- May 22, 2014
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Hi! Longterm forum lurker from the Netherlands here. 
We have technically 'had' chickens for ten years now, when a hen from a flock a fair few blocks away escaped and settled in our yard. We don't know what breed she is & refer to her as 'the wild chicken' - she's still alive but she's turned into a very quirky girl.
We've tried to bring her company several times, but haven't had any success until last year, when we got a baby Silkie and two silver laced Wyandottes from my father. (The latter turned out to be Silkie crosses, as we found out recently... a bit of a learning curve there.)
Anyway, we finally managed to successfully hatch our first chicks here five weeks ago! Three Wyandotte silkie cross babies from the 'Wyandottes' (that roo's now gone because the silkie also turned out to be a roo) and one wee chicken we 'salvaged' by taking her egg from the wild hen and putting it under the Wyandotte cross. The wild hen herself is a bit of a homicidal mama and has never managed to have chicks even when we had roos around.
Unfortunately we put that egg under the broody a bit late and wound up having to rig up a makeshift brooder to help the kid hatch & now we're handraising her. She's called Bintje and it's her randomly bursting into silkie feathers that made us go back and look at the 'Wyandottes'.
Ahem. Hi, guys! This board's managed to help me navigate taking care of these babies very well (Bintje definitely wouldn't be alive without it!) and I'm super-grateful for it, so I thought I'd say hi.This is Bintje at age 3.5 weeks, last week.
and this morning, on her 4 week birthday:
We have technically 'had' chickens for ten years now, when a hen from a flock a fair few blocks away escaped and settled in our yard. We don't know what breed she is & refer to her as 'the wild chicken' - she's still alive but she's turned into a very quirky girl.We've tried to bring her company several times, but haven't had any success until last year, when we got a baby Silkie and two silver laced Wyandottes from my father. (The latter turned out to be Silkie crosses, as we found out recently... a bit of a learning curve there.)
Anyway, we finally managed to successfully hatch our first chicks here five weeks ago! Three Wyandotte silkie cross babies from the 'Wyandottes' (that roo's now gone because the silkie also turned out to be a roo) and one wee chicken we 'salvaged' by taking her egg from the wild hen and putting it under the Wyandotte cross. The wild hen herself is a bit of a homicidal mama and has never managed to have chicks even when we had roos around.
Unfortunately we put that egg under the broody a bit late and wound up having to rig up a makeshift brooder to help the kid hatch & now we're handraising her. She's called Bintje and it's her randomly bursting into silkie feathers that made us go back and look at the 'Wyandottes'.
Ahem. Hi, guys! This board's managed to help me navigate taking care of these babies very well (Bintje definitely wouldn't be alive without it!) and I'm super-grateful for it, so I thought I'd say hi.This is Bintje at age 3.5 weeks, last week.
and this morning, on her 4 week birthday:
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and Welcome To BYC! Sounds like you've had an interesting time with your chickens, Bintje is an adorable chick!
