Tag: broody hen

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!

Ruby is better…and other stuff

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 18 of 21

I think Ruby is better. Well, at least her eyes look good. I really, really hope those babies hatch soon, but I took extra good care of her today. It was very hot today, like 94 degrees, so I fed her grapes and other treats throughout the day. I fed her grapes five times today. She ate them all every time–and ate some bread and eggs as well.

We had baby chicks arrive at the post office today, but they are Freedom Rangers, for food. This is hard for me, but my family eats chicken and my dogs eat chicken. And because I know how chicken are treated if I buy chicken at the store, I commit to being the best meat chicken caregiver I can be, though my heart will be broken in the end. These chickens will be treated so well every second of their lives, until they have one bad moment, and Ron and I researched and researched (talking to both a vet and a neuroscientist) about the most humane way to cull a chicken.

That’s a hard thing to write about. It’s a hard thing for most people to think about. In fact, I think most people don’t think about it at all, but I think it’s important.

Ron and I have talked about going completely vegetarian when our son is grown, but we will always have at least one Great Pyrenees–and they need meat one way or another.

Also, today, on my way to get baby chick food, I saw something on the side of our road. When I got closer, I could see it was a baby raccoon! When I got closer, I could see it holding its little hand out toward nothing, like just this reaching out for anything.

I pulled over and could see the little baby raccoon was in really bad shape. Just as I was trying to figure out what I was going to do, my neighbor, a farmer and a Forest Ranger, pulled up and hopped out of his truck. He had gloves and a box. His wife had seen the baby on her way to work and called him to come get the baby. I was so relieved. He said, “”Something must have happened to the mama.” Then, he added, “Don’t worry. I know what to do. I’m a farmer.” That’s really what he said! I just smiled and nodded.

Anyway, he said he knew of a rescue in Portland, and he would make sure the baby got there. He said we should look to see if there were others–and there was one more! This one was hiding in the tall grass about five or six feet away. When my neighbor picked up this baby, I could tell this one was in much better shape.

I had just a little hope for the poor first baby when I saw the sibling snuggle up. The first little raccoon really did perk up a bit. You could see relief come over his or her little body. I sure hope that baby makes it. It’s a worry though because it was in pretty poor shape.

When I got back into the car and drove to get the baby chick food for the new chickens, I cried–the hard kind of cry.

A Ruby Worry

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 17 of 21

Last night, I heard Ruby talking to her eggs. I love this part. I love the way the mamas and babies communicate with each other before the hatch. It’s fantastic to witness. When we used to incubate eggs, I would sing to the babies in the last couple of days. Poor babies though. They probably hatched and thought, “well, this is the worst mom ever, but we’ll have to made do.”

But I am very worried about Ruby. I fed her eggs this morning and feed her some kind of breakfast every day, but she’s not eating or drinking enough still. She’s a thinner bird anyway, but she’s very thin right now. Then, this evening, when I went to check on her, one of her eyes was stuck shut.

I scooped her up, found two new Juliet eggs underneath her (Juliet is a little cowbird), but the fertile eggs were fine. I carried Ruby around forever, trying to find Ron for help holding her, as Ruby is not a good patient. When I couldn’t find him, I checked her eye as well as I could, and I pried it open. Once I did that, it seemed fine. I am not sure, but think she is so dry and crinkly that her poor eyelids stuck together. Poor Ruby! I have to feed her more each day. She’s a little picky though. I just have to keep making scrambled eggs, I guess. Sometimes, with work and everything else going on, it’s hard to make Ruby a separate breakfast every day, but I had better figure it out. Poor Ruby has me worried.

I am worn from the worry about her and Anna Maria and Antonio and now Schumann’s bumble foot is back, which means I didn’t get it taken care of well enough the last time, and we have so many broody hens. So many. So many. Sigh.

I gave Ruby a duck egg for dinner, and I left cut-up grapes in her crate. I also made her walk around and get some movement. Hopefully, things will be better tomorrow. Cross your fingers those babies come early!

Night Moves

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 19 of 365

Well, dear readers, it worked! Kate remains broody and has accepted being broody in her new digs!

Late last night, I snuck into the coop where she was sleeping in the nest box. I bird-napped the poor girl but took her warm eggs with her. Well, most of the eggs.

I had left three eggs under her, but when I scooped her up, I could find just two eggs. I have had broody hens hang onto the eggs, so I kept feeling around her the best I could. I finally had to give up and just accept the two eggs and Kate. Just as we made it to the garage, from some Kate crevice, out popped the egg onto the garage floor. No matter though. The two eggs did the trick.

Look at Kate in her new chicken mama house! She’s so cute in there I almost can’t stand it.

When I went to check on her this morning, she was on her eggs! She had even built up a little nook of a nest with the straw and seemed quite content. Phase 1 of operation Copper Maran complete. Next week will be the most stressful part, but I’m thankful for finally convincing Kate the dog crate will be a safer starter home for her baby chicks.

I have discovered, over the years, that you can get away with a lot at night when it comes to chickens. That’s why I decided to move Kate at night. It also has to be at night when we switch out her eggs with baby chicks. When I have to do any kind of health check on chickens, I do that at night as well.

I don’t know exactly what happens to chickens at night, but I guess they sleep hard. I may have to research this. In fact, I will have to research this. One of the best tricks of chicken keeping is learning to do the stuff you need to do at night. In fact, when you introduce new chickens to your flock, it’s best to do it at night. I mean, you do some minor daytime introduction, but you make the big move at night. This is considered a chicken keeping best practice.

If the chickens wake up together, they are more likely to accept each other. It’s like, “oh, I guess you’ve been here all along. I’ll go with this.”

There are many ways chickens are like humans. Chickens are curious, brave, stubborn, social, petty, mean, and they definitely have cliques. Temple Grandin, scientist and animal behaviorist, has said that animal emotions are like human emotions, only simpler. Not that she needs confirmation, but I can definitely confirm this through my observations. I am forever amazed at basic similarities between us, I guess because chickens are also social animals.

One of the cutest things is that my flock conveys hope and disappointment so obviously. My wonderful neighbor feeds our chickens healthy scraps at the garden gate all the time. The chickens know her very well, so every time she comes out to her garden, they come running–so hopefully! I will see her sometimes say something to them, something along the lines of “I don’t have any treats today.” Those chickens will slowly turn around, heads dropped, and gradually head back to what they were doing with such an air of disappointment. It’s the cutest thing ever.

But chickens and humans differ in some key ways, of course. If I woke up in the morning to find five or six new people in my house, there would be some freaking out.

***

And I have to add a quick Ruby update, of course. She’s doing well. She had watermelon for a treat today, and she has just three to four days to go! Babies should start hatching on Tuesday or so.