Chick Pics!

Here is our 2016 hatch, a total of 8 chicks!
We started out with 18 eggs in the incubator, after 10 days I candled them and removed any duds, that left 12 eggs.  All of the eggs were from our own flock, we decided against getting any mail order eggs this year.

So in order of hatch, here they are oldest to youngest--if I know or have a guess at mom or dad, or who might be sisters based on similar egg type/color, I'll put it down here!  Tiny wing feathers are already starting to appear!

Milton, first to hatch from a little banty egg, a tiny Belgian d'Uccle/bantam Cochin mix--her mother is Wiggles, our gray mottled d'Uccle and her daddy is Mushroom, our bantam Cochin roo.

Bowie, from a small, light green egg, her mother is Toaster, a bantam Cochin/Americauna mix and daddy is most likely Mushroom.

Bowie caught in mid-headscratch

Marshmallow, a fairly large chick with a green spot, from a large, dark brown egg--mama is possibly one of our light Brahma mix hens, probably has Cam for a dad.

Kotori, similarly colored to but smaller than Marshmallow, from a small, dark green egg.

Alecto, from a large, dark brown egg, possibly has Linc, Alice (both Barred Rocks) or Snakefast (Barred Rock mix) as a mama, Cam as daddy.

Lenore, a dainty little chick from a small, dark green egg, possibly sister to Kotori, may have Pie as a mom and Mushroom for dad.

'Don't hate me because I'm beautiful...'

Fiver, from a small, light green egg, is possibly a sister to Bowie (which is why Fiver has a blue spot on her back) with Toaster-mom and Mushroom-dad.  Here, Fiver demonstrates typical Cochin 'Block-O-Chicken' cubelike dimensions. 

Peepers, aka 'Meatwad', last to hatch and the biggest chick, from a large, light brown egg.  She likely has either Rambo or Pie for a mom and Cam, our Americaunas/Giant Cochin mix roo for dad.

And lastly...

'Here at Club Flamingo, we offer a full service Corn Bar, complete with comfy, warm fluffybutt to keep your lazy ass cozy while you hork down that corn!'

...that is, until Bowie emerges and stands on your food.

In Which I Commit A Chicken Faux Pas

So the day after we seperate Yoya, our broody mama, from her 6 week old chicks, I go out to make sure she's OK. It's 100 degrees and yesterday afternoon she had been getting bullied a bit by the other chickens upon her return to the flock, which made her hide in one of the nest boxes. I want to make sure she isn't continuing to hide and risking dying from the heat.

Uh huh--sure enough, I look and find her in one of the nest boxes, huddled down. I try to shoo her out.

She ain't movin'. I shoo more energetically, pushing her towards the opening. Nope. OK, she needs to drink and get OUT of there. I end up grabbing her none too delicately and lifting her out. I place her outside the row of nest boxes, but damned if she doesn't just instantly try and climb into ANOTHER one.

Dang chicken! I scoop her up before she can and carry her out into the run, as I do so she's practically lying in my arms. I set her down next to the waterer so she can drink. She sort of hunkers down, fluffed up, right where I place her and doesn't want to move. I'm worried. I gently prod the backs of her legs in an effort to get her to take a step or two.

Suddenly she stands erect and walks away a few steps...
...and in her place is a lovely, large, fresh egg. Oh lord, I interrupted her while she was trying to lay, poor thing!

I grabbed up the egg and spent the next few minutes following her around, showing it to her, praising it/her and apologizing profusely. Yoya just kind of stared at me in a witheringly disappointed way--like I shouldn't be left alone to be roaming about unsupervised--and walked away.

Fun With Baby Chicks

So we let the chicks run roughshod over the living room the other day...

And my husband made the mistake of falling asleep on the couch.  You know you are used to house chickens when it just fails to faze you any more.

Yoya deciding what she wants to watch while husband becomes a baby chick playground.

'Whatcha doin', dad? Ya trying ta sleep?'

That man can sleep through anything. Luckily they were kind and nobody pooped on him.

Later on they were back in their brooder box.

Yoya photobombs the kids.

And decides to come out!

...then changes her mind and jumps back in again.

Every time she jumped up there and down again it shook the entire brooder box, especially the edges where the chicks were roosting...making them madly grip with their feet and scaring the Hell outta everyone.

Which was *not* appreciated.

Later still, Weedcat came in for a brief visit to get him used to the chicks, and they to him. Since mama hens can be unpredictable at best around roosters, we put the cover on the brooder box while he was in...a wise choice since Yoya constantly gave him Death Threat Growls while he was in.

But Weeds was sweet and just sat down next to the box and quietly clucked to Yo and the chicks, calling and picking up & dropping little bits of hay and 'finding' food they'd kicked out to show what a great provider he was.

Good boy, Weeds!

Ten Days To Go!

