Broody Pullets & Babies, cont.

The Australorp had been sitting two eggs and because she was in the coop, where she was often made to share her nest with her flockmates, I had my doubts about whether her eggs would in fact hatch. I really didn't think they would.

It just goes to show you what I know. Over the weekend BOTH eggs hatched and both babies seem to be doing really well. Once the first chick hatched and the second egg was pipping, I moved her into her own nest in a cage in the coop, moved her baby and the pipping egg in with her, covered the cage with a tarp to give her some privacy and she has seemed perfectly content. The second egg hatched overnight and she has two adorable babies.

The Buff Orpington mama has moved to a temporary coop in a screened off part of the run, where she has been showing her babies how to scratch around and find food. They have a feeder and waterer in the run, but she routinely knocks the feed over and shows the chicks how to scratch the earth and eat their food from the ground. Sometimes she'll drop feed in front of them. They seem fine; drinking and eating the way she wants them to, so for now I'm leaving her to her time-tested methods.

Photo of Second Chick

The second baby chick has more buff patches on her face. The father is our alpha rooster, but I wish I really knew what the crosses are - but the broody "chose" her eggs, so I kind of went along with it. The babies appear to be from either Australorp or Wyandotte eggs. Since we have gone down this path, I would have liked a Buff crossed with our rooster; I think that cross would have been pretty, but genetics, especially when one is trying for color, is a tricky business.

That they are crosses is probably a good thing; hybrid vigor and all that.

Mama and baby this morning (the other chick was hiding):

The third egg has not hatched. I don't think she'll give it much longer, maybe another 24 hours or so.

Our Broody Did It!

I thought I heard chirping and some slight movement under the Buff Orpington broody yesterday, but couldn't be certain. Today I KNEW I heard something, so I opened the cage, gently moved aside one protective wing (although she growled a little, she allowed me to take the liberty), and -- she did it! Nestled underneath her was a precious tiny baby! I saw the flattened, empty eggshell first and thought oh no, maybe she broke it, but she has been such a good and careful mama -- no way would she have simply stepped on her eggs.

Here is a really bad photo of the baby, a tiny black chick. She probably hatched an Australorp egg! I didn't want to disturb her; I'll try to get better pictures later.

She did great! Here she is, tucking her little one back under her. You can see the empty eggshell right in front of her.

More later!

Much better photo of the new addition (any guesses? Australorp cross? Wyandotte? Barred Rock?).

ETA: A second chick hatched sometime during the afternoon. This one has some buff coloring on her face and is extremely tiny - I hope she makes it. As of this evening, the broody was sitting tight on two babies and one unhatched egg.

Hatch Day

... is T-Minus 3 days and counting. Unless the eggs the broodies are sitting are duds, we should have a couple of babies breaking free of their shells soon. If they are duds, and nothing hatches, then I shall have to find a couple of day-old chicks to sneak under each of them (at night, when they're asleep), so they wake up to a "surprise" in the morning and are convinced these baby chickens owe their existence to superior egg-sitting skills. Then they can get on with motherhood, etc, etc.

Little broody girls are just too cute, but this can't go on indefinitely.

Raptor

Walked out with DH to the barn this morning to feed the animals, and, lo and behold, a gigantic bird of prey was perched on top of the antique grain shed! I quietly stepped inside the house, grabbed my camera, but by the time I fumbled around with it and it made all the requisite noises and requests prior to assuming the "on" position (silly camera), the bird had taken flight, so all I got was this:

By this time it was pretty far away from me - and look how huge it is! And no, it wasn't a Turkey Buzzard; having grown up in this general area, I know what they look like. Not a hawk; I see hawks all the time. This bird made both DH and me stop in our tracks. We both got a good look at it while it was on the shed, and I am 99% certain it was a Golden Eagle (although I'm certainly no ornithologist). What a moment! Needless to say the ladies have been confined to their run for the day. I hope, too, that the barn cats decide to write this cold, dreary day off and nap in the hay.

Second photo - the wing tip feathers can just be seen by zooming in on the pic:

If it wasn't a Golden Eagle, then I'm stumped! I wish I had gotten the photo of the bird perched on the grain shed, against the backdrop of the fir and pine trees - it was truly a magnificent sight!

The ESFP/INFJ

The first is an extroverted personality type known as "The Performer." I know an ESFP, and believe me, people remember him. He is extremely popular. He is very chatty, gregarious and he makes people laugh - all of which are highly prized traits in Western culture.

I am an INFJ, an introverted personality type (actually the rarest of all types), known as "The Protector," or "The Confidant." People rarely remember me - probably because I don't speak unless I really have something to say, and because - to put it simply - I am a very private person. I don't spend a lot of time talking about myself.

The ESFP gets his energy from being around people - the more people, the better. He does very well in large gatherings. Conversely, he feels drained by being alone.

