can stay fairly close if I just keep singling her out. I worry though because she was surely one who blended into the crowd before becoming a mama.

I was so hopeful when I chose Petty to be the mama to our fall babies. She is the daughter of Mary Jane and Rooster, two of the smartest chickens I have ever seen. I figured Petty just had to be smart, and I was right. She’s brilliant, so chill, and I loved that she was wise enough to just let me and Ron be her helpers. Because of this, her babies are not wild and afraid of me, and next year, when we hatch babies, I will hope for Petty to be a mama again. She seemed to handle it beautifully. She doesn’t even look all ragged and stressed at the end of it all like all the other mamas.

I hope Petty’s babies remain healthy, strong chickens. They are doing great so far. And we have four girls for sure and maybe one or two boys. They are such mutts that I can’t tell if they are boys or girls, even at 13 weeks. I guess I know when I hear the crow.

Oh, and speaking of crows, our little black rooster we kept from Ruby’s hatch is doing great overall. He’s so pretty and doing well, despite Dvorak constantly “putting the run on him,” as Ron says. The cutest thing happened though. Because he’s the youngest and just barely over being a baby himself at 5 and 1/2 months, he kept trying to hang out with Petty and her babies when they joined the flock.

At first, I thought he was after Petty, trying to mate with her, but after a while, it became clear he just wanted to be a baby too. Petty just let him hang out because she’s so chill. I could surely learn some life lessons from Petty.

Petty, Super Mama

~ Crystal Sands ~ 1 Comment

Petty’s babies are getting so big that they are nearly as big as she is, but she is still fiercely being a mama. It’s fantastic to see, but we have this tiny flock of nearly grown chickens running around the driveway and garage. This means we have chicken poop everywhere. Last week, Ron said, “Aren’t Petty’s babies like 8 or 9 weeks old now, old enough to go with the flock.”

I couldn’t remember how old the babies are, but I could see they are big enough to go in with the flock. Petty will just have to stay with them within the flock, but this is a hard thing to do. Petty loves her life living in the front yard and loves being a mama with her little gang. I was said but had to admit it was probably time. Most of our hens will be finished with babies at about 6 weeks. I just counted the weeks and realized Petty’s babies are 10 weeks old!

Still, I’m so worried about the change for her.

This is Petty and her gang from a few days ago. Don’t they truly look like a gang?

Today, I did the deep clean on the coop. It was epic and exhausting, but I made it all super clean to make space in there for Petty’s crate. Tonight, we put the crate in there, and Petty will be able to stay with her babies in the crate at night, but during the day, they will have to be a little gang within the flock.

I think the babies are going to be fine. Our flock is kind, and the babies have been wanting to get into the coop for weeks. In fact, today when I was cleaning, Petty’s babies made a run on the coop and played and played in there. However, I am very worried about Petty. She gets into fights when other hens even get near her babies. She is the fiercest, kindest, most wonderful mama hen I have ever seen. It has been a joy of my life getting to know Petty these last 10 weeks. I can see for sure that she is absolutely at the top in terms of chicken intelligence I have seen.

Oh, and speaking of intelligent chicken, Mary Jane is still doing well. In fact, she’s a little better than she had been. She likes the cooler weather. Today, when I opened the coop back up after the deep clean, she came in and just played and played and even jumped into a high nest box. I was impressed she was getting around so well. That chicken is amazing, and her daughter is really amazing too!

There are times in my life I feel like such a failure. Recently, I have really been struggling with this. I try to remember that I am a work in progress, but sometimes, I feel down that I didn’t do more with my life. I don’t know what that more is. It’s just this feeling. But, as I write these words and think about how lucky I am that I am a human who gets to know Mary Jane and her amazing daughter, Petty, I feel really lucky. What more could I want? I mean, really.

We take it for granted.

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

So Petty and her babies have become a little bit internet famous. I have been sharing a couple of short videos each week using Facebook’s reels. I have noticed that my Facebook has been full of notifications all week, but I didn’t have time to look into them. It turns out that one of the videos I posted of Petty showing off her babies to the flock has had over 350,000 views. The short little video, just a random video of Petty scratching around with her babies, is getting comments from all over the world–and that’s the best part.

