The Middle Tennessee Thread

[TShelton54]

Not too late. Some of my best chicks have been late hatches. They seem to grow faster with the cool weather if they are under a hen.

 

[FeyRaine]

I need some advice, I have a hen that is broody is it too late in the year to let her hatch chicks?


thanks, in advance

As long as the location of the broody nest is out of the weather esp. wind/drafts & she takes care of the chicks
(not all broodies are good mama birds)
then you should have a nice batch of chicks who will start laying in spring

I had a random meat hen who missed freezer camp & ended up laying jumbo eggs,
she then sat a clutch in nov & carried the chicks around on her back to keep their feet out of the snow in dec & jan
so it is all about the individual hen (b/c that random white meat type sure was not "supposed" to do any of that).

 

[RedRidge]

I need some advice, I have a hen that is broody is it too late in the year to let her hatch chicks?


thanks, in advance

I would let her incubate them without a concern.
Since it's so late in the year I might put them in a brooder under a lamp once hatched.
But that's just me... with the setup I have here.
I would worry about them staying warm in another month depending on the number in the hatch and the size of the hen.
My broody's who raise chicks are bantams and they raise standard size

 

[Penny Hen]

As long as the location of the broody nest is out of the weather esp. wind/drafts & she takes care of the chicks
(not all broodies are good mama birds)
then you should have a nice batch of chicks who will start laying in spring

I had a random meat hen who missed freezer camp & ended up laying jumbo eggs,
she then sat a clutch in nov & carried the chicks around on her back to keep their feet out of the snow in dec & jan
so it is all about the individual hen (b/c that random white meat type sure was not "supposed" to do any of that).

I would be saving her daughters for sure. That is awesome.

 

[FeyRaine]

I would be saving her daughters for sure. That is awesome.

I would have, but here is what happened...
One fine spring day when sthe POL pullet daughter was big enough to not get eaten by barn cats
I decided it was The Day to start her free ranging.
Just as I opened the pen door wide for all to go free range, a large bug came buzzing along,
the daughter pullet saw the bug and ran after it
out the open pen door
out across the yard
out into the pasture
out towards the woods
& as I saw her running fast after that bug it dawned on me that she was going to follow it to the ends of the earth
and she ran after as far as I could see
and I never saw her again

 

[DMRippy]

 


I would be saving her daughters for sure. That is awesome.

I would have, but here is what happened...
One fine spring day when sthe POL pullet daughter was big enough to not get eaten by barn cats
I decided it was The Day to start her free ranging.
Just as I opened the pen door wide for all to go free range, a large bug came buzzing along,
the daughter pullet saw the bug and ran after it
out the open pen door
out across the yard
out into the pasture
out towards the woods
& as I saw her running fast after that bug it dawned on me that she was going to follow it to the ends of the earth
and she ran after as far as I could see
and I never saw her again

that is about the saddest thing I have heard! well today. sorry.

 

[FeyRaine]

that is about the saddest thing I have heard! well today. sorry.

Thx Donna. That was years ago, but as you know that has pretty much been my luck w/ chickens;
I keep trying & sometimes things go well for awhile, then I just get crazy odd bad luck (like a wkend long power outage w/ 13 doz eggs @ day 15 and me not home).
As far as that one POL pullet goes, in my mind in that moment as she ran for the bug she was the happiest free ranging chicken ever and I just leave it at that.

 

[DMRippy]

and she was!

 

[Penny Hen]

That was kinda how we came to have our beagle. She was about a year old when she stepped into the road and made my husband stop his car on the way home from work. Then she jumped up on the hood. He got out to shoo her off and she jumped in and refused to get out of the car. He checked up and down the road early on a Sunday morning to make sure she didn't belong to anyone. She was well fed and spayed. We figured she took after a rabbit and got totally lost and when she saw Arthur she decided she was going home with him.

I have always loved folk songs. There is one about a man who gets on a subway train and never gets off. The refrain is something like "Oh he never returned, No he never returned, he is going to ride that train forever. He's the man that never returned." I suddenly here the song sung about your chicken.

Oh she never returned
No she never returned
She's going to chase that bug forever,
She's the chick that never returned.

 

[Penny Hen]

I would have, but here is what happened...
One fine spring day when sthe POL pullet daughter was big enough to not get eaten by barn cats
I decided it was The Day to start her free ranging.
Just as I opened the pen door wide for all to go free range, a large bug came buzzing along,
the daughter pullet saw the bug and ran after it
out the open pen door
out across the yard
out into the pasture
out towards the woods
& as I saw her running fast after that bug it dawned on me that she was going to follow it to the ends of the earth
and she ran after as far as I could see
and I never saw her again

I found the song that this made me think of. Thank you, Mudcat Cafe, folk song site. Now you may think this is strange but I would like to write the story of your chicken into this song. If she didn't have a name yet think what you would have called her if she hadn't run off. And what was the name of her mother? When I get it done I will record it on a midi file and post it in a threat that I will add chicken song to. At the moment I only know one. I took voice for six years and have been a fan girl of folk music since I was small. I believe in singing about the things we love and respect and laugh about as well as our sorrows and pain. Here is the original lyrics to the song and a link to the midi file to here the tune.


SOURCE:
Bob Pfeffer

SOURCE'S SOURCE: Will Holt

COMMENTS: Written by Jacqueline Berman (now Steiner) and
Bess Hawes as a campaign song for Walter A. O'Brian, the
Progressive Party candidate in Boston's mayoral election. When
Will Holt recorded the number as a pop song for Coral,
the record company was astounded by a deluge of protests from
Boston because the song made a hero out of a local "radical".
The record was hastily withdrawn an a new version recorded which
eliminated O'Brien's claim to musical fame. In the later
Kingston Trio release, Walter A. was changed to George to avoid
advertising Commies on the air. RG

AIR: The Ship that Never Returned; also The Wreck of the Old 97

TEXT:
C F
Let me tell you the story of a man named Charley
C G7
On a tragic and fateful day
C F
He put ten cents in his pocket, kissed his wife and family
C G7 C
Went to ride on the MTA

CHORUS: Did he ever return, no he never returned
And his fate is still unlearn'd
He may ride forever neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned.

Charley handed in his dime at the Kendall Square Station
And he changed for Jamaica Plain
When he got there the conductor told him, "One more nickel."
Charley could not get off that train.

Now all night long Charley rides through the tunnels
Saying, "What will become of me?
How can I afford to see my sister in Chelsea
Or my cousin in Roxbury?"
Churl's wife goes down to the Scollay Square station
Every day at quarter past two
And through the open window she hands Charley a sandwich
As the train comes rumblin' through.

Now you citizens of Boston, don't you think it's a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay
Vote for George O'Brien and fight the fare increase
Get poor Charley off the MTA

CHORUS: Or else he'll never return, no he'll never return
And his fate will be unlearned
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man (Who's the man) He's the man (Oh, the man)
He's the man who never returned.

Recorded by Will Holt, Kingston Trio etc.
DT #634
RPf

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/song-midis/midi/WRECK97.midi