- Mar 27, 2013
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YAY, Bee!! Congrats! What a pretty rooster, I am sure you are quite happy to get him!Folks, I'm simply overwhelmed by the kindness you all have shown to me here today...truly. I had to stop reading, cry, and thank the Lord for you all and for all things He has done for me. Blessings shaken down, pressed down and overflowing and my heart can't contain it all! Thank you all for everything!
You wouldn't believe what I have done today and it would take me a whole page to tell it, but I'll try to give you the abbreviated version....first, the nest.
This morning I had a pip on a BA egg, so I placed the wire arch to keep the pad off the eggs and let some air into the clutch. Another egg was peeping but no other signs of hatching for the rest of the eggs. I had to go to town to pick up a rooster out of the mail....yes..you heard me right. A few men on here with hearts of solid gold sent me a heritage line WR cockerel of 11 mo. of age out of Bob Blosl's old line. Just to tell you everything that has happened since then while we were in town and after we got him, with this bird, would take another thread so I'll just say that this bird is pure royalty and he arrived in WV like he owned it.
When we got home about 6 hrs later that egg still just had the same pip and another had a pip and the one that just had an internal pip was still cheeping and I could hear it scritching on the shell. I left it alone and went outside to remake the brooder, supervise a rooster fight, doctor up a meat chick that got injured by the layer flock rooster and get some TSC chicks and ducklings settled into the brooder...had to get some brooder mates for this chick hatching in case he's the only one.
We were outside for 2 hours and when we came back in I could here him peeping....Hootie Two is out of the shell and already drying off! He's smaller than the last Hootie but he is much stronger and was already good on his feet. He is currently stretched across some nice warm eggs and snoozing his little fuzzy head off. No more action on the other eggs but, guess what? I'm going to keep my hands off the hatch and let things happen....right, Pete?
What I did when I saw this chick was to let him move around a bit out in the fresh air then rolled him back under that pad much like a broodie would and left him to his own devises. The arched fencing wire keeps the pad a little up off the middle of the clutch so he has air to breathe and all and he can still move around...he got clear to the other side of the nest and is sleeping on the eggs on the other side of the clutch. Vigorous chick!
Here's Hootie Two....just looked in on him again and he is a strong chick...gonna make it. And....he has feathered legs and feet!Cute as the dickens....folks, I think I got my second wind back and my spirit is not quite so broken when I see this healthy, beautiful chick in the nest. Went to TSC to get him some brooder mates today just in case the other eggs don't make it....got him some RIRs and two Khaki Campbell ducklings. Those ducks are just...spectacularly cute! Eight birds to replace the chicks that died in the shell.
And the bloody victor to an epic battle that I finally called a break for and separated the two combatants so Weaver, aka The Rock, could get some water, some food and relax after being overnighted here, traveling all afternoon in the back of a truck and getting right down to business. He's had his first water, his first fermented feed, his first foraging on the land, his first his first battle for the flock and his first breeding all in under 2 hours. He's the most magnificent bird I've ever had the chance to meet...calm, regal, mannerly towards humans, sweet to the ladies and they are already tuned into his maleness like...well...like we ladies would be to The Rock.Just checked on him and he's next to one of the WR ladies and he's actually cooing...he's cooing to the hen!
What a man.....er...bird!
Even if you don't attempt this experiment again (& who would blame you?) I think you may have inspired others to perfect this method. I'm certain it can be done. 
Bless you Bee for all your hard work & determination! Praying for more chicks to hatch for you! 