The comments are lovely. Some of them are in languages I don’t know, but some in English said things like “I could watch these babies all day” and “I am mesmerized by the little white one.” People love these babies. They are a particularly beautiful hatch, but it’s fascinating to me that this video and a few others have been so interesting to people.

I told Ron about this and about how happy I am that Petty and her babies are making people smile all over the world. That makes my heart so happy. Ron was happy about this too.

“It’s funny how we just take it for granted,” he said. “We have this magnificent mama hen and these beautiful babies right there every time we go outside.”

It’s true. I try to make time to take in their beauty at least a couple of times a week, but I take then for granted too. I take Petty for granted. She is the best mama I have ever seen–and we have had some good ones. She trusts us and seems to know where are there to help. She know how to tell us what she wants or needs, and that helps so much. Petty is the daughter of Mary Jane and Rooster, so, of course, she’s the smartest mama hen ever.

Because I wanted you to be able to see this video, even if you are not on Facebook, I found it and uploaded it to YouTube. It’s only about a minute, but it’s pretty fantastic. I hope it makes your heart happy.

Fall Babies

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

I can’t tell if we have four or five babies so far, as there are little feet everywhere under Petty, but she’s doing a great job! I was able to get some pictures this morning, and I am so excited to have fall baby chicks. They are such spirit lifters, and I am extra excited because we, for sure, have two little Welsummer babies! Rooster is a Welsummer, and I guess, in his effort to keep up with Dvorak, he had done pretty well for a seven-year-old rooster.

The Welsummer babies are the ones with stripes on their backs. I think there are other breeds that have this, but it’s a classic Welsummer marking as well. I’m happy to get more Rooster babies.

Of course, Dvorak has done well too. Ruby’s egg has hatched, and Dvorak is definitely the daddy on that one. I also think we have a Silver egg that has hatched because we have a little silver baby running around under there.

Generally, we only hatch chicks in the summer because we want to make sure there is plenty of warmth for them to grow up, but we learned a few years ago that late summer hatches do work out and that there’s enough time in the early fall for the babies to get their feathers before it gets cold outside, even here in Maine.

I can’t wait to see what all we have. Oh, and Ron just came to get me to confirm there are five babies. He was taking Bairre for a walk and said he saw all five out and about. I am so proud of Petty! Oh, and here’s the best part. She’s pretty chill. She lets me touch the babies, just like Lucy and Broody Hen used to. How wonderful is that?

How do you mend a broken heart?

~ Crystal Sands ~ 1 Comment

It’s been very strange and empty feeling around here without Lucy, Schumann, and our Little Brown Hen. I am lost without my Lucy routine, it seems, and it breaks my heart that I look out into the flock and do not see Schumann. It seems like she should just be there.

This is part of life on the farm, of course, but I worry I may be getting worse at it. After Poe passed away in 2019, I would tougher for awhile. Nothing compared to that, so I could handle other losses around here. But, in the last few years, I have come to a deep understanding of chickens as animals, and this has made me fall in love with each and every one of them–even my mean, difficult girls, like Ruby. Last night, I was collecting eggs from under Joan, one of our last broody hens of the summer. Joan was fussing about it, pecking me a little, when all of a sudden I got a huge mean peck on the arm from someone else. I turned around to see who could be that mean as to walk up, get involved, and peck me. It was Ruby. That chicken!

Still, Ruby has my whole heart, doesn’t she?

Meet Petty! Named in honor of Tom Petty, just like her mama. She looks so much like her mama.

I have been a little down and very tired after this week’s loss. I discovered both of Ruby’s babies from her hatch this summer are, in fact, boys. I have to try to find them a home this week, but I haven’t yet. I had to put up our last round of blueberries yesterday, and it took me forever, just because I am so slow right now. It was Ron who had the idea to cheer things up around here. He said, “There’s still time. If we have any broody hens left, put some eggs under her. We could use a few new hens.”

My mind immediately went to Petty. She is Mary Jane’s daughter and a sturdy, strong hen. Normally, you would not want a baby chick from a meat bird like Mary Jane, but Mary Jane was nearly four years old and still laying when I decided to hatch an egg from her. I figured she was doing pretty well. As Mary Jane is now in her seventh summer with us, I am thankful we have Petty.

