A week has went by so fast and so much has happened here at the Coop DeVille farm! Out of the 16 eggs that Lucy and Ethel were sitting on they successfully hatched out 13. I am very pleased with that result. Sadly, we have lost two of them, one to an accident and the other probably to a cat or a bigger bird like a hawk. Only Mother Nature knows. I have been doing this long enough to know that it is truly a wild world and it is all about survival of the fittest.
So currently, Lucy has 4 babies and Ethel has the other 7. By Wednesday they were taking them out of the crates and by Friday they had them outside in the chicken yard. It is so cute to watch them teaching them to eat and drink, take a dust bath and how to socialize with the others in the flock. At this point most of the others could care less about the babies. The mommas are doing a good job of protecting them and keeping them warm and safe.
Speaking of keeping warm, do you know that the babies will crawl under momma and up into her wings, between here legs....where ever they need to be to get warm? They will also get on the back of the momma and attempt to hitch a ride or just take a nap. So yesterday the wind was horribly here, even for Wyoming standards. Sustained winds of 40-45 with gusts over 60. Those little babies were getting blown all over that hen yard. But the mommas were doing a good job of keeping them close and warm. Around 5pm I heard a strange noise...it sounded like hail coming down the stove pipe. I got up to see if it was raining and to my amazement it was a complete white out. A blizzard came out of no where...my first thought was the babies! Luckily, my son was home and we threw on coats and ran to the hen yard. Sure enough there were Lucy and Ethel, hunkered down, covered with snow. The snow was coming down so fast and the wind was driving so hard it was sticking to the sides of the coop and fence. The look of relief when they saw us come through the gate was incredible. I know chickens don't have much in the way of facial expression, but I know my girls and I could see the relief. We quickly got them all scooped up and into the coop out of the snow and wind. By the time Alex and I got back up to the house, we looked like some kind of snow monsters. The snow had stuck to us, our hair was soaking wet and plastered down to our faces. We were quite a sight I am sure...sadly, this was done in such a rush I didn't even stop to consider taking pictures. I just wanted to get those babies out of the snow.
So I am sure you are wondering why they didn't just head into the coop in the first place when the weather started to change. Well those little babies can come down the ramps to the coops quite easily but going back up is another. It will be another week or so before they all can run right up those ramps on their own. I have been helping them every evening since the mommas started bringing them outside. It is just part of having them.
In other fun news, both of my incubators are running. Currently, I have 18 Silkie/Showgirl eggs in the smaller one, 33 in the other incubator. Those are a combination of Silkie/Sizzle eggs and some more mixed breed from my flock. The ones in the larger incubator will be hatching on the Saturday before Easter and the others will hatch a few days later. The Silkie/Sizzle eggs came from Washington state via eBay and the others came from Oregon, also won on eBay. Silkie/Showgirl/Sizzle eggs are notoriously hard to hatch, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for a good hatch rate.
Well here it is, the first baby of the year. She hatched from a white egg, has 5 toes and such a poofy head...her momma was one of my Mottled Houdan chickens. Who knows who the rooster was...maybe as it grows we will be able to take a guess. This chick was one of Ethel's eggs...Lucy has also hatched out one, but it was too wet to get a picture. But it came from a green egg, so it will be part Easter Egger chicken. More pictures to follow.
Here is the baby...so dang fluffy and cute!
Can you see her tucked in under Ethel?
This morning I went out to check on Lucy and Ethel and make sure they were all set for tomorrow, Monday will be 21 days of setting and should be hatching day. Well as soon as I walked into Cluckingham Palace, I could hear baby chicks chirping!! Oh, my heart skipped a beat I am sure. I am so excited to see what will hatch out of my eggs....I couldn't get her crate opened fast enough. In true Ethel style, she screamed at me and fluffed herself up to twice her size. After some gently petting and soothing words, she allowed me to lift her belly up to get a peak. As loud as the chirping was, I was expecting to see at least 2-3 chicks, but to my amazement there were no chicks, just pips and the start of some zipping on several of her eggs. Wooo Hooo, it is hatching day!
