...And There Goes the Weekend

I walked into the hen house tonight, and two fluffy yellow heads and one watchful hen greeted me.

When I returned with a camera, one chick had buried itself under its mama. The other one was cautious, but curious.She kept peeking out from under her mama's wing.

Mama Hen will stay on her nest for another day or so, until she's sure there are no more chicks to hatch. After hatching, chicks can survive 72 hours without food and water. This allows Mama Hen to stay on her nest and complete the hatch.

Inside the house, I have another distraction--11 hot chicks in the bathroom.

I had placed eggs in the incubator, and the chicks began hatching on Tuesday morning. In a few days, I'll repace the newspaper with cedar shavings and soon, they'll go to the chick house.

But for this weekend, I will be taking a break from planting the garden, from cleaning the horse barn, from weeding the flowerbed, from mowing the pastures, to watch the chicks.

Will there be chicks?

In a few weeks, I'll know if it's the Year of the Hot Chicks or the Year of the Rotten Eggs.

My first attempt at incubation was a red hot fail. Hatching eggs requires a steady temperature of 100 degrees.

To keep Dewey Kitty from shredding the incubator, I put the incubator in the husband's unheated workshop, which was fine until the weather warmed and the incubator temperature soared to 108 degrees.

So I tried again, this time in the house. To keep Dewey Kitty from shredding the incubator, I put it in Caeli's crate. The Border collie is counting down to hatch day so that she can move from her temporary little crate to her big wire one.

Meanwhile, the hens have gone broody.

One hen did it the right way, building a nest, laying eggs and snuggling in.

Unfortunately, she got up to eat at the same time the spouse was collecting eggs.

When, a half hour later, during dinner, he mentioned how many eggs he collected, I dropped my fork, grabbed the eggs that were still sitting on the counter, and sprinted toward the hen house where I deposited all the eggs back into her nest. Did they cool too much? I don't know.

Meanwhile, everyone wants to be a mom in this nesting box. I have no idea how many eggs they're sitting on -- or if any hen is assuming the duties of turning the eggs.

When this happened a few years ago, three hens hatched out three chicks... and then no one wanted to be the mom. Finally, an old hen stepped up.

What'll happen this year? In a few weeks, we'll know.

Chicken Lessons: The Not-Quite Comatose Girl

Mammals gain weight during pregnancy.

Chickens don't.

When sitting on her nest, a hen's metabolism slows. Because she has to keep the eggs at that 100 degree temperature, she can't leave the nest for more than ten minutes. That's enough time to drink some water and get a few bites to eat.

But it's not enough time to eat as much as the other chickens -- who usually spend several hours a day foraging for bugs, grain, worms, plants and other food.

Thus, the hen's metabolism slows and she loses weight during the 21-day nesting period.

Chicken Lessons-Part 2, Incubation

A hen can't sit on a nest and watch chicks at the same time. So nature has devised a way for the eggs to all hatch within a few days of each other.

A hen that is going broody will lay an egg about every day. In this hen's case, it took her eleven days to lay nine eggs.

If a fertilized egg is left at room temperature, it will just sit there, not developing into a chick. However, once a hen warms it to 100 degrees, then the incubation process begins. This allows all of the eggs to hatch at about the same time.

For chickens, the incubation period is about 21 days. So, if this hen continues sitting on her eggs, and if the eggs are fertilized, then I expect to see little yellow heads sticking out from under her sometime around June 18 or 19.

She does not know that's the due date, but that's the subject for another blog.

Chicken Lessons -- Part 1, The Broody Hen

The hen decided to sit on her nine eggs.

I'll mark the day on the calendar and go about my business.

She'll sit and wait. Twenty-one days of nest rest, no television, limited visits, little food and water.

She'll get up four times a day -- twice to eat and drink, twice to turn the eggs.

Since she won't be entertaining for the next three weeks, I'll blog about chicken facts.

Today's topic: The Broody Hen

Most hens have no desire to make nests and sit on their eggs. That trait, broodiness, has been mostly bred out of many breeds. When hens are sitting on their nests, they aren't laying eggs. When they are raising chicks, they aren't laying eggs.

Once man learned how to incubate chicken eggs, then a broody hen was no longer necessary.

But that trait still lingers in some breeds, including the Buckeyes. Usually we have a few broody hens every year, and, if there nest is in a good location, we let them sit and wait.

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Have a chicken question? Ask and I'll try to answer it while waiting for chicks.