Petty is about three years old and just went broody for the first time this summer. I don’t know her very well. She blends in with the flock and just kind of lays low, but Joan is the only other hen who is still broody–and she’s been coming out of it in the last week. I see her out and about a little more each day. So it had to be Petty. Plus, I would love to get know her better. After all, she is Mary Jane’s daughter. She looks just like her too, only smaller. Petty is still a big girl though; when I picked her up to take her to the crate in the garage, I noticed she was a chunk.

At first, she didn’t want to stay in the crate and was upset. Sometimes, the move from the nest box to a crate in the garage can been challenging for broody hens. I’m used to Ruby now though, who just knows the drill and gets to work. Petty was upset in the first few hours, and I worried she might not be able to do it. I gave her lots of eggs though and kept showing her the eggs.

Finally, I told myself I was going to give her just one more hour in the crate. If she still wanted out, I would let her out, but I took her two more eggs, showed them to her, and put them under her. I could tell, somehow, by the way she looked at the eggs that we were going to be all set. And I was right!

Petty is now sitting on like 10 eggs, and she’s doing great! I don’t even know for sure what all eggs I grabbed. There’s a Silver egg, a Juliet egg, a Saint Saens egg, and I got a Ruby egg too. That may be a mistake, but it will be part Dvorak, who has a pretty chill personality. Maybe that will tone down Ruby’s genes. But I am not sure what else is out there. I just grabbed beautiful eggs and said to myself “let’s see what happens.” Hopefully, we will have a good hatch, and our little farm won’t seem so melancholy like it does right now.

Surely, this is one way to mend a broken chicken mama’s heart. I candle next week. I’ll keep you posted!

The saddest song.

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

On Thursday, Ruby officially let go of her babies. I normally write that the mama’s “ditch” their babies, but, for real, this was more of a gradual letting go–and Ruby is my hero for it. The babies made it to seven weeks, which is a good amount of time for the baby to develop. The kiddos, as I refer to them, still have no names. I am sure one is a boy, and the other one is an unusually challenging case. I’ve seen this go either way. But the kiddos are pretty big. They have each other, know the lay of the land around here, and are pretty self sufficient. I’m trying to win them over to me with treats, but they are hesitant, of course.

Ruby raised them so well, but it’s still hard to watch how hard it can be on babies when the mamas let them go. Ruby has been very gentle in the grand scheme of things, but she has still been mean to them. It just breaks their little hearts. Thank goodness they have each other.

Tonight as the worst though.

Right now, we have two giant dog crates in the driveway area, separate from the rest of the flock. It’s risky to have them in the driveway, but they stay very close to home. If we have a chicken who roams too much, they don’t get driveway time unless I am around to watch. Lucy is out because she is in hospice and doesn’t need a rooster on her back. I am very ashamed of Rooster for this, but I am trying not to hold a grudge because he’s getting old and not really who he used to be, sadly. But he’s still Rooster.

So we just moved Lucy out with Ruby and her babies, but Lucy has her own dog crate. I call it an apartment. Our teenager, Ronan, referred to them as “prisons” to me. “They’re not prisons,” I said. “I only lock Lucy in the crate at night for her safety. Plus, she’s asleep, so I’m sure it doesn’t feel like prison.” My son looked at me like,” calm down, lady.”

The first night Ruby kicked her babies out of their apartment and I went to close everyone up in the garage for the night, the babies were outside of the crate crying and crying. Ruby was sitting in there like, “I don’t know who these children are.”

I told Ruby she could at least give the apartment to the babies, and I pulled her out of the crate. I almost put her in the coop with everyone else, and then I decided to let her live in the garage until winter like she did last year. She hates it with the flock, even though she has moved up a little in the pecking order.

The second night, Ruby decided to kick Lucy out of her apartment! I pulled Ruby out of the dog crate, put her in the garage on a shelf/roost, and then had to go find Lucy. Poor old Lucy was hiding in the corner of the fence. I picked her up and put her to bed.

