Chicken Business

In my last post, I alluded to the news that Beyonce was sitting on 15 fertilized Rhode Island Red eggs that I got from my chicken man, Don, at church.  Mother's Day weekend was our D-Day...and Beyonce did herself proud!  Our first chick hatched some time on that Saturday afternoon.  It was so frustrating to hear little peeps and not be able to see anything other than our Big Mama--who had a pretty confused look on her face for about 24 hours.  She would crane her neck to look around and underneath, to see what was going on--and every once in a while she would stand completely up in the nesting box and look under her petticoats between her legs. You could practically hear her thinking "What the.....??"

 By lunch time on Mother's Day, the babies had all arrived.  Of the 15 eggs we started out with, I broke one during the second week (and felt like a murderer) and she kicked one out of the nest early on.   Of the 13 remaining, 10 hatched--though we found a dead baby in the nest--and there were 3 duds.  As they were all hatched in a nesting box off the ground, we moved the entire family into our big Dogloo (moved into the hen house for the duration) so she could get in and out but the babies would be corralled.  We called them the Gang of Nine, and took about 4000 photos.  We even posed some in antique teacups for a real photo shoot!

Today, the Gang of Nine is the Gang of Eight--tragedy struck in the second week, and one of the babies drowned in the big girls' water bowl.  Beyonce is a natural mother, protective and watchful of the babies, teaching them how to scratch in the yard for tasty things and take luxurious dustbaths by the fence. They are now 4 weeks old, and their original baby-chick down is fast being replaced by their big-kid feathers.  They are not so cute, right now--Alexa says they look like awkward middle schoolers.  They don't need Beyonce as much, and scatter across the yard during the day rather than following right behind her.  However, when she clucks for them to come see what she's found to eat, they all come running.  Her vocabulary of sounds is fascinating, and quite varied!  We are getting pretty adept at understanding what she's telling them!  At night they experiment with different places to sleep, and some have been so bold this week as to fly right up to the perch with the bigger girls, who promptly peck at them till they jump off...but they usually end up sleeping in the nesting box with Beyonce, or just out on the ledge past the door.  In another week they won't all fit!

Not to be outdone, Lady Gaga suddenly decided she would be broody.  I knew John's patience wouldn't extend to another addition to our flock, so I did some research and tried to 'break her' of her broodiness.  She is a stubborn girl, however, and kept returning to the nesting box.  Two nights ago I got a message from my friend Andrea, who said they were having some chicken troubles and did I know anyone who could hatch some eggs for them?  Boy, did I...and yesterday, Andrea and her son Frank brought over a dozen bantam Blue Orpington eggs overnighted from a breeder in Tennessee.  Today we added one more egg that they didn't have room for in their incubators.  Of his initial order (2 dozen, maybe?), some of the eggs are in 2 different incubators and the rest are under Lady Gaga, who is now sitting serenely on 13 tiny eggs.  Now the hardest thing is to wait 21 eternal days for another exciting weekend of waiting, and listening and guessing and finally seeing the new little fuzzy faces peeking out from under their 'mama'.   Andrea plans to blog about all the eggs' various accomodations and ultimately do a story for her radio show--Mother Earth News Radio--about how it all turned out.  I can't wait to see how it all turns out, too!! 

Here's to chicken friends--and new hens!