Farm juice

Mama hen with her brood eating watermelon

One of the perils of letting a broody hen hatch chicks is moving day. When you move hen and her chicks into a cage so they can grow safely. You can't move her too soon or she will abandon the unhatched eggs. You can't move her too late as the chicks will die of lack of food and water waiting for all the other eggs to hatch. So I take a gamble on when enough chicks hatched and are pushing mom to forage for viddles. I have learned after years of doing this when the right time is. I should have moved them last night but the severe storm hit at that time. So I waited a day and the chicks were on the move. I heard peeping chicks that were "I am cold" sound. Sure enough, got to the coop and 2 chicks were under mom in another next box and 3 chicks were wet and cold and newly hatched in the original nest box. I moved the eggs, chicks and mom and put them in their new digs. So why don't I just put mom and her eggs in the cage before they hatch? Because I have learned mama hen will bury half the eggs and most will get forgotten or buried under her cage nest. Also I need variety. I need all the hens to add their eggs to the broody nest. Let one hen hatch them all. I good broody hen does all the work for me. Also, a hen and her chicks need about a week to 7 days to be accepted by the flock. My flock will kill and eat baby poultry they do not recognize. A cage in the coop with mama and chicks, everyone respects her and her brood. Sure, the chicks get a peck once in a while, but they are not killed outright. The killing happened a few over 100 degree summers ago. Eggs hatched out in the woods and several motherless chicks ran around away from my flock. They were never right in the head and the ones I saved I sold off. So in summary, good broody hen is worth her weight in gold, even if she poops on you when you pick her up.

Farm Scenes

Our farm has woods and pastures and we get deer. They are frequent visitors to our place even though we do not feed them. They have a pond for water and plenty of acorns and pastures for food.

My single male knot head drake. We sold off all nine of the drakes last fall saving this one.                         We had too much fighting and not enough egg laying. 

He was one I had hand raised out of three last summer. We kept him to keep the girls happy. I do not think he is fertile and that is fine. We have had our fill of ducklings for a while.

My super broody hen. She hatches but never leaves the nest. I end up bringing her brood inside to hand raise. She gave me 4 clutches last year. Most of the chicks ended up being roosters. Last year was the summer of roosters for my farm. At one point I had 11 young roosters around. I culled all but 3. I kept the largest, the prettiest and one of many colors. Changing roosters gives me a nice variety each year in chicks. Plus I add a few I pick up at auction or sales. Lots of eggs and good health are my goals.

Then there were Two

We lost a chick to drowning in a deep water dish. Chicks can't swim and they drown fast. We learned to only have shallow pans for all the chickens to drink from. This leaves us with two whitey wackers who are doing very well. Every day is a new lesson in life out here on the farm.