I didn’t know what to expect tonight when I went outside to put up the dog crates and tuck everyone in. I found Lucy in her crate and both Ruby and her babies in their crate! This surprised me, but Ruby was in the back allowing her babies to sleep in the front. But they couldn’t touch her, I guess, because everyone kept their distance.

Then, I saw the sweetest thing ever. The little black rooster is very vocal, just like his mama (Hector) was when she was a baby. He scooted right up to Ruby and put his little head down underneath Ruby’s head and sang the sweetest, sweetest little song you ever heard. I have tears writing this down because it was so beautiful.

I also have tears because of what happened next. Ruby, who always used to sing back to this little boy, pecked him on the head.

He cried and ran out of the create–brokenhearted.

Today, I hatched an egg…

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

Day 21 of 21

Ruby made it to the end, though she looks a little worse for wear. Right now, she has three babies, but I have only had a good look at two. It’s very chilly outside, even in the garage, so all of the babies are tight under mama.

Both of Hector’s eggs hatched, and Bianca’s baby chick just couldn’t hatch all of the way. So after promising myself last night that I would only help a little and let nature take its course, when I saw the egg this morning, I thought it was worth a try to help. It looked like it may have been just stuck in the egg because the egg cracked and the membrane stuck to the chick (though I am not sure if there wasn’t some earlier issue). Still, that seemed fixable–maybe.

I had read some years ago about how to carefully hatch a baby chick from an egg, but I was pretty nervous about it. Baby chicks have skin so thin and fine. It’s very easy to hurt them. Plus, there is the sad reality that most chicks you have to hatch will not make it.

But in this baby’s case, I could see some strength. I thought, since it pipped and Friday and still had some strength on Sunday, maybe there was hope. So, this morning, while Ron did all of the morning chores, I sat in the bathroom light and, with tweezers, hatched a baby chick.

It was both terrifying and magnificent. When I had first eye free and it saw me, it definitely gave extra wiggles. Truly, it helped the whole time though, which makes me a tiny bit hopeful in a fairly hopeless situation. That baby wiggled and wiggled while I carefully peeled back shell and egg membrane one tiny piece at a time with a warm, wet paper towel helping when the membrane was dried and stuck. I hurried as fast as I could, but since I had to be so careful, I am worried about how cool it got–I mean on top of everything else.

We will see what happens. It did manage to fluff out, which is a good sign. However, it is not moving around like the other baby chicks. I am pretty sure it will not make it.

Ron asked me today what I thought its chances were.

“Maybe 50-50,” I said but then thought better. “Maybe just like 70-30.”

I didn’t have to tell Ron which side was 70. He knows. That little golden chick is an underdog for sure, and I always love the underdogs. I’m trying not to let myself love this one though. I am realistic about what will likely happen.

But I am happy overall that Ruby has her babies. She has had a tough broody period. I am glad for her to finally be a mama. This morning, she started eating the baby food and just ate for a bit. Thank goodness!

A Miracle Egg (and Kate’s a Mama)

~ Crystal Sands ~ 1 Comment

Day 40 of 365

I have be eluding to a miracle egg in the last week or so because I didn’t want to jinx my wish that an egg I had under Kate might hatch. I am quite superstitious.

A couple of weeks ago, when Kate and the adopted babies rejected each other, there were five eggs under Kate that she had been sitting on for two weeks. When I switched the eggs for the baby chicks the night we tried to give her the adopted babies, I put all of the eggs in a box near her crate. I wanted to candle the eggs, just to see if our rooster was doing any good work in this department, as he is wonderful but quite old.

I couldn’t carry all of the eggs at once, so I carried in all I could–four eggs–and just left the other in the box in the garage. I candled all four eggs, and they were all duds. I was sad about our rooster but glad I had bought new babies from a good breeder.

Of course, the next morning, Kate and the babies rejected each other, as you know from my earlier post. Kate was so confused and so devastated she lost her eggs. She kept looking and looking for them. In a sad state that morning, I grabbed that egg in the box that had sat in the chilly garage all night.

“What are the odds that egg is developing?” I asked myself. Of course, then I had to admit, even if it was fertilized, it had sat out all night without heat. I had heard of eggs making it for some hours without heat, even though my standard rule is 1 hour. I thought for a moment. “9 hours,” I said out loud. I sighed mightily.

