I'm not sure how long this can last, it's cuddly but not very warm, and it doesn't talk back to her... but it's sure cute!
Showing posts with label Chicks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicks. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
An Affair to Remember
This chick, Cheep-Cheep, got her foot caught in the incubator fan, then got a bit squished, so she's taking some special care. She's recovering nicely but is quite lonely and would happily reside in my hand all day if I let her, so I tried putting another chick in with her for companionship. The other chick kept pecking at Cheep-Cheep's discolored foot and wouldn't leave it alone. Last night, I found this perfect companion in the kid's toybox!
I'm not sure how long this can last, it's cuddly but not very warm, and it doesn't talk back to her... but it's sure cute!
I'm not sure how long this can last, it's cuddly but not very warm, and it doesn't talk back to her... but it's sure cute!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Chicks the natural way!
I love seeing animals function the way God designed them to. Today I witnessed our mama hen take her 2 day chicks out for a "nature walk" for the first time! It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen in my life.
Just under 4 weeks ago, this hen decided to accept the invitation of a bowl of eggs we had left for her to sit on. She is a year old Buff Brahma Bantam hen, and we had left an assortment of Buff Brahma Bantam and Buckeye eggs.
After 21 days, the allotted time for incubation, we saw no sign of hatching, no pipped eggs, no peeping from inside the shells. We decided to leave them for a few more days to see what would happen. Finally, on day 23, the first chick hatched, and several others were pipped. By day 24, the rest had hatched. We lost 2 chicks the second night when they weren't able to get back into the nest, so now we're left with 4 Buff Brahma Bantam chicks and 1 Buckeye!
Today they ventured outside, the bantam chicks are smaller and have a little difficulty getting around on the grass, but they soon figured it out and were dashing around pecking at this and that. Occasionally the hen would make a certain cluck and the chicks would all come running, good practice for when danger is near.
The Buckeye chick caught a moth (below), and the hen chased the chick around for a while, not really trying to take the moth away from the chick, but it seemed she was just trying to make sure that whatever the chick had was safe to eat.
Seeing such young chicks learning how to survive outside is so cool. No heat lamps, no carefully monitored temperature, lighting, and cramped quarters, just a mother hen teaching her chicks how to feed themselves, come to her for warmth when they get cool, and watch for danger.
Just the way they were made to.
Just under 4 weeks ago, this hen decided to accept the invitation of a bowl of eggs we had left for her to sit on. She is a year old Buff Brahma Bantam hen, and we had left an assortment of Buff Brahma Bantam and Buckeye eggs.
After 21 days, the allotted time for incubation, we saw no sign of hatching, no pipped eggs, no peeping from inside the shells. We decided to leave them for a few more days to see what would happen. Finally, on day 23, the first chick hatched, and several others were pipped. By day 24, the rest had hatched. We lost 2 chicks the second night when they weren't able to get back into the nest, so now we're left with 4 Buff Brahma Bantam chicks and 1 Buckeye!
Today they ventured outside, the bantam chicks are smaller and have a little difficulty getting around on the grass, but they soon figured it out and were dashing around pecking at this and that. Occasionally the hen would make a certain cluck and the chicks would all come running, good practice for when danger is near.
The Buckeye chick caught a moth (below), and the hen chased the chick around for a while, not really trying to take the moth away from the chick, but it seemed she was just trying to make sure that whatever the chick had was safe to eat.
Seeing such young chicks learning how to survive outside is so cool. No heat lamps, no carefully monitored temperature, lighting, and cramped quarters, just a mother hen teaching her chicks how to feed themselves, come to her for warmth when they get cool, and watch for danger.
Just the way they were made to.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Baby Chicks!
Early spring brought huge change on our farm! We got baby chicks, hatched out more baby chicks, got a puppy, and picked up our cattle! In mid-May, our first set of chicks arrived. We ordered from Performance Poultry in Ontario together with some other people on the ACE forum. They arrived in good condition and thrived on arrival. I was expecting day-old chicks, but they were probably a week old when they arrived. We ordered some heritage breeds, hardy enough to withstand our winters.
The lighter colored chick with the spot on it's head is a Buckeye. They are a hardy bird with a pea comb that is low to it's head so it's not prone to frostbite in the winter. They are a calm bird, dual purpose, easy to handle and are known to chase down and eat mice! They are a rare breed, and absolutely gorgeous.
The smaller, darker chicks are a Buff Brahma Bantam. They are also hardy, and know for their brooding and mothering abilities. I hope to use them for hatching and raising chicks.
These chicks attacked the feed and water immediately! Their flight from Ontario was a dry one, but they did not seem to be affected at all by the partial day of no food. Of course it got really cold right after we got them and they lived in our basement for a week until it started getting stinky! The kids enjoyed being able to go downstairs and watch them, we housed them in an oversized plastic storage tub with a heat lamp dangling overhead. We had a remote temperature sensor under the lamp so we could keep an eye on the temperatures, especially when we moved them into the garage and the temps fluctuated from day to night. We had some large wooden crates that we used to house them in the garage, and once they were fully feathered, we moved them into a chicken tractor that we built. I'll put up pictures of the tractors in a later post!
These chicks attacked the feed and water immediately! Their flight from Ontario was a dry one, but they did not seem to be affected at all by the partial day of no food. Of course it got really cold right after we got them and they lived in our basement for a week until it started getting stinky! The kids enjoyed being able to go downstairs and watch them, we housed them in an oversized plastic storage tub with a heat lamp dangling overhead. We had a remote temperature sensor under the lamp so we could keep an eye on the temperatures, especially when we moved them into the garage and the temps fluctuated from day to night. We had some large wooden crates that we used to house them in the garage, and once they were fully feathered, we moved them into a chicken tractor that we built. I'll put up pictures of the tractors in a later post!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Hatching - a risky business!
