Surrogate Hen?

[MammasBabies]

I have been around chickens since I was little, but we never played with them or really handled them. They were food and egg layers. I did not know what I was missing.
I "henned" my first chick in high school. The mom had set her eggs too late in the fall and a frost killed the only chick that hatched. At least that is what I thought. I had been in the barn milking the cows and had stopped in to check on the hen. Found the frozen chick and sadly scooped it up and deposited it in the burning barrel on my way to the house. After taking care of the milk, I went back out to finish my morning chores before school. Walking by the burning barrel I heard a surprising sound....cheep cheep! The warm ashes from the night before had revived the chick! I took it into house, set up a cardboard box with hay, food and water and a warm light right next to my bed. Hand raised that little feller into a huge gentle Bard Rock rooster named Ashes. He would ride around the farm on my dad's shoulder! Was a gentle rooster and never hurt his hens.
Have bottlefed calves, hound pups and an abandoned kitten. My DH calls me "Momma Duck" and laughingly points out that when I leave a room all the animals follow me. I have three wonderful children and love interacting with other people's children when they are young. Guess it was a natural thing for me to help my 6th grade daughter incubate and care for "her chicken science project." We both love the chickens and find them endlessly fascintating to watch as they scratch about in their pen. Even DH and younger two children enjoy watching them.
We did the science project almost 6 years ago now and was contemplating getting my mom's old incubator to hatch some new layers for us. Have bought some chicks from feed store, but none of them were as tame and friendly as those we hatched, even though we handled them and kept them in a cage in garage/house until they feathered out. I usually think about these things a while before I act and had mentioned the idea to a friend of mine in passing a couple times.
Little did I know that she had been thinking about it too and had "thought of a solution" for both of us. So I got "henned" again! Not by nature and a warm burning barrel, but by a friend! BonneTerreChick has a story line telling her side, be sure to read it as she is a better writer than I am.

I will share photos of the two batches of chicks we have and soon will be hatching later.

 

[binza1979]

What a sweet story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MammasBabies]

In case there is any doubt about how I feel about being "henned again" let me clarify: I am enjoying it immensely! So are the children. Candled new batch last night and out of 36 eggs, only 25 look viable. Oh well, guess more room for them to hatch in.

Oh yeah, and candling Maran eggs is hard. Light does not want to penetrate even a little so I could see anything for sure, so out of 6, 5 of them will just stay there until end of hatch. Hopefully, some are viable.

 

[MammasBabies]

Second batch is "locked down" for next three days...then we see who comes out of these lovely eggs! Got a mix of Marans, SilkyAmericaunas, frizzle, silkies and some chanticleurs. Sorry for any spelling errors. We started with 36 eggs and are down to 25 after candling them.
First batch is doing well and are 3 + weeks old now. Hopefully they are all hens. As mostly novice chicken people, we are not sure yet.
Posting pictures on my profile in an album.
First batch arrived like most babies do, in the wee hours of the morning. A day early, I was awoken at 4:30 a.m. to sounds of cheep! cheep! I had not even gotten the pen out of the shed yet and had to get it, clean it and set it up while half asleep.

Nonetheless, over the next few days passed I got 8 more chicks safely hatched. Think humidity was not high enough for the last four that did not make it. They were dead in shells when I finally checked them the following Monday. Will watch that much closer this time.
check out the photos...have taken them once a week to show how they progress and maybe it will help others identify breed and sex someday. (Once we are sure...grin!)

 

[MammasBabies]

So, out of 7 silkyamericauna eggs...we got 7 chicks! yay.

2 of the 3 frizzle/cochin eggs hatched. 6 silkies made it and 2 of the 4 Chanticleurs made it. Not looking good for the Marans. Opening the incubator too much probably was not good. We "helped" the last 2 silkies out of their shells, gave them Pedialite and lots of tlc and one of them went home doing fine, with BonneTerreChick. Second baby has splayed legs. Have put a hobble on her and seems to help some.

Now for the funny....one of the new silkies (first 4 of second hatch) has decided that it does not want to be in the brood cage with the others.
She takes running starts at the cage walls and pops right through the holes! Have seen her do this 3 times now and finally taped up brown paper bags around bottom 2/3rds of cage. Now she just yells all the time until I pick her up.

When she got through the bars earlier she always made a bee-line straight for me. Surprised the cat, the the dog so much she got away with it those times. She (?) quiets right down once she is wth me.

 

[Renegade Rescue]

Congrats we hope to hatch some of our birds in the next year or so. Maybe asking for lots of advice.

 

[MammasBabies]

One thing I figured out and would only change 1 thing about incubating eggs and "impressing" them.....only a dozen at a time due to how often I open incubator once they start hatching. I like the interaction and friendliness of those I imress as opposed to those I get day old. But it plays heck on keeping humidity high enough.....maybe move the incubator into bathroom and try running a hot shower anytime I open the incubator would help? Ideas for anyone else trying. Other advice is hold them often and pay attention to them. It pays off later when trying to catch them.