WARNING, my stories tend to be a bit on the long side and I will apologize in advance!
This past Mother's Day weekend I incubated and successfully hatched some eggs because none of my hens wanted to be broody and hatch any on their own. I really only wanted a few more hens to replace the ones I bought last spring that turned out to be roosters instead. However 18 out of 21 hatched and there you go, I am instantly overrun with baby chicks.
Fast forward one month later and my Cochin Piper must have had a hormonal response to seeing the cute baby chicks running around because by Father's Day weekend she went broody and 21 days later she had herself 7 wee ones of her own.
Well...… the growth rate of chicks didn't stop there. After a week of watching Piper with her babies, and I do mean literally watching EVERYTHING she was doing with her chicks, our Orpington Luna decided that she could do it too!!! And last Thursday Luna hatched 4 sweet little chicks. Great I now have chickens coming out of my ears!!!!
The first set of chicks that I incubated I was able to sell half of them and it was fine. No big deal other than hoping that the ones I picked to keep don't turn out to be roosters
However it still appears I have acquired a very serious case of CHICKEN MATH 
My 7 chickens very quickly turned into 27 chickens!
This morning I met a lady and her young son at Tractor Supply. They were there looking at the baby chicks in hopes of getting some Easter Eggers. Turns out her son really wanted some EE for his birthday. Sadly TSC didn't have any EE. I mentioned to the mom that I had LOTS of EE coming out of my ears and would gladly sell her a few. Needless to say she jumped on that idea, with one catch. See only wanted the just hatched babies and none of the 4 week old or 10 week old chicks. I hesitantly agreed, even though that deep in my gut I knew that I was going to really upset Luna if I took her babies from her.
You see, Luna is our big lap chicken. Full of love and cuddles and has turned out to be the sweet first time moma hen I knew she would be.
About 3 hours ago, the people from TSC came by as promised to buy the chicks. I really hoped they would go for the 4 week old chicks that Piper is starting to wean from her. But you know how it is, 4 week old chicks are in the middle of their gangly mini raptor phase and 4 day old chicks are still cute and fluffy. So, off the drove with Luna's 4 cute babies leaving behind a very upset moma hen.
No one warned me that selling babies that have been hatched by a moma would break my heart!!!!
I have gone outside to check on her a few times and it is so sad to see her searching and calling for them. I tried taking her raisins which are her favorite treat. And instead of eating them. she immediately started clucking that "moma hen cluck" to call her babies over for a treat. It is just gut wrenching to watch her cry for her babies. I feel like such a monster for kidnapping and peddling in chicks!
Someone please tell me that she will forget them and forgive me soon
This past Mother's Day weekend I incubated and successfully hatched some eggs because none of my hens wanted to be broody and hatch any on their own. I really only wanted a few more hens to replace the ones I bought last spring that turned out to be roosters instead. However 18 out of 21 hatched and there you go, I am instantly overrun with baby chicks.
Fast forward one month later and my Cochin Piper must have had a hormonal response to seeing the cute baby chicks running around because by Father's Day weekend she went broody and 21 days later she had herself 7 wee ones of her own.
Well...… the growth rate of chicks didn't stop there. After a week of watching Piper with her babies, and I do mean literally watching EVERYTHING she was doing with her chicks, our Orpington Luna decided that she could do it too!!! And last Thursday Luna hatched 4 sweet little chicks. Great I now have chickens coming out of my ears!!!!
The first set of chicks that I incubated I was able to sell half of them and it was fine. No big deal other than hoping that the ones I picked to keep don't turn out to be roosters
However it still appears I have acquired a very serious case of CHICKEN MATH My 7 chickens very quickly turned into 27 chickens!This morning I met a lady and her young son at Tractor Supply. They were there looking at the baby chicks in hopes of getting some Easter Eggers. Turns out her son really wanted some EE for his birthday. Sadly TSC didn't have any EE. I mentioned to the mom that I had LOTS of EE coming out of my ears and would gladly sell her a few. Needless to say she jumped on that idea, with one catch. See only wanted the just hatched babies and none of the 4 week old or 10 week old chicks. I hesitantly agreed, even though that deep in my gut I knew that I was going to really upset Luna if I took her babies from her.
You see, Luna is our big lap chicken. Full of love and cuddles and has turned out to be the sweet first time moma hen I knew she would be.
About 3 hours ago, the people from TSC came by as promised to buy the chicks. I really hoped they would go for the 4 week old chicks that Piper is starting to wean from her. But you know how it is, 4 week old chicks are in the middle of their gangly mini raptor phase and 4 day old chicks are still cute and fluffy. So, off the drove with Luna's 4 cute babies leaving behind a very upset moma hen.
No one warned me that selling babies that have been hatched by a moma would break my heart!!!!
I have gone outside to check on her a few times and it is so sad to see her searching and calling for them. I tried taking her raisins which are her favorite treat. And instead of eating them. she immediately started clucking that "moma hen cluck" to call her babies over for a treat. It is just gut wrenching to watch her cry for her babies. I feel like such a monster for kidnapping and peddling in chicks!
Someone please tell me that she will forget them and forgive me soon
