Diary of Mommy Satin’s First Hatch

[yakitori]

Paint, my satin hen just hatched her first clutch! 21 days and all 6 eggs made it to hatch (whew). It was an eye opening and nerve wracking experience, but at the end of it she brought six adorable chicks to the world!

Momma Paint

Pre-chicks



They won’t have names until I decide to keep one (or six), so for now they will go by their egg number. This is not some kind of dystopian chicken keeping practice, I promise

Here they are!

Chickie Three, One and Five (from left to right)(all delawares)



Chickie number 4 (SLW x delaware)


And...poor chickie number 2 who took a long time hatching. She hatched 12 hours ago with a swollen looking belly, and is still not quite fluffy. She has a lot of fight in her though, so I hope she makes it
(delaware)



last but not least.. chickie number 6! She was the largest egg in the clutch, and pipped the wrong end, but thankfully came out none the worse for wear
(delaware)

 

[yakitori]

Day 5 - Two’s farewell

Two passed away.

I woke up this morning and heard distressed chirping from the nursery. Some time during the night Two got knocked out from under mommy onto her back and couldn’t right her self again.

When I went to pick her up, she was limp and cold. I tried to warm her up as best as I could, but it was already too late. I wonder whether I should have tried to raise her separately...

Farewell little one. May you find peace over the rainbow bridge free from all the pain and suffering you endured in these brief few days on earth.

I’m a little sad.

 

[yakitori]

3 Days Old

Teaching the children to decimate greenery. Tsk tsk.

 

[yakitori]

Momma is apparently a vegetarian, Vegan even maybe. She vehemently refuses any kind of bugs, and even shooed her children away from the scrambled egg I offered them.

Lettuce is a favorite. I give her a leaf and she will give the warning cluck to her chickies to stand back, before hulk smashing it into pieces - complete with intimidating chicken growls. Then she would cluck excitedly for the kiddos to come and dine on the shredded lettuce carcass.



One of my cat’s favorite pastimes is chicken bonking, as in sneaking up on an unsuspecting chicken before bonking them and running away. He’s probably wondering how long before he can add the little ones to his list of bonk victims.



Mommy tried to teach the littlies how to dust bath. One tried it for a brief two seconds before being distracted by a bug. It was so frigging adorable (!!!!), ofcourse she stopped when I pulled the phone out to take a photo.



They also met the big bad mean hens today. Momma made it clear that her children will not be associating with their kind.

 

[yakitori]

2 days old - First outing

Momma was excited to finally be able to poop. Whew was it stinky! I’m glad that will be the last broody poop for a good long while

Chickie two was too young to keep up, so I held her while mommy tried to teach (without much success) the rest to eat clover. Curious kitten watched from a respectable distance.

 

[yakitori]

 

[yakitori]

Added a touch of green to the nursery

 

[yakitori]

Day 11 - Giant planter babies

Indecisive weather decides to be cool again, chick pen is now out on the grass.

it seems Momma has imprinted on the pen as a safe zone. I opened the pen so they could explore more while I was gardening. She brought the kiddos out to explore a bit, then went back to the pen to nap.

That giant ol’ planter was her former “nesting box”

 

[TheDuckGuy]

pics!

Chick 1 and 2 on day 5

 

[yakitori]

Tonight’s nightly hangout