Chilly Morning

And Mama Hen is hard at work under the heat lamps giving a little extra boost of warm comfort to the 9-day old chicks.

See the 2 little chick heads sticking out from under the Mama Hen? There is another chick on her back. 

Broody hens and baby chicks

It's the time of year when most hens lay eggs abundantly and a select few "go broody." A broody hen sits on a nest, even one from which the eggs have been removed because that's what her hormones have programmed her to do. We put our broody hens to work by removing them from their flock and placing them on a nest in which we have put about a dozen fertile (we hope) eggs. Three weeks later we have baby chicks and a Mama Hen to teach them how to be a chicken.

Six broody hens all in a row--5 White Plymouth Rock and 1 New Hampshire Red

This Mama Hen hatched out 6 chicks and is now also taking 45 chicks hatched in our incubator under her care. She was broody for us last year also and is very good mama.

New Chicks

The power outage from the ice storm stretched into day 5 on Tuesday and we were a bit worried about the 130 baby chicks due to arrive the next morning.  Baby chicks need 95 degree temperatures for the first week and, without power, we had no way to provide it. Fortunately, our electricity was restored late on Tuesday and we were able to plug in the heat lamps and prepare for the chicks.

Our newest flock of layers is a breed called New Hampshire Reds. They hatched on Monday at Meyer Hatchery in Ohio and very soon were packaged for shipment to us via the US Postal System.  Our post office called at 5:30 Wednesday morning to announce the chicks arrival. Jan went to get them while Charlie did the morning chores with the other critters.  The chicks are thirsty when they arrive.  Teaching them to drink is our first task. Quickly they found water without help.

Some felt a little chilly and huddled together under the heat lamps for warmth. Chickens naturally cuddle together in a group effort to keep everyone warm.  It was a cool, rainy and windy day.  

Some were hungry and made use of the feeders filled with organic chick starter from our local feed mill, Reedy Fork Organic Farm. This batch of chicks is alert, active and healthy.  We anticipate them growing quickly and becoming reliable providers of delicious and healthy eggs.

Broody Hens!

Broody hen in a nest box with a baby chick

We had been hoping for months on end for our hens to become broody so that we could hatch more chickens. In the last couple of months we have had success!

Baby chick among the eggs

We started finding chickens in the nest boxes that would not get up off of a clutch of eggs and rather than discouraging their broodiness we encouraged it and designated particular boxes for the broody hens. Once the chicks hatched we moved them into the brooder house.

Minerva Louise with baby chicks

Much to our delight Minerva Louise, one of our "yard chickens," went broody and not only hatched out 5 eggs but also adopted a number of other chicks from a different flock, kept them warm, and tended to them! It was always a delight to see the babies climbing all over Minerva Louise and peeking out from beneath her.

As Minerva Louise protected her brood she was not always so gentle with older chicks in the growing mixed flock in the brooder house. Once her babies were big enough we removed Minerva Louise and now she watches over the young chicks along the outside of the fenced run.

Minerva Louise longingly following the babies