Like most of you, the southeast corner of Kansas is well saturated with rainwater. And I do mean well, as I water out of an old well, I noticed that it is brim full. It is about 8 feet or more in diameter and about 40 feet deep. It normally is about 12 feet down to the water. It is ground fed ( no roof drains near it.). I use it to water all my poultry and garden (if I ever get more planted). I had a Mottled Java hen, that was setting on 13 Salmon Favorites eggs. Her 21st day would have been tomorrow, as I marked the calendar when I put the eggs under her. She hatched out sometime yesterday, because she was out of her nest and was out in the open with her chicks. 4 were ok, but the other 8 were laying flat in water.( one egg didn't hatch). Two of the chicks were able to gasp for breath, but the others were lifeless. I picked them all up, and took them in where I had a spare Styrofoam incubator already warm. I finished my morning chores, and when I came into the house, my wife informed me that I had an unhappy chick in the utility room. It wasn't one chick, but all 8 had dried out and jumping out of the incubator when I removed the lid. They are now back with the hen. Java hens are good mothers. The ones I have would take on a tiger, if it was after her chicks. Anyway it is not easy to feed and water if any of the chicks are close by the feeders. I also had a turkey hatch out 14 pullets yesterday, but I had moved them to a sheltered pen, and she kept them all dry.
