I wanted to share a story from a past chicken experience, it's amusing!
There's a mini farm operated by the local county park department, and they have chickens. My husband and I used to go there and visit, and hike in the woods.
One trip, there was a Bantam hen squaking her head off like she just came off a nest, but the area was all heavy farm machinary on display, not exectly prime nesting areas. So I browsed around, looking inside, under, over... finally found it, in a metal trough, 5 feet off the ground, burning up from sun heat, giant metal shards in the trough... very bad for chicks! 5 eggs total, I handled each, testing for weight.
Only one was heavy, the rest obivously no good. I had two eggs in the bator at that time, and some baby ducks on the ground at home, so I put that one egg in my pocket and took it home. Consoling myself that the theft was in the best interest of the possible chick, should it have hatched, it would not have been able to scale the side of the trough, and would have starved or dehydrated. Too far from where the employees work, they would not have heard a distress call. Granted I could have given it to employees right there... but what's the fun in that?
So off I went, placing the egg in my incubator when I got home.
The very next day, a hole starts! Peeping and everything, a quick zip, and she's out! Quite obviously a pullet.
She decides I'm momma hen, and sticks to me like glue. So, I hold her instead of placing her in the brooder. I take her around with me in a shoebox, and at night she'd sit with a hot water bottle in a towel covered cage. I had to talk her to sleep, listening as her peeps grew quieter.
I couldn't leave the house without her screaming, so she'd come with. I switched the shoe box for a rodent travel cage. She'd go to the horse stable with me, Walmart even... they never offered to throw me out so long as I stayed out of the food department. LOL
I tried to introduce her to the ducks, but she knew she was not a duck. She relied on me for everything, her comfort, her food, her social interaction.
Me patiently waiting on those other eggs to hatch!! I candled them, and only 1 of the 3 was developing. Uh-Oh! What if that one egg doesn't make it the whole way!?
She mean while develops her feathering, learns to fly around after me, when finally that last egg starts hatching. It's a boy! Bright red already around his face!
And she'd have none of it. No she says, she's not a chicken. So I took a large wooden box, and put a cage divider in it, the light on the baby Roo's side. I listen to her cry and cry when I put her in this new bedtime situation.
It takes weeks for her to realize that maybe she is a chicken, and this little Roo is her only species friend. But they do start to bond, and her reliance for comfort slowly switches from me to him. He mean while is very sweet, and becomes a great pet as well. They would roost so close together they were touching, and they became quite close.
All in all a total of a 3 month process. Remembering her reliance on me will prevent me from hatching very small groups of eggs without having chickens already. I took for granted the days when I kept my incubator running all the time, always having atleast one chick or broody hen to become the companion for the newly hatched.
She ended up going to a local mini farm with her boyfriend, as well as the ducks too.
There's a mini farm operated by the local county park department, and they have chickens. My husband and I used to go there and visit, and hike in the woods.
One trip, there was a Bantam hen squaking her head off like she just came off a nest, but the area was all heavy farm machinary on display, not exectly prime nesting areas. So I browsed around, looking inside, under, over... finally found it, in a metal trough, 5 feet off the ground, burning up from sun heat, giant metal shards in the trough... very bad for chicks! 5 eggs total, I handled each, testing for weight.
Only one was heavy, the rest obivously no good. I had two eggs in the bator at that time, and some baby ducks on the ground at home, so I put that one egg in my pocket and took it home. Consoling myself that the theft was in the best interest of the possible chick, should it have hatched, it would not have been able to scale the side of the trough, and would have starved or dehydrated. Too far from where the employees work, they would not have heard a distress call. Granted I could have given it to employees right there... but what's the fun in that?
So off I went, placing the egg in my incubator when I got home.
The very next day, a hole starts! Peeping and everything, a quick zip, and she's out! Quite obviously a pullet.
She decides I'm momma hen, and sticks to me like glue. So, I hold her instead of placing her in the brooder. I take her around with me in a shoebox, and at night she'd sit with a hot water bottle in a towel covered cage. I had to talk her to sleep, listening as her peeps grew quieter.
I couldn't leave the house without her screaming, so she'd come with. I switched the shoe box for a rodent travel cage. She'd go to the horse stable with me, Walmart even... they never offered to throw me out so long as I stayed out of the food department. LOL
I tried to introduce her to the ducks, but she knew she was not a duck. She relied on me for everything, her comfort, her food, her social interaction.
Me patiently waiting on those other eggs to hatch!! I candled them, and only 1 of the 3 was developing. Uh-Oh! What if that one egg doesn't make it the whole way!?
She mean while develops her feathering, learns to fly around after me, when finally that last egg starts hatching. It's a boy! Bright red already around his face!
And she'd have none of it. No she says, she's not a chicken. So I took a large wooden box, and put a cage divider in it, the light on the baby Roo's side. I listen to her cry and cry when I put her in this new bedtime situation.
It takes weeks for her to realize that maybe she is a chicken, and this little Roo is her only species friend. But they do start to bond, and her reliance for comfort slowly switches from me to him. He mean while is very sweet, and becomes a great pet as well. They would roost so close together they were touching, and they became quite close.
All in all a total of a 3 month process. Remembering her reliance on me will prevent me from hatching very small groups of eggs without having chickens already. I took for granted the days when I kept my incubator running all the time, always having atleast one chick or broody hen to become the companion for the newly hatched.
She ended up going to a local mini farm with her boyfriend, as well as the ducks too.
