Once again we have baby chicks!!! One of our hens, Tinkerbell, became broody about 2-3 months ago. We tried to break her from it but she would never sway in her wanting to just sit in the nesting box, regardless of if there were eggs in there or not. I finally decided to get her some possibly fertilized eggs to sit on. I was hoping we would at least get one chick so she would finally fulfill her broodiness.
I originally wanted 2 eggs for Tinkerbell to sit on, but my A-I-L said her eggs were running about 50/50 of fertilized to not, so she gave me 4. She gave us an assortment of sizes and colors. It takes 21 days to hatch a chick. I marked my calender, but I wasn't sure if the day she started sitting on them counted as day 1 or it started counting the day after. I decided to start with the day she actually sat on them which came to this past Thursday November 17.
When we got the eggs, we all went out to the coop to place them in the nesting box. Sure enough Tinkerbell was already in there and sitting! We lifted her up and put the eggs under her. The eggs were very cold since the temperature out was chilly. After we put the eggs under Tinkerbell she started shivering which made me fell bad. But she quickly warmed them and herself up! Later, I went out place a SMALL dot on the eggs to mark which ones were possibly fertilized... Hubby had already gotten to them first and this is what I found...
CRAZY faces on all of them! I was already nervous about using a permanent marker to make a dot and here he was drawing all over them!!! And why are most of them mean faces!?
I was also nervous to see weather Tinkerbell would continue to sit on these eggs for the 21 days since she had already been sitting so long before then. But she did GREAT! Toward the end she rarely came out to eat. We would open the nesting box door and feed her some grass. I had read on the internet that you could possibly hear the chicks peeping inside the egg up to 3 days before they are due to hatch. I knew Tinkerbell would peck my head if I stuck it in the box beside her. Genius idea... I grabbed KFC's doctor kit and took with me the play stethoscope! I never did hear a single peep! And only one egg felt heavy, so I figured we were at least getting one chick.
KFC and I were leaving this past Thursday to head to the beach for 10 days. I was SOOOO sad to know I would probably miss seeing if any of the eggs hatched!!! It was pouring raining that morning so it took me awhile to get the car packed. I decided to just check on the eggs before I left. I totally prepared myself that probably none of the eggs were fertilized and/or that I should have started counting day 1 the day after she starting sitting which would have made the eggs 'due' Friday. I walked out in the rain, opened the box door and out popped a little head from underneath Tinkerbell!!! My heart melted! I ran inside to get KFC and my camera. Not wanting to open the box door to much because it was freezing out and it was still raining, I did not get very good pictures!
This was the better of the 2 that I got. You can see the blurry chick to the left of Tinkerbell's foot. This chick is reddish in color. You can see at the bottom left, the egg that she came out of! The brown egg to the left of the chick was the only other egg that had a tiny hole where that chick was trying to peck its way out. I knew we had at least 2 chicks to come from the 4. 50/50 - she was right!
By the time Hubby got home Thursday night, it was too dark to really see anything. And I knew chicks wouldn't need food or water for the first 2-3 days since they absorb the yolk sack as the are hatching. But I was dying to know how many we had and what colors they were. Friday came around and Hubby once again got home after dark. He tried to look and said he could see at least 3 chicks and maybe a fourth. Saturday morning came and Hubby went out to get some chick feed (didn't buy any ahead of time in case we got no chicks). He called me after getting back home to tell me we had ALL 4 eggs to hatch!!! YAY! 2 blonde, 1 reddish, and 1 black!
The chick love staying inside her wings and feathers!
One of the blonde chicks. You can see one of the hatched shells up there.
The other blonde chick, this one has black marks down its back. And the reddish chick beside her.
The black chick. This is Hubby's favorite. He has named it Michael Knight after Knight Rider! #1- I hope that even though he gave this chick a boy name that the chick turns out to be a female! #2- I just looked up who Michael Knight was and it was David Hasselhoff!!! Ewww All I remember him as was in Baywatch!
Saturday night Hubby heard the chicks peeping VERY loudly and just figured they were doing it cause they had learned how... he checked on them before going to bed and he found that Tinkerbell had switched nesting boxes and there wasn't enough bedding in there for the chicks to reach her and they were freezing!!! He said one was all stiff and laying down. I was SO mad. He put the chicks in with Tinkerbell and moved the bedding to make sure they could get in there in the future. I made Hubby go back out there to check on the stiff chick and he found the reason why Tinkerbell had moved. One of our other hens had laid an egg in there that day and she moved to sit on it!!! That stupid chicken is still broody!!! Is the 4 chicks she hatched not good enough for her!!???
All chicks were doing fine after being placed back with Tinkerbell. He said they have also been doing great with eating and drinking! YAY! I'm so happy that they are happy. I can't wait to come home to see them and hold them!!! Hubby also said that our other 2 chickens haven't been messing with the chicks, which is good cause I was scared of having the chicks in with the bigger hens, especially when they had no clue there were chicks even in the works!
I told myself before we got the eggs, that if we do end up with any rooster that we will be taking them to a local butcher shop, either for us to eat or just let them have it to sell or eat themselves. Ever since these chicks have hatched, I have fallen in love with them!!! I don't think I can personally be the one responsible to butchering them! I am keeping all my hopes up that all will turn out to be hens!!! We can't keep any rooster so I guess my first choice if we do have any will be craigslist. It makes me sick to think that these little ball of absolute happiness could one day possibly be our dinner!
I went back and looked the colors on the chicks we got back in the spring. I am figuring that the blonde chick will be a Buff Orpington (same as Tinkerbell), the blonde with the black marks will be a Red Star, the reddish one will be a Road Island Red, and the not sure of the black one- don't know what kinda black hen A-I-L has in her flock.
