My next question.......

[pamelakay]

Hello!

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I am new. My name is Pamela, I am chicken dumb, inexperienced, however well meaning, etc. I have questions...lots of questions. I would be very grateful for your advice and compassion on my rather irksome lack of chicken yard knowledge.

#1 My young Bard Rock Hen decided to outsmart me. (not hard to do really)
She, henceforth to be known as Little Miss Smarty Pants, has finally been located under the coop, in an old tire once used as a swing. It is a nice tire,
white walled good year, rather large and heavy. Probably the most perfect place to have your first batch of chicks in the whole wide world, except for one thing....how to get the chicks out after the hatch is done. it fits under the coop with just enough room for L.M.S.P. to come and go. So, Will the chicks be able to climb out? Will the hen push them out, chew out a door, carry them out on her back? If not, do I grope around for them and risk Smarty Pants losing a late hatcher? Pull the tire out and risk crunching someone? And if I do the chick rescue thing, then what? And when? Day three after the first peeps? Must I set up some sort of nursery elsewhere? The coop has only two other occupants at present, one older Bard Rock hen, a reasonable old soul named Grace, and a young light Sussex Roo who loved Little Miss Smarty Pants mightly! His name is Max Goliath. Max is a lover, not a fighter, but I have never had chicks around him. I am worried if I do not intervene, that the off spring of Max shall perish in the tire. The entire coop is on a quarter acre enclosed by a 5" chain link fence....I live in North Carolina with fairly kind weather and it is the end of February. We shall have cool nights with lows into the high 20's for another month. My mother assures me that things have a way of working themselves out with chickens and I should just relax. Anyone had this type of situation before? I am losing sleep for want of a solution. Your imput would be appreciated, unless you tell me I should have gotten the tire back up into its tree and solved the problem before it started. I have already decided this for myself and have berated myself rather harshly.

Thank you....Pamela

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[Ridgerunner]

Chickens have been hatching and raising chicks with the flock for thousands of years. One small farms with flocks that roam, what you describe is not at all unusual. I grew up on a farm like that. Broody hens have been handling situations like that for thousands of years without human intervention. Usually they do better without human intervention.

Listen to your mother.

 

[Summerlove]

I agree with your mother. She will be fine. My hen has some chicks currently in my non heated coop and the warmest its been is 2 degrees celcius. They are all doing fine. The only thing I have to do is make sure they have food and water, she knows how to do the rest.

 

[pamelakay]

Thank You for the advice to let the hen alone. I am going to do just that, aside from food and water. My dad said if I got desperate I could drill a hole in the cop floor, then use a saw..... I like moms advice better. Anyway, Little Miss SP came off the tire while I was out in the fenced yard yesterday, and my curiosity got the best of me. While she went off to stretch her legs a bit, I ran got a flashlight and mirror. I was thinkin five or six eggs max. Wrong!!!
I counted 16 eggs. I am so excited! And so goes the days of our chickens lives!

 

[CayuseRanch]

...

Thank You for the advice to let the hen alone. I am going to do just that, aside from food and water. My dad said if I got desperate I could drill a hole in the cop floor, then use a saw..... I like moms advice better. Anyway, Little Miss SP came off the tire while I was out in the fenced yard yesterday, and my curiosity got the best of me. While she went off to stretch her legs a bit, I ran got a flashlight and mirror. I was thinkin five or six eggs max. Wrong!!! I counted 16 eggs. I am so excited! And so goes the days of our chickens lives! [/quote LMSP is probably not the only hen laying eggs down there! Im subscribing to this thread and I hope you keep us updated and more pics!

 

[pamelakay]

My next question has to do with the fact that these eggs belong to the following:

Max



and

Little Miss Smarty Pants
.


Max is, to the best of my knowledge, a two year old light sussex roo. Little Miss is one of two bard rock of unknown age, given to me by some folks who were moving. The idea was to find Max company before he worried my little bantum, Audrey, to death. Audrey was our first chick, brought home from the local feed store by my daughter, in a chinese takeout box, during a quick run for some tomato plants two springs ago. "Mom, I'll take care of it" she said. Right. Anyway, that was the start of my chicken interest. It was peaceful to sit and watch the little chick. She grew up and soon started following us around in the yard. She would perch on our shoulders at days end as my husband and I sat out in the yard having a glass of wine. Audrey was totally charming!
The next fall we got four other birds, juveniles, from a lady to keep Audrey company. One of these birds was Max. Audrey took these younger birds under her wing, so to speak. She was momma to the four of them, a pair of light sussex and a pair of Jersey Giants. Well, the lady next door had an old cocker spaniel mix who discovered our birds in the yard one day, shamefully unfenced and killed all but Audrey and Max .I cried. My neighbor cried. We all cried. Then, we washed off the tears and put up a 5" chain link fence around the chicken coop and about a 1/6 acre of woods. Not soon enough, unfortunately. Live and learn. Any how, life settled down a bit... then Max grew up. Audrey went from momma to....well....a very chased lady!





Problem...It is pretty obvious that Audrey is little and Max... isn't. So, I found the pair of bard rock hens to get Max off Audreys back,

, and didn't think much further beyond problem solved. But, like everything in life, one problem solved often leads to another. Now, I have, bred two different variety of birds. My question is, "What the flock have I done"? I have read just enough about keeping one's "stock" pure, to feel a little wrong. But I ask Mom, and she said roos and hens were not particular about things like this. I don't plan on selling any eggs for hatching. I am not a genetic purist. I am just on a roll when it comes to eggs, apparently! So, I am really excited about those little brown eggs, out under the chicken coop, in the good year white wall tire. What sort of birds will they be I wonder?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Breeding for pure breeds is only important if you are planning to show or have a specific reason for doing it. The vast majority of backyard flocks for thousands of years have been mixed breed flocks. There is absolutely no reason in the world for you to feel guilty about mixing breeds.

With the Light Sussex rooster over a Barred Rock hen I think you will get barred males and solid black females as offspring. I don’t think you will be able to see the spot on the head where you can tell if it is male or female at hatch. It’s possible but I think the down color won’t allow that. I could easily be wrong. I‘ve never made that cross.

With the Light Sussex rooster over your other one, I’m not going to try to guess what they would look like.

 

[CayuseRanch]

While I raise some pure breeds, my mixed flock is always the sturdiest of birds and hatch better. They are more frequent layers too. Last year I was downsizing some of my flock and I was surprisd by the number of people that said they only wanted mutts no pure breeds for the same reason I mentioned earlier. They just seem to be hardier.

 

[SJ]

Congradulations Pamela. Im so happy for you!!!

You have a very exciting event occuring under your coop. Spring is coming and hens will be hens.
By the looks of it Audrey may have a few eggs in there too. So if all works out you should have a good mix of chick markings.
My thoughts on Max... Max is a rooster and that fact alone is weighty.There is no way of knowing how any rooster will behave around chicks. Some roosters will kill and eat chicks some are superb protectors of their young. So Max could potenially become very protective or a baby killer.

L.M.S.P. is the best shot those eggs got at making it to adulthood. BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF THE HEN. Nature has made her perfect to the task of raising chicks. The forums have alot of information on "broody hens" thats should help ease your mind.

 

[pamelakay]

Thank you every one for your input! I have just sat down to lunch and have been given sound advice from four different people, across the North American continent ; Arkansas, Oklahoma , Wisconsin , and Ontario. To have such a communication venue with people connected by a common interest is like ....WOW!!! it is totally humbling.