So I need to fill you in on what has been happening over the past week inside those precious eggs. On day 16 the claws, beak and scales harden more and become firm and horny, this is crucial. The next day the chick moves a bit and positions the beak towards the air sac/cell at the end of the egg, but does not pierce it yet. On the nineteenth day the yolk sac begins to be absorbed by the body cavity. This gives them the hydration, nutrients and strength they need to go through the process of breaking out of the shell....this is tough work for a chick and requires a lot of energy. On day twenty, the yolk is fully absorbed and the chick rests and gets ready for the hatching. Sometime between day 20 and 21 the chick will break into that air sac and begin breathing the air. It is at this point that you can hear them chirping...they are screaming to the world..."Here I come!"
As you can see in the picture some of the chicks have broken away a bit of shell. This is done with their egg tooth, a sharp little point (think rhino horn on a much more minuscule scale) on the beak that cracks the shell. From there they keep pushing and it cracks some more and until a bit of shell is broken away. They will continue this process of pushing and break shell away in a circular motion all the way around egg, this is called zipping. Once they have zipped around the egg, they will give a few good strong kicks and bust out of the egg. This whole process can sometimes take over 24 hours depending on the chicken. I have also seen it happen in under an hour in my incubator. It really depends on the chick. They will need to rest a while and not be disturbed during this time, they need to dry and let their down fluff out before being take out from under the broody or the incubator. This can take several hours depending on the temperature and humidity. Currently it is just about freezing, a bit warmer in the coop and a whole lot warmer under Ethel. I will check on them again in few hours, but I will be quick about it.
So far the only pips I could see where with the Ethel's eggs, but Lucy's will be along soon...maybe tonight or tomorrow.
And in other exciting news, I have eggs in the incubator inside. Yesterday I set several eggs, some of my own barnyard mix and some Silkie and Sizzle eggs I bought on eBay and had shipped to my house. These eggs will hatch the Saturday before Easter...how fun will that be to have babies on Easter Sunday? And if you are not familiar with a Sizzle chicken...well it is a frizzled Silkie...so the feathers will grow softly, but in all directions...think of a Swiffer duster with a lot of static!!! Here is picture of my incubator. I do have another shipment of Silkie and Showgirl eggs coming this week...they will go in my second incubator. :)
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Well last night I candled again and I am super excited to report that every egg looks spot on for growth and development. Ethel is getting better and better about letting me get the eggs out from under her, she screamed at me last night, but only once and short one at that. Lucy doesn't scream anymore at all. So much has happened as far as growth during this past week.
On day 8 the feathers began to appear and by the tenth day the beak has hardened. On the thirteenth day the legs began to form scales and claws started to develop at the end of the toes. Yesterday, on day fourteen, the chick starts the process of getting itself into position suitable for hatching. I will not handle them again now until they hatch. Lucy and Ethel will get them how they want them and they will quite rotating them when they know the time is right. It will be nice to have babies running around the chicken yard soon. I am really excited to see what they will look like when they hatch out since they are all going to be barnyard mutts.
In other exciting news on the 9th of March I will be filling my large incubator with eggs....these will hopefully then hatch on the Saturday before Easter...who doesn't like baby chicks for Easter? These will be the last ones I hatch until we have breeding pens set up and I can collect eggs that will be purebred and of my choosing. I did take a few walks this week through the farm store to look at the chicks they have for sale, and to my husbands surprise I walked out empty handed. I have also not placed an order with the hatchery this year either. Perhaps I am getting my chicken math under control???? Only time will tell!
So to get you in the mood for chicks, here is a picture of one of Rosa's chicks from last year. As you can see it was still a bit damp...only a few hours out of the shell....I can't wait for next week? Can you?
