Lots of catching up to do!

I'm sorry I haven't kept up with this blog! Lots of changes have happened here. Let me catch you up!

All chicken owners know that sometimes they are going to lose a chicken.  We have lost two since my last post.  Cous Cous was taken by a clever raccoon that figured out how to open the egg box, and Pip was taken by a very brave fox in the middle of the day, while Pip was right outside our house. This happens, and we were sad, but it is the way nature works.  We installed toddler locks on the egg box, and that has kept the raccoon out.

Another bad thing that happened was that someone stole Speckles!  Fortunately we found out who it was and went to get her back.  It is a good thing she was well trained to come when I clap.  We went to the flock where she had been put, and I began to clap.  She came running and was happy to have me pick her up and take her home.  The truth is it is very stressful for chickens to change flocks.  One new chicken in a flock will get picked on a lot. She was happy to come home, but unfortunately had to stay in quarantine to make sure she wasn't bringing in any diseases, lice or mites.  She wasn't happy about that!


Now for the really good news! We have chicks!  In the spring time Melia went broody.  Broody is the word we use to describe a chicken who wants to hatch eggs and raise babies. I kept taking her off the nest, but she was very determined and kept returning. A friend of mine from work gave me some hatching eggs (unlike us, she has roosters - you need roosters to have eggs that will have chicks in them) from her flock.  We put five of them under her and she was very happy to sit on them.

Eggs take about 21 days to hatch. Halfway through Chicky decided she wanted to be a mom too, and started helping Melia sit on the eggs.  Speckles kept laying them new eggs, and I went once a day to take Speckles's egg out of the nest. I marked the eggs we wanted to hatch with an X and a dot.


Three little chicks hatched!  They were so tiny, and so cute!  Unfortunately one escaped the crate and was lost. Melia and Chicky were still trying to share the mom jobs (mostly sitting with chicks under their wings).  I was afraid that the chicks were going to be hurt from Melia and Chicky fighting over who was going to be in the nest, so I took Chicky out.  Chicky was so sad!  She really wanted to be a mom. So, I bought some chicks that were the same age and slipped them under her.  She adopted them and was happy to have her own chicks.

Chicky and Melia with the freshly hatched chicks.

Each mom had her own crate for her chicks. We had to make sure Speckles wouldn't hurt the chicks.

Melia with her babies.

Chicky with her babies.

Now the chicks are six weeks old.  Melia's two chicks are BIG.  They are already almost bigger than her.  One of them is definitely a boy, and I am pretty sure the other is a girl.  They are barnyard mixes, which means they are "mutts".

Left: "Boy" Center: Melia  Right: "Girl"

Pretty sure this one is a girl.

Very sure this one is a boy.

Chicky's three chicks are tiny!  They are light Brahma bantams.  They are very cute, and have feathers on their feet.  They are very slow to feather in and I really have no idea if they are boys or girls. I probably will not know until one of them starts to crow or lays an egg.