It's the other way around for introverts. They excel in one-on-one situations and feel exhausted by the small talk and superficial interactions that tend to characterize large groups. They gain energy by spending time in solitude, alone with their own thoughts.

However, it is believed that introverts exert tremendous influence (behind the scenes, of course).

A few famous introverts:

Sir Issac Newton
Soren Kierkegaard
Albert Einstein
Steve Wozniak
Marcel Proust
Steven Spielberg
Charlotte Bronte
Virginia Woolf
W. B. Yeats
Vincent Van Gogh
etc.

Just some food for thought on a Sunday morning.

Uh, Broodiness is Contagious!

In addition to the Buff Orpington and the Australorp, one of the other Buff Orpington girls is now showing signs of broodiness. She screamed and bit me this morning as I gathered the eggs, rising up off the nest like an infuriated Velociraptor.

I've had no success breaking up the broodiness of the Australorp - she is sticking to her nest like a burr. I tried locking her out of the nest area for the past two days - she wasn't having it. Now she has plucked out her downy tummy feathers to line the nest and has since managed to steal two eggs, so she isn't sitting golf balls exclusively. *Sigh* I may have to either put her in a cage with just food and water, or put an ice pack in her nest. I definitely have to do something about the most recent case (the second BO), as I certainly don't need 24 pullets deciding en masse that nesting behavior looks like entirely too much fun to pass up...

It does appear that a movement is afoot in the coop, powered, as it were, by the rising tide of hormones and an overwhelming urge to reproduce. Wish me all the best as I try to restore some semblance of sanity to my ladies' lives.

Edit: Sarah the Australorp has managed to acquire one more egg, for a grand total of three. I have to admit, it is cute how she tucks them under her with her little beak while "talking" to them, then nestles carefully over them while gazing watchfully from her corner nest.

This guy/girl decided to put in an appearance this afternoon at around 4:30, rather early for one whose habits run to the nocturnal. He didn't appear to be ill (he was moving well and purposefully), but I didn't want him around my girls (and he was watching them), so I called them to me and put everyone in the coop, and chased our impromptu visitor away. No pasture-ranging for the ladies tomorrow; everyone will have to stay in the run until further notice.

Edit: I did some reading...most likely this is a mama raccoon with babies nearby. Apparently mamas alter their nocturnal foraging habits when they are raising their young, coming out during the latter part of the day to find food so they can return to the den to guard their babies over the course of the night. I plan to call a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center for advice.

After approximately 12 tries, this is the best I can do to get the image to upload. Windstream REALLY needs to do something about their creaky, medieval, sub-par Internet service/speed/issues.

To Brood or Not To Brood?

I know it almost certainly may appear as though nothing else is happening in my life but chickens, and the care of same, however, a disclaimer:

I do spend time in other pursuits, such as reading, the making of art, gardening and hiking...I also spend time with my horses. The horses have been shedding their winter coats and grooming them means a veritable storm of hair and dust in the air around me - and the occasional coughing fit when some of it ends up in my throat. No sooner do I brush them out than they roll in whatever mud or muck they can avail themselves of in the paddocks...and we begin again. They're like big kids.

Just so you know that I do have a life outside of chickens. I didn't say it was a particularly exciting life, did I? Nay, that I did not.

It's just that something always seems to be going on with the ladies - they are so full of life and energy that writing about them seems to come naturally. I suppose I'll probably bore everyone to distraction when the Guinea keets arrive on the first of May! (Yes, I'm looking forward to my army of tick eradicators!)

Anyway, getting back to the main thrust of my post...my pullets are almost seven months old, and have been laying very nicely since the end of January. I fully expected the broodiness issue would present itself at some point, next year perhaps, or at some vastly inconvenient time, say, when it's -4〫outside. Not so. Approximately two weeks ago, one of my Buff Orpington girls began to exhibit signs of extreme grumpiness - walking around with her wings outstretched, screaming, growling and puffing up at the others, and screaming at me if I came near her while she was on the nest. She hadn't settled, and I wasn't sure if this was a "trial run," but, lo and behold, four days ago she settled, seemingly committed to brooding (and hatching) three eggs and two golf balls.

I finally moved her yesterday, because the others really need the nesting space she had been occupying, and because her broodiness seems to have inspired one of the Australorps...who hasn't laid an egg in two days, but who is also hunkered down on two golf balls...! Miss Belle is in a broody cage with her own nest, food and water, her three eggs under her, smooshed down on them like a pancake and growling at anything or anyone who comes near her. I am about to try to break up the broodiness of the Australorp by moving her away from her nest for a couple of days.

So, to brood or not to brood? Yes...and no. The Australorp will eventually have her turn at being a mama; we are nothing if not democratic here at The Carriage House Farm. I just don't think I can manage two or more crabby girls at the moment, so we'll just allow Miss Belle to carry her maternal instinct as far as it takes her, and allow Miss Sarah to try the next time she feels the urge.