But it wouldn’t hurt to try, and if it would help Kate get to motherhood more quickly than starting all over, it would be worth a try. I took the egg in the house and candled it. There was a baby in there that was quite developed. I said all the bad words. I won’t share those, as I know some children read this blog, but I said all the bad words. I was so mad at myself for not checking the egg the night before. I could have kept the egg warm in the house, just in case Kate rejected the babies.

But there I was–with nothing but a hope for a lot of luck. It would take a miracle.

I put the egg under her and made a wish as I did. Again, I am very superstitious. I also grabbed three eggs from the coop and thought maybe she might get one baby out of those. I thought poor Kate deserved to be a mama. Seeing her get so upset about losing her eggs that morning broke my heart. So, within half an hour, Kate was back in business. She had eggs back under her. Worst case, she would have to go 21 more days with the new eggs from the coop. Best case, one week with the miracle egg.

But a week passed, and there was no hatch. I took the abuse from Kate and grabbed the egg to candle it. I thought maybe it had developed further than when I had seen it last, but I wasn’t sure. It had been a week and though I tried to make a good mental note, I doubted myself. Still, “a few more days, just in case,” I said to Kate when I put the egg back under her.

A few more days passed, and there was still no hatch.

Yesterday, when I woke up in the morning, I told myself “today will be the day I’ll dispose of that egg.” I needed a miracle, but I researched my odds. I understood my chances were small; still, I was melancholy about it.

“After tea,” I told myself. Every morning, after morning chores, my husband and I sit and try to talk for at least half an hour. We won’t see each other much until dark, so we try to touch base every morning.

We had just finished tea, and Ron headed outside to start his work for the day. He came back to find me and said, “Guess who is a mama?” My eyes widened!

“I heard Kate purring and couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” he said. When he went to look, there was a little baby chick. I could tell he was so happy for Kate too. This is one of the many reasons I love that man.

I ran to the garage, and there, right in front of Kate was her little mini-me. Not only did that baby hatch, five days late, but that baby also looks just like Kate did when she was a baby. It’s almost too much cuteness to take.

First Field Trip

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 32 of 365

The first few times we raised baby chicks in a brooder, I was worried every second, just like a new parent, I suppose. But I followed all of the rules for temperature, and every time one was sacked out, I was terrified it was dead. Then, I watched a mama hen raise baby chicks. Those babies were out on field trips at just a few days old, even in cooler temperatures.

Of course, the babies could snuggle up to mama any time they wanted, but I was surprised, based on all the things I had read about the fragility of baby chicks, that the mama would have them out and about so young. And then I watched how the mama would boss the babies with her gentle pecks that sometimes were not so gentle.

I began to realize that baby chicks were tougher than I had thought. I mean, they are still tiny fragile things, but they are much tougher than you might think.

Of course, I still worry, but not as much as I used to. Mainly, I worry now when I am raising chicks because I know, by comparison, I am a terrible substitute for the real thing. Truly, there is nothing more magnificent to me than watching a mama hen raise her babies. She devotes herself to those babies 24-7. Of course, she only has to be a mama for six to ten weeks. As a human mom, I do have to pace myself, but I admire her work.

Our current chicks have to settle for me as a mom, which means they only get to come out of the brooder and play once per day, but I try to play with them at least an hour. Mostly, it’s just running around my grown daughter’s old bedroom, which seems to be the safest place to raise baby chicks away from our cats. But, today was a big day. Today, the baby chicks got a real field trip outside in the sunshine.

One of the baby chicks immediately took the sunbathing pose. That was the dark gray chick named Faure (after the composer). The others were more nervous and stayed close to their traveling box for a long time. Finally, they started to feel a little brave and ventured a few feet from me and the box. It was lovely. I had time today to hang out with them a long time. We sat in the sun long enough that my neck got toasty and the baby chicks got too chilly and tucked themselves into my arm pits.

It was a beautiful day. I think we all enjoyed ourselves. My son has a recital tomorrow, but after that, I think the baby chicks will get another field trip.