My husband picked up this incubator from his mom on the off-chance that we would need it. We initially weren't planning to use the incubator to hatch chicks this spring, but when we didn't receive the Partridge Chantecler chicks that we'd ordered, we began looking for hatching eggs and ordered a water bottle that was missing from the incubator. Our crazy trip to Calgary gave us the opportunity to stop in at a wonderful couple's farm and pick up a dozen Partridge Chantecler eggs. We also picked up a couple of roosters as a favor for a lady who lives in our area, and were given 10 Serama eggs as well. After letting the eggs rest for a day, we fired up the incubator and began the watching and waiting!
The Serama eggs were very small and we had to make some modifications to the egg turning rack for them. The automatic turner was set to turn the eggs every hour, the temperature was set to about 99 degrees. It was difficult to monitor the temperature and humidity, as the dial for adjusting the temperature was very touchy and the humidity depended entirely on how big the puddle was on the bottom of the incubator. We had some major 'oopses' with the temperature fluctuating wildly, the humidity being completely out of whack, and the eggs getting stuck and not turning. These events didn't seem to harm the birds though, they weren't deformed, stuck in their shells, or whatever.
We candled the eggs about once a week. We don't have a real candler, so we rigged up a box with a bright light in it and began the learning process. We had no idea what we were looking for, but with the first candling found several clear eggs which indicates that no chick is growing. We looked up pictures on the internet of what an egg is supposed to look like, and compared that with what we were seeing. Of course the PC eggs were brown, making them difficult to see through. Eventually we began to see the reddish mass of veins and a few veins running across the egg to the shell indicating a growing chick. The second candling was much easier, as the chick inside the good eggs was a dark mass. With each candling we eliminated a few eggs, and at hatching had 10 Partridge Chantecler eggs and 3 Serama eggs.
I was shocked to read in our hatching book that eggs that are not growing before day 9 can be removed from the incubator - and eaten! We didn't... :-)
The eggs were getting noisy, cheeping could be heard from the inside of the eggs. We removed the egg turner on Day 18 as recommended, leaving a hardware cloth screen for the chicks to hatch on. We increased the humidity slightly and lowered the temperature a bit.
We brought the incubator into the living room for hatching, and we hovered over it; it was so fun to watch the progress. We were totally shocked when the first eggs began hatching on Day 20 instead of 21! The Serama eggs hatched first, but the Partridge Chantecler eggs were only a few hours behind.
The Serama eggs were very small and we had to make some modifications to the egg turning rack for them. The automatic turner was set to turn the eggs every hour, the temperature was set to about 99 degrees. It was difficult to monitor the temperature and humidity, as the dial for adjusting the temperature was very touchy and the humidity depended entirely on how big the puddle was on the bottom of the incubator. We had some major 'oopses' with the temperature fluctuating wildly, the humidity being completely out of whack, and the eggs getting stuck and not turning. These events didn't seem to harm the birds though, they weren't deformed, stuck in their shells, or whatever.
We candled the eggs about once a week. We don't have a real candler, so we rigged up a box with a bright light in it and began the learning process. We had no idea what we were looking for, but with the first candling found several clear eggs which indicates that no chick is growing. We looked up pictures on the internet of what an egg is supposed to look like, and compared that with what we were seeing. Of course the PC eggs were brown, making them difficult to see through. Eventually we began to see the reddish mass of veins and a few veins running across the egg to the shell indicating a growing chick. The second candling was much easier, as the chick inside the good eggs was a dark mass. With each candling we eliminated a few eggs, and at hatching had 10 Partridge Chantecler eggs and 3 Serama eggs.
I was shocked to read in our hatching book that eggs that are not growing before day 9 can be removed from the incubator - and eaten! We didn't... :-)
The eggs were getting noisy, cheeping could be heard from the inside of the eggs. We removed the egg turner on Day 18 as recommended, leaving a hardware cloth screen for the chicks to hatch on. We increased the humidity slightly and lowered the temperature a bit.
We brought the incubator into the living room for hatching, and we hovered over it; it was so fun to watch the progress. We were totally shocked when the first eggs began hatching on Day 20 instead of 21! The Serama eggs hatched first, but the Partridge Chantecler eggs were only a few hours behind.
The first chick working it's way around the shell
Top of the shell popped off, they're really packed in there tight!
Pushing it's way out of the shell
First steps, flopping around among the other eggs
The first little Serama chick, they are really small!
A Partridge Chantecler Chick
The final outcome was that only one of the remaining Serama eggs didn't hatch, otherwise it was a great hatch with no deformed or weak chicks! We are the proud caretakers of 2 tiny Serama chicks and 10 Partridge Chantecler chicks! All the chicks hatched within a 24 hr period, with all 10 PC chicks within a 15.5 hour span. I introduced them to water and feed and they are off and growing!
All in all, it was a fantastic experience. It's good to know that hatching eggs aren't as sensitive as we were led to believe. We broke the 'rules' and opened the incubator several times during hatching. My husband is a 'hands on' kind of guy and couldn't keep from helping the occasional chick out and listening to the eggs to see if there was peeping! Next year I'd like to try using a broody hen so they can look after the chicks after hatching too, but at least we now we have some experience using the incubator if that doesn't work out!
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