dbtcowgirl
Songster
- Jun 3, 2020
- 328
- 1,040
- 130
Long story but sweet ending...
Our friends have a young flock of guineas, they don't want babies and offered us their eggs. We were told they probably were not fertile due to the young age of the rooster but my boys and I took them home anyways. We have our " breeding pens" where we raise our pure bred flocks but we also have our barnyard misfits, that run loose and do whatever. We intended to put the guinea eggs in the incubator, but one of our old Dark Brahma hens had decided she wanted to go broody, she is 8 years old and hasn't laid in forever, but she was stealing eggs and meant to have a nest. The boys and I decided, let's give her the eggs to sit on. No harm No fowl (bad pun intended) Later in the afternoon that we gave her the eggs my oldest son was in an auto accident that lead to us spending two weeks in the hospital and just getting home a week ago. The nest just slipped my mind. Yesterday I remembered and went to check. She was off the nest, nothing appears to have hatched. No surprise, I grabbed an egg carton to gather them up. I candled everything and only a couple looked fertile, but they had quit early on. 18 count egg carton...I had put 18 in the nest. 17 in my carton. No eggshells, no nothing... I don't think about it. Fast forward to this evening. We are all sitting in the alleyway of the barn and the chickens, dogs, cats and kids are playing while we fill out some paperwork. Out of nowhere my rooster flogs my puppy, this is really out of character, but puppies can be a pain. Then my hen and rooster both flog my older dog. Never are they aggressive, ever. I'm really confused at this point. My assistant and I go to investigate the feed room and they both act like they might flog us....these are the chickens that sit in our laps every day. We look behind a salt block and find one perfect beautiful lavender guinea chick. At least 100 yards from the nest and at least 2 days past the last possible hatching day. We scooped up the chick and headed for the brooder. My hen and roo followed us, checked out the baby in it's basket then happily walked away. All is well that ends well. I'm incredibly thankful for the miracle of life, the blessing of sweet animals, and the incredible beauty of farm life.
Our friends have a young flock of guineas, they don't want babies and offered us their eggs. We were told they probably were not fertile due to the young age of the rooster but my boys and I took them home anyways. We have our " breeding pens" where we raise our pure bred flocks but we also have our barnyard misfits, that run loose and do whatever. We intended to put the guinea eggs in the incubator, but one of our old Dark Brahma hens had decided she wanted to go broody, she is 8 years old and hasn't laid in forever, but she was stealing eggs and meant to have a nest. The boys and I decided, let's give her the eggs to sit on. No harm No fowl (bad pun intended) Later in the afternoon that we gave her the eggs my oldest son was in an auto accident that lead to us spending two weeks in the hospital and just getting home a week ago. The nest just slipped my mind. Yesterday I remembered and went to check. She was off the nest, nothing appears to have hatched. No surprise, I grabbed an egg carton to gather them up. I candled everything and only a couple looked fertile, but they had quit early on. 18 count egg carton...I had put 18 in the nest. 17 in my carton. No eggshells, no nothing... I don't think about it. Fast forward to this evening. We are all sitting in the alleyway of the barn and the chickens, dogs, cats and kids are playing while we fill out some paperwork. Out of nowhere my rooster flogs my puppy, this is really out of character, but puppies can be a pain. Then my hen and rooster both flog my older dog. Never are they aggressive, ever. I'm really confused at this point. My assistant and I go to investigate the feed room and they both act like they might flog us....these are the chickens that sit in our laps every day. We look behind a salt block and find one perfect beautiful lavender guinea chick. At least 100 yards from the nest and at least 2 days past the last possible hatching day. We scooped up the chick and headed for the brooder. My hen and roo followed us, checked out the baby in it's basket then happily walked away. All is well that ends well. I'm incredibly thankful for the miracle of life, the blessing of sweet animals, and the incredible beauty of farm life.
