Chicks and bunnies

Mama #9 and fresh chicks enjoying breakfast in bed.

The first two chicks of our second batch hatched when it was very cold out, when the nest box was a little too close to the open outside door, when there was no extra heat in the barn, when there was no board across the bottom of the nest box to keep the newly hatching chicks in. They were also born before the others, when the mama hen still needed to stay with the eggs to keep those unhatched chicks warm too. They didn't make it even long enough to dry off, and by the time we found them, there's no telling how long it had been.

After that, I made some adjustments. The next five chicks to hatch stayed warm under their mother as she continued to sit on the eggs. I put food and water in the nest box and a board across the bottom so no one needed to be leaving for any reason for those first few days. When the last chick finally hatched, the first healthy chick, born a couple days earlier was ready to hop over my low barricade and explore the outer world. If the other hens and I hadn't intervened, all of the eggs would have hatched about 21 days after the mama hen started sitting on the eggs regardless of some being laid even two weeks earlier than others. However, in a flock like ours who lay only a couple eggs a day in these cold, dark winter months, I kept sticking other hen's eggs under the mama for a few days after she started sitting. As a result, the hatching started December 1st (21 days after she began sitting) and lasted all week. Two little black chicks hatched, one silver "lavender" chick, one gray "blue" chick, and one very unique chick unlike any of our original 25, who is all black with a very red face, and as it's little wing feathers start coming in, they are golden.

The last little chick to hatch was a little black chick and was developmentally behind the others. While the others were big enough to follow their mama across the hen house, even through a crowd of other chickens, to the food and water, the littlest chick was still needing to huddle close under mama and not move too far or too fast. On Sunday morning, I had agreed to join Brother Daniel and Amanda on an outing (bunny show) before my noon Search and Rescue practice with Tilly. I left Tim in charge of the farm with careful instructions on the most tedious and mundane things. He followed my instructions nearly perfectly, but when I stopped in between my dates, it had started raining and all the chickens had sought shelter in the hen house. In the crowd, the littlest chick had become separated from the others and looked trampled and dead, though only two hours earlier Tim had seen all five happy and healthy. I picked up it's stiff, cold, little body in my hands and turned it from side to side, heartbroken to have lost another chick. But then I thought of my Encyclopedia of Country Living where the author reminisced about watching her mother bring chicks back from death as a little girl. She said her mother would take the chick, put it in a box with a damp rag over the top and put the box behind the wood stove and next thing she knew they would be peeping again. I thought I'd try it and carefully held the stiff, sprawled, cold and lifeless body under the heat lamp. After a minute, the little limbs slowly softened until I could tuck them back in towards it's tiny body. With a few more minutes, there seemed to be faint signs of life, little struggling motions. Satisfied I was no longer holding a dead chick in my hands, I tucked the little thing into my shirt and dashed to the hose, accompanied by growing 'peeps'. Still needing to be on my way to Search practice, I left the chick in Tim's caring hands where he tucked it in with a hot water bottle under it's little birdie sick-bed, a bottle cap full of water, and a dusting of food. When I finally got home from practice, the peeping had grown loud and strong and regular and there were signs of recent digestion on the paper towels in the box. I stuck the littlest chick back in the hen house with its mama and sisters and brothers and it seems to be doing well ever since. It only needed a little warm-up break to catch up with the others and thrive again.

The unusual red-gold chick making use of the baby-only food and water.

The rest of the flock still beautiful. Hard to imagine they were so little and fluffy too, though so briefly.

 This is a video of the first mama, Mama Ukrane, leading her growing chicks around the yard, teaching them about the joys of grass. Notice that the chicks hear a startling noise and bolt back towards the coop and mama has to go join them and draw them back out again. This is probably longer than it needs to be, but I was watching them and realizing a mama chicken raising little chicks all on her own is a rare thing in our country these days and probably something most people have never seen. It's wonderful.(Unfortunately, the video seems not to be working quite right. Perhaps eventually I'll get it fixed...)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

After about two months of staying with us filled with late-night board games, Brother Daniel has gotten a job on the mainland, and with that, Daniel and Amanda found an apartment near the new job. Finally they get to stop living out of suitcases and settle in to a place of their own, but we will no longer have them so conveniently upstairs to spend time with. Last night we went on a last run to Home Depot all together and bought a nice stick of wood and I helped Amanda build a set of four bunny-boxes so each bunny has a private place to hop on and in. Today we headed to their new place, met the landlady who adored the bunnies, and moved all their boxes up three flights of stairs. Hopefully the electricity has been activated by now so they can inflate their airbed and sleep well for their first night in the new apartment. Welcome home in Washington!