In 11 years of doing this farming thing (Gawd, has it been THAT long??) we have bought chickens, mail-ordered chickens, traded chickens, incubated chicken eggs, rescued chickens, and even sold a few...but we have never actually hatched our own. Like from scratch....with a hen doing the actual work, and no human involvement. Until now....
Into the Void, which is an apt description of a farm gone wild with practically no rules, structure, consistency or order (due to a medical disruption of my Former Life on a large scale when my husband almost died from Lyme, a stroke and other nasty complications) this hen decided to drop a chick.
I can honestly say I have NO idea where she brooded this little thing, but she managed to stay hidden for 21 days (not too hard given my almost constant state of harried frenzy and general lack of attention to detail) AND managed to stay away from predators (more impressive given our proximity to several fox dens and the new hazard of ranging coyotes that have crossed our property more than once this summer...) AND managed to totally ignore all the rules that said something like, "Do NOT make more work for the Lady" "Do NOT add more chores to Her list" "Do NOT grow the farm in any way since it's too much already for Her sanity" and so on, and so on...
And yet.....here he/she is. A Buff Cochin chicklet. Sex TBD. No rules.....No. Rules. It's Chicken Anarchy.
9 comments:
Oooooh. Just what you needed. Not. However, I have found that the few home chicks hatched the natural way on the LLF have flourished. Maybe this is a new trend? It is awfully cute, though.
Hey girlfriend/sister! Rick's secretary called this morning. Her cats had caught a young pullet which she rescued and wants to send home with Rick tonight. Hoping I can keep it protected within our established flock AND it's not a rooster. How do you sex pullets?
Only way to deal with baby chicks, no incubator, brooder or other expensive equipment needed.
So happy to "read" you again and to see that in spite of it all life is going on. Best wishes for the new baby!
This too happened at our farm...only 12 chicks! How they do this I do not know.....
Michelle-you hope like heck its a girl, chide Rick for glossing over that little lesson in vet school, study the size of the comb and hope you find it lacking, stare at the cute thing, and resign yourself to just getting to really like the little chirper when it will squawk out a pathetic crowing noise.....and.....that's kind of how it goes around here....
I had a great little banty hen that hatched out my eggs for me. She and the Rooster were great parents and kept most critters away. Fiesty little birds.
Momma will take care of it, never fear. Soon enough you will find out the sex... We lost our Black Cochin rooster last year. He was the best chicken we ever had; big, elegant and gentle with the hens.
I think when hens raise their own they tend to be healthier and besides there is nothing cuter then a baby chick following momma.
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