Our Journey

Saturday, March 16, 2013

The brooder

Real chicken farmers have real brooders.

I just throw something together in the basement.

I haven't heard anyone complaining.

The Headcount

The first chickie

The second chickie

I really can't tell the 2nd and the 3rd one apart, and it's getting harder to tell the first one apart from them too.

The third chickie

Fluffy White Bottom - The renter's favorite

The Rotten Egg Chickie

Friday night's Chickie

Saturday morning's Chickie

Freaking Adorable or Chickin' Adorable

There's a chick sleeping in the toilet paper roll

And several go inside the box to get some rest

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And sometimes they just fall asleep in the food dish

They don't seem to like posing for the camera

And they don't understand why I'm always looking at them

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Rotten Eggs and a Chick

Wednesday afternoon I came home to a nasty smell in the house. I thought maybe the hen had pooped again, but this was much much worse.

Be thankful that smells can't be shared over the internet.

I picked up the hen to see if she'd pooped and found a new chick and a rotten egg that had exploded.

All. Over. Everything.

The chick, all of the eggs, the bottom of the hen, everything was coated in rotten egg nastiness.

I put the chick under warm water from the faucet, twice, in an attempt to clean her off and then put her back with the hen (who has stopped pecking everyone) to keep her warm. She wasn't able to stand up and seemed dizzy every time I saw her.

She's obviously the one with matted feathers on the left

I cleaned out the box and that evening I used warm water to clean off all of the eggs. I've read that bad bacteria can go through the porous shells and infect the chicks inside. This was the nastiest smell I've ever dealt with and I was feeling nauseous the entire time.

Even once I got all of the eggs and box cleaned and new bedding, it still smelled like rotten egg, just more faintly.

The good news is that the rotten egg chick is doing better. She no longer seems dizzy, and although I think she needs another washing because her feathers are still slightly matted down, she's acting just like the other chicks now.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Hatching assistance

Tuesday afternoon an egg was pipping. This means that it had cracked a hole in the egg with its beak. Tuesday night, nothing had changed and I was a little worried.

Tuesday evening

I was worried that if I left it with the hen, and it hatched, she would peck it to death before I woke up in the morning since she'd already pecked at the first two chicks.

So Tuesday night I removed part of the shell, leaving the protective membrane. The membrane was very dry and there was a gap between the shell and the membrane so it came off easily. I had hoped that it would be easier for the chick to just tear through the membrane.

Wednesday morning, nothing had changed. So I broke off more of the shell and waited.

Wednesday morning

It was getting weaker, that was obvious, and it had only torn through the membrane a little more.

I read a lot online about how dangerous it was to help a chick out of the membrane, but I also read that if a chick wasn't out of the egg in 24 hours, it was a bad sign. I needed to leave for work and I wasn't willing to risk the chick dying in the egg while I was at work.

So I slowly and carefully helped it out of the membrane. It was pushing through, but it would need a little help now and then.

It finally made its appearance.

It was limping a bit that day, I think because part of the umbilical cord had been wrapped around its leg, but by the next day it was fitting in just fine with the others.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A second hatching

This morning as we were leaving for school and work I heard a very faint chirping. I moved Silkie Sue aside and pulled the egg out to put with the first chick and we watched. I was fairly impatient, or really worried about leaving late for work, so I helped the shell to peel off a little bit.