What was your luckiest moment as a chicken keeper?

[My Three Chicks]

Sometimes we have those moments when we're so lucky, we jump with joy!
What was your luckiest moment (to do with chickens) as a chicken keeper?
Did you get all pullets at TSC? Did you have a 100% hatch rate?
I wanna hear them!

Sometimes we have those moments when we're so lucky, we jump with joy!
What was your luckiest moment (to do with chickens) as a chicken keeper?
Did you get all pullets at TSC? Did you have a 100% hatch rate?
I wanna hear them!

I am new to raising chickens and have 4 girls who I raised from baby chicks. They are now 25 weeks old. I just happened to be with them when the first one laid her first egg...our first egg ever! I also got a video of the whole thing. I had no idea what to expect. It was so special I nearly cried!

 

[Jenessa_096]

I am new to raising chickens and have 4 girls who I raised from baby chicks. They are now 25 weeks old. I just happened to be with them when the first one laid her first egg...our first egg ever! I also got a video of the whole thing. I had no idea what to expect. It was so special I nearly cried!

Aww!

 

[Isadora]

Another time I felt lucky was a few months ago when I was picking tomatoes in the garden. My chickens only free range, as I have them for bug control. I heard a chicken put up a huge ruckus, but it sounded panicked, not like the egg song or a chicken squabble. I ran over to the woods in a hurry, where I heard all the commotion. One of my Easter eggers ran by me, squawking and freaking out. A few of my other chickens and my cockerel were on the trail into the woods, heads up, looking very alert. I started walking towards them and kept looking around when suddenly, a coyote jumped out of the woods onto the trail in front of me, eyes fixed on my chickens. Despite being surprised, I had the presence of mind to run towards it screaming and clapping my hands to drive it away.
He was close enough to the birds that he could have grabbed one as he ran away, but I think he was so startled by me running at him that he just fled.

 

[6BeachChicks]

My luckiest moment was when my sweet little hen Liz recovered from an unknown disease.

 

[CoconutCoffee]

I think my luckiest has been my oldest rooster. Ordered pullets and one turned out to be male. I was worried about how he'd be (first flock) since theyre all the same age but hes been awesome. Made nests when the girls started laying, signaled for treats, and threats etc. I also didn't see any hens getting stressed out once they all hit maturity which was a big concern. One time a neighbors dog got loose and it came running towards the chickens. He sounded the alarm, hens went one way and he went after the dog. Thankfully I was outside when it happened and nothing bad happened. I think I absolutely lucked out with that guy. He's getting up there at 7 this past April.

 

[topochico225]

I've had a couple. I've incubated a total of 19 eggs this year, and only one has been a boy. He was a Turken, ugly as sin, so I was going to give him away anyway.

My definite luckiest time was this summer. I stayed up late one night, don't remember why, and was sitting in the living room. It was probably about 11 pm when I heard panicked chicken sounds from the yard. It was the one night where I thought "eh, the chickens are probably in the coop." I ran outside and got there just in time to find a possum running away from the chicken coop where my favorite hen Peebles was roosting on top of. She didn't get into the coop in time before it was too dark for her to see. She was about 20ft away from the coop in my yard, unharmed, but had all her crop feathers and some tail feathers pulled out by the possum. She did go into shock, but was fine after a night inside my house. I go make sure the chickens are up every night now!

Another one was when Hurricane Ida hit down here in South Louisiana in late August. I had 3 eggs in my incubator on lockdown and was freaking out. I wrapped the bator in blankets and an emergency blanket. We ended up not having power for a week. I took the bator to a friend's house which still had power the day after the hurricane, having already given up on any hope of them hatching. DB went to that house to mow a few days later, called and said "Um, there's a chick?" I was shocked. About an hour later, he calls back. "There's another one." Flummoxed. Right before he leaves, he calls. "You're not going to believe this. There's three chicks in this incubator." I was absolutely shocked. Nothing but the grace of God kept those eggs alive. Those babies stayed in our house, which was conveniently at about 90 degrees with no power/ac, and stank it up, but that's a small price to pay for miracle babies. One ended up being a boy, and the other 2 were girls.

 

[cherrynberry]

When I joined BYC!

 

[Bella Dominique]

My luckiest chicken moment so far is a Cooper hawk pinned one of our Australorps to the ground. My husband who is big, loud, and fast burst out of the house and the hawk flew off. Luckily I couldn’t find any claw marks or blood on her.

 

[Sandfly45]

I adopted an orphan wild duckling a few days ago. Found out today it's actually a Canadian goose! Yeehaaw!!

 

[KingD]

What was your luckiest moment (to do with chickens) as a chicken keeper?

My luckiest moment was when I was working outside and saw a fox stalking the hens. I watched it for a minute (because it was interesting) then chased it away. If I hadn't been there, the birds would have been killed.