Tormund
Chirping
Well, we have been saying that we needed to add more chickens to my flock since we are down to 5 chicken (1 rooster 4 hens) and today I was in tractor supply getting shavings to throw down in the coop and walked by the chicks and well there were 4 chicks standing there as tall as their little legs could get and watching me. So, I had to get them (I don't want to hear it, yeah, the big bear of a man is a softy for chicks) and since I was getting the last remaining 3 of one breed I decided to get some other and decided to bring home 4 more. Since our hens are 2 6-year-old Australorps and 2 5-year-old easter eggers. (rooster is a 2-year-old Australorp-easter egger mix). So now I have 3 Black Jersey Giants and 4 Blue Plymouth Rocks hens (hopefully) bringing out flock number back up to 12.
We lost our Momma hen, the one that we used in the past to integrate new chicks into the flock. She was our seasonal broody, as in she went broody once every few months and hatch out all of our previous chicks. It was a bad year for us chicken wise. We lost all 5 roosters including 4 of our hatched-out roosters including the father of all the chicks we hatch out. 1 disappeared (only recently figure out what happened to him) 2 we potted for being over aggressive with the hens. 1 stopped coming down off the perch in the coup and wouldn't eat so we brought him inside and he died 2 days later. and the father was injured fighting off a cat that attacked the hens and died 4 days later. We also lost 13 hens over the past 15 months. An easter egger did the same thing as a rooster at the same time. 2 hens just completely disappeared during a heavy snow we had last winter and we have no idea what happened to them. we lost 3 hens to cat attacks 5 hens to dog attacks (dug in under the fence) and 1 hen to a fox. including all 5 of both our Lavender Orpingtons and all 4 of our RI Reds. and every chick except for the current rooster. And 1 hen drowned in the ditch.
So now I'm not sure how I'm going to handle introducing these new chicks. Other than we have a very gentle easter egger who will periodically decide to sit eggs though she doesn't go full broody once they get a bit older and see if she will momma them. Mean Hen (the boss hen) goes broody but hasn't since last spring when we let her sit a clutch of 10 eggs and not a single one of them hatched. Momma hen made things easy bring chicks out and she took care of them. Any advice would be appreciated. Also included images of the chicks and out rooster. We are getting a lot of unfertilized eggs but he's and absolute champ friendly gentle with the hens and brutal to anything in the yard him and the dog have killed 2 possums a racoon and a cat in the last year. Even if he's not giving us chicks you can't get a better and more faithful protector of the flock. Hes funny because when something shows up (hawk or anything he doesn't like) he herds the hens into the coop then sits in the hen hatch(12inch x 12 inch door) with his head stuck out watching what's going on.
We lost our Momma hen, the one that we used in the past to integrate new chicks into the flock. She was our seasonal broody, as in she went broody once every few months and hatch out all of our previous chicks. It was a bad year for us chicken wise. We lost all 5 roosters including 4 of our hatched-out roosters including the father of all the chicks we hatch out. 1 disappeared (only recently figure out what happened to him) 2 we potted for being over aggressive with the hens. 1 stopped coming down off the perch in the coup and wouldn't eat so we brought him inside and he died 2 days later. and the father was injured fighting off a cat that attacked the hens and died 4 days later. We also lost 13 hens over the past 15 months. An easter egger did the same thing as a rooster at the same time. 2 hens just completely disappeared during a heavy snow we had last winter and we have no idea what happened to them. we lost 3 hens to cat attacks 5 hens to dog attacks (dug in under the fence) and 1 hen to a fox. including all 5 of both our Lavender Orpingtons and all 4 of our RI Reds. and every chick except for the current rooster. And 1 hen drowned in the ditch.
So now I'm not sure how I'm going to handle introducing these new chicks. Other than we have a very gentle easter egger who will periodically decide to sit eggs though she doesn't go full broody once they get a bit older and see if she will momma them. Mean Hen (the boss hen) goes broody but hasn't since last spring when we let her sit a clutch of 10 eggs and not a single one of them hatched. Momma hen made things easy bring chicks out and she took care of them. Any advice would be appreciated. Also included images of the chicks and out rooster. We are getting a lot of unfertilized eggs but he's and absolute champ friendly gentle with the hens and brutal to anything in the yard him and the dog have killed 2 possums a racoon and a cat in the last year. Even if he's not giving us chicks you can't get a better and more faithful protector of the flock. Hes funny because when something shows up (hawk or anything he doesn't like) he herds the hens into the coop then sits in the hen hatch(12inch x 12 inch door) with his head stuck out watching what's going on.