We're on schedule for our annual Chickam live web broadcast of our baby chick hatch set for Saturday, April 20th! Just in case, we suggest checking the UStream Chickam page starting two days before that (April 18th) in case the little stinkers are early, which has happened in the past. It'll be here--if you tune in and see eggs, that means the hatch is starting! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chickam2008
We started with 40 eggs, and had 15 develop into healthy embryos!

We got 15 eggs from a local family, the breeds include light Brahmas, Golden Polish, Leghorn and Sicillian Buttercups, some will be mixes. Twelve of those eggs developed along with three eggs from our Belgian d'Uccle chickens. We had set some of our large breed eggs, but due to the fact that I hadn't foreseen hugely winterized fluffy butts on both our roo and the girls...none of those eggs developed and turned out not to be fertile!

So last week our Giant Cochin roo and all the big girls each got a VERY undignified butt feather trim. They were properly outraged at me trimming their nether regions but at least now, when I do an egg breakout all or nearly all of the large breed eggs are fertile, so it worked! I plan on setting a few large breed eggs in the incubator this Saturday, if they work out they should hatch two weeks after the first group, around May 4.

We also currently have a total of three broody hens, one of which may be elected to be mama for the Chickam chicks. One of the broodies is our gray Giant Cochin hen Yoya, here showing off how fierce and fluffy she can be...

 

...the other two are tiny but fierce bantam Belgian d'Uccles, just fate having a chuckle at our expense, I'll wager. We'll see if any of these ladies works out!

Broody Hen Detente

So now we have three broody hens.

Wiggles the gray mottled Belgian d'Uccle bantam is still going strong and really getting in to it. Yoya the gray Giant Cochin has decided to stick with it (for now) and Colonel, another chick from last year, has decided to brood. Colonel is one of the MilleFleur d'Uccle bantams.

Yesterday evening Yoya and Colonel apparantly teamed up to oust poor tiny Wiggles from her eggs, which PISSED HER OFF. I was out there passing out dandelion greens when Wiggles ran up to me, clucking rapid-fire, grabbing my pant leg and pulling me towards the coop.

OK, gotta go see what tiny angry hen wants. I walk in that direction and she sprints ahead of me, growling and clucking all the way, stopping in front of HER nest box and staring in.

Uh oh. I check it and find Yoya and Colonel.  I reach in to pet them, scritch their heads a bit...

But I take too long to suit Hitler-in-a-hen. Outraged pacing, extra-large fluffing up and full-on loud, *angry* bucawking starts at my feet--clearly this is, 'Mom, they took my nest. No fair! Make 'em give it baaack, NOW!' The Belgian Time Bomb is about to reach DEFCON 1.

Well, those hens ain't moving and Wiggles is clearly ramping up to bring the hammer down for a bantam Shock-And-Awe campaign. Time to head this off.

I end up taking one of the eggs from under Yoya and setting it in the next nest box over and showing it to Wiggles...

She stares into the new nest box for a minute, then reluctantly decides that this is an acceptable compromise and slowly heads in to sit on it.

All is quiet again, for now...

Happy Easter!

Got our Easter egg hunt in before the rain came down, thankfully. The chickens enjoyed this weird, mystifying ritual as usual.

Bear investigates the egg basket...

...and later mugs the kid for an egg.

She also enjoys snuggling with J.--she ONLY does this if he is wearing his robe.

While Phoenix looks on with a jealous stare and whines, which is what HE does every time. When chicken distrusts a situation or wants to keep a close eye on something, they turn their head and look at it with one eye, as he is doing here. That is because they see better this way rather than looking straight on at something.  So while it looks like Phoenix is looking at me, he is actually keeping a watchful eye on Bear and worrying.

Poof the White Crested Black Polish hen shows off her spurs:

Scott heybabies some hens...

A stretch & flap from Smokey.

Yoya the gray Giant Cochin and Phoenix pose for a communist propaganda poster.

'Ya comrade, now heroically look out into the glorious future!'

Bug, who is broody, emerges after a bit to stomp around the yard and be irritated. The other chickens are careful not to make direct eye contact, as broody hens are like the crazy, dangerous homeless guy who hangs out behind the minimart and holds angry conversations with an invisible friend.

We hand out some Easter eggs, of course. While the others look on in amazement, Sora the White Leghorn levitates to get one!

Betty tries it, too!

In the end they all got some yummy hard-boiled eggs are everyone was happy.

Gaahh--! Voodoo!

I was taking photos of the chickens the other day. Now, it's a universal truth that chickens, when they see you point a camera at them, immediately present you with a lovely view of their hind ends and/or run away.

I'd just gotten a good shot of Rugger and Yoya lined up...framed nicely, they are actually holding STILL for a change...my finger hovers over the button, aannnd...

Gaahhh--! Dang it, Voodoo! It's like a bad vacation snapshot.

Photobombed by a chicken.

Indecision, Or Hide & Seek?

Hey--! Wait a second, just hold ON there, missy. It's too late to change your mind now!

We see you, Yoya. Come on out!