Chickens...

Today was hot, so I turned the sprinkler on out in the yard for the chickens.

"Mud, you say? No...I haven't seen any mud."

"It's a bird! It's a plane! It's..." It's me, dangling a tidbit over their heads.

Smokey in mid head shake...

And Moet, our Frizzle Cochin, from the back looking like a firework chrysanthemum. You can really see the white tips of her feathers here.

Last Year...

As long as Chickam is going on, thought I'd share some pics of last year's hatch. Moet, our Buff Frizzle Bantam Cochin hen, was mama for that batch of chicks. One evening we were letting her and the chicks run around in the living room, and at bedtime, Moet decided that the couch looked like a much grander place to sleep than the brooder box, so up she hopped and called the kids to her.

The chicks were getting bigger by this age, and she couldn't possibly cover them all with her wings, but darn it, she did her best!

Gettin' sleepy...

Sleep time!

Who were we to argue? She was right. We didn't have the heart to move them after they were sleeping there so soundly, so we left them in chicken-y, ultra-decadent comfort until morning.

The Countdown...

...is on! I gave the eggs in the incubator their final turn last night, topped off the water, culled the undeveloped eggs and shifted the remaining 12 eggs to one incubator--the one with the forced air fan. All of the eggs are dark green and too dark to candle except two--a light shelled egg and a light brown egg, both with definitely a chick inside.

Meanwhile, the 5 remaining eggs out under the hens are too dark to candle--except one, which looks to have a chick inside but is also horribly cracked. I chose to leave it be under the hens to give it a chance. Two eggs are under Moet, a buff Frizzle Cochin who has raised chicks before and three are under Bear, our Easter Egger Head Hen. Moet got the cracked one since she is smaller, lighter and more gentle than Bear. When hatch day comes, we'll either put all of the eggs under one hen or leave them be with Moet & Bear--but the mama(s) & eggs will be transferred to a brooder box in the house for the hatching. I'm hoping the hen's eggs hatch, as Moet REALLY screeched at me and pecked me HARD (which she never does) when I checked under her tonight. Hopefully that's a good sign that she knows they are viable.

If any of the incubator eggs hatch, they will be added to the mama hen's chicks, since hens can't count. The way to do it safely is to slip them under her at night, while removing the unhatched eggs at the same time.

Hatch day is in two days, on Sunday. By tomorrow afternoon we should be seeing eggs rock and hearing chicks peep if anything is going to happen. When that occurs, the webcam will start!

Once More Into The Breach!

Into the incubators, actually. AND hens! Since we've got about 6 of the girls who have gone broody (the coop is a Terror Zone for the other chickens, who dash in, lay their eggs and LEAVE), I've set 5 eggs each under Moet, who has raised chicks before and is an excellent mama and Zevon/Splash--two sisters who are brooding together and get along well. Splash and Zevon have peacefully divided up their 5 eggs--Splash has three, Zevon has 2. Moet is a Frizzle buff Cochin, Zevon is a Frizzle Cochin mix and Splash is a nice large, plump bantam of mixed heritage. These eggs will be my test--if the hens can't hatch them either, I'll know it's not my incubators or me who is at fault. I know a lot of our girls are older, so it could be affecting the hatch--but then we've got a lot of young girls, too. It's a mystery...

In the two incubators, we've drastically cut the number of eggs and will have only 20 eggs in each one. Each set of eggs is numbered 1-20 and marked with an X on one side and an O on the other, in order to track which ones have been turned. They'll get turned at least three times a day. The new incubator has been upgraded with a forced-air fan to better circulate the air around the eggs, the old incubator has a new thermostat. I'm also going with leaving all the red ventilation plugs in on both incubators in hopes of raising the humidity, which has been a real bear to get and keep to where it is supposed to be.

We'll start the eggs at 6PM tonight, which should give us a hatch date of 5-23-09--the day before Memorial Day!

Letting Mother Nature Throw In, Too...

In addition to the eggs in the incubator, which are due to hatch in another two weeks, we have two broody hens that we gave some eggs to, also. Their eggs are due to hatch today...nothing yet as of nearly 2PM, but today or tomorrow should see some tiny balls of fluff. Here they are in the custom hen pen that J. made, which we moved inside the enclosed run the other day:

This way, they are protected by the walls of the run and protected again from any jealous hens who may try and take over the chicks or just plain fight the moms. Boots is on the left with two eggs, Moet is on the right with three eggs. Each got their own fancy cardboard box nest. Hopefully these two moms can share the space, if not, one of them will have to be removed and the remaining broody hen will take charge of all 5 chicks--provided the eggs hatch!

Moet has been growling at me since yesterday when we moved her and Boots into the hen pen, I think she's SURE I'm going to mess with her eggs again. Whatever the reason, I'm on her Shit List!