Denise had her babies!  I had put three brown eggs, and three blue eggs under her, and four of the six eggs hatched, (two of each color).  That’s pretty successful, if you ask me.   The blue eggs came from a breed of chicken called an Ameraucana, (most likely), and I am unsure of the breed that the brown eggs came from.  Brown eggs are much more common with different breeds, and I didn’t ask the man that gave me the eggs if he knew which breed they came from, (nor do I think he would know, if he has multiple brown-laying breeds).  I don’t know the sex of the chicks yet, so for now I will refer to each one as “she” to make it easier, and because that’s what we are hoping for.

Here is a pic of the first chick to hatch, from a blue egg.  She showed up a day early, on Wednesday afternoon.

Denise had to keep sitting on the other eggs, until they were all done hatching, so I got to hold her while D was preoccupied.

Baby number two didn’t show up until Thursday morning, looking the opposite of number one.

When number three showed up, it was a little extra exciting because I got to catch a glimpse of the hatching egg, (the other blue one), while Denise sat with her butt in the air, to give room.  I could hear the chick pecking away at the shell, trying to break free.  This little one must have a different rooster daddy because she has feathered feet, which you only see with specific breeds, (maybe a Cochin?).  But, besides her feather feet, she is basically number one’s twin.

After I noticed the feather feet, I looked more closely at the others, and realized that number two also has feathered feet!  So, while the two have different mom’s, they might have the same dad.  (How confused is everyone right now?)

Number four came soon after number three, and she is all black, with a fluffy yellow booty.  Here is a pic of all four, sticking close to mom.

I knew that one of the two eggs left was not a chick, so Friday morning I grabbed it and threw it out, (it was marked from when I candled them).  When I was doing that, I saw that the sixth egg was broken, and also not a chick.  What I found was so gross, that I will not share details.  I normally do okay with disgusting visuals.  It’s the smells that accommodate them that make me come close to vomiting…which almost happened.    Anyway, on to some fun random things.

Here is a picture of the inside of a just hatched egg.

Denise plucks feathers out of her breast and belly area for this whole process so that her skin is against the eggs and babies.  I tried to get a pic of this, but trying to hold her and take the picture at the same time proved to be quite difficult, so this is the best I could do.   You can see the chicken skin next to her leg.  She was not happy, so I didn’t want to keep trying for better picture.  This pic doesn’t do the nakedness much justice.  Her whole underside is bare.

The first outing in the yard.  SO CUTE!

Chicks are supposed to be kept at a very warm temperature until they get their feathers.  When they don’t have a chicken mom, they are kept in a brooder at 95 degrees for the first week, subtracting about five degrees each week until they are ready to go outside.  So, rather than having a heat lamp on them, like I would do if I were raising them on my own, Denise keeps them warm herself.  Since it’s summertime, they can be out in the yard, enjoying the warmth for a good part of the day, but when the temps drop, or it’s nap time, Denise sits on the babies.

Here is number two peeking out from behind mom’s feathers.

From here I will let Denise raise them for several weeks, then eventually they will go live at a friend’s house.  Let’s hope they aren’t all roosters!

That’s me.  I am a big old nerd for chickens.  It all started in October of 2011, when a friend gave me a small incubator and a couple fertilized eggs.  I thought it would be fun for Eli to watch the eggs hatch, and to have a couple chicks for a few days…then we would give them to our friend whose mom has a farm.  Yeah, that didn’t happen.  Turns out Eli wasn’t the one who would have fun with the process of incubating eggs, it was ME!

I candled the eggs, nearly every day, to watch the progress, (you can watch a video about candling here).  I was totally obsessed with watching the development.  In only 21 days, we had two chicks!  From there it was, ‘well, maybe we can just keep them for a little while’…which turned into me purchasing and assembling a coop…which led to Josh building a chicken run, and me getting four more chicks in February of 2012.  (That time, I purchased the chicks from a hatchery – part of an order with a friend.  The hatchery sends the chicks in the mail.)

The following year, February of 2013,  I ordered ten more chicks.  I wanted to keep four of them, and raise and sell the rest when they were coop ready, (8-10 weeks), which is what I did.  A lot of people want chickens, but don’t want the hassle of raising chicks, so they were easy to sell.  That summer I had my first and only casualty – thanks to a hawk – so I had nine, total.  Nine was a good number, so I was done at that point.  No more chickens!

Normally, late winter is a good time to purchase chicks, so that they will be laying by late spring/early summer, but I skipped out on that last year since we were happy with our flock.  Then, last summer, my no-more-chickens rule went out the door when one of my birds went broody, (meaning she wanted to sit on a cluster of eggs and make babies).  When a hen gets broody, it’s almost easiest just to let her have babies, because it’s so hard to break a broody hen, and becomes a hassle.  They just want to sit sit sit, all day long, which causes issues in the coop.  So, even though I didn’t want any more chickens, I was actually sort of excited about it. This would be a whole different experience from incubating eggs or ordering chicks.  And, to top it off, the broody hen was my Polish, Denise.  My favorite bird.  Just look at her…

Anyway, since I don’t have a rooster, and none of my eggs would ever turn into chicks, I got some fertilized eggs from a friend, and let Denise do her thing.  I made her a nest area in a large dog kennel, away from the flock, and there she sat, in a trance, for 21 days.  She would move the eggs from one spot to another, within the nest, several times a day, but she never left the kennel.  Usually, a hen will get up once a day to eat/drink/poop, but she didn’t.  Food and water were available to her, but she was so dedicated, she hardly ate anything the whole time.  I thought she was going to kill herself.  BUT – turns out she knew just what she was doing.  Both of the fertilized eggs hatched, right on time!   Here are some pictures of the process…

Denise in her trance.

Just hatched (see the egg?)

Babies!!

She was such a good mom.  She stuck by those chicks for over eight weeks, protecting them and being motherly.  When they were about 10 weeks, I had to get rid of one, because he was a rooster.  I kept the other, but, still to this day, she is scared to death of me because her mom instilled the fear in her.  So, since last summer, we were back to ten chickens.  Wow – apparently this is not only a chicken post, it’s also the world’s most boring math problem.

Anyway, guess who is broody again…  Denise!   She is currently sitting on six eggs.  I mean, how can I deny her of her need to be a mother again?  What kind of person would that make me?

But seriously, I am ridiculous.  I have some friends that will eventually take the young birds this time, so at least I am not keeping any, right?  I candled the eggs Monday and found that some of the eggs are definitely developing.  I checked a little early, since I am impatient, so a couple were questionable.  I mostly just wanted to make sure that at least two were developing, so Denise would actually be getting something out of this.  It’s a crap-shoot with the eggs.  I say that they were fertilized, but really that just means that I got some eggs from someone that has an “active rooster” (this is a family friendly blog).  It’s not a guarantee that all of them will be a go.

There it is!  A little past-present-future on our chicken life.  I do sell my eggs to a few people, to pay for the cost of having the chickens.  So it’s a fun little hobby, we get fresh eggs, and I get to be a nerd for free!

Okay, well – I am off to go prep dinner.  We’re having chicken tonight.