Chickens Foraging in the Woods

Chickens Foraging in the Woods
Chickens Foraging in the Woods

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

"Where is my Mommy?"

My last post spoke of a hen setting eggs, again;  This setting hen abandoned her chicks and only one survived.  We have nicknamed it the teenager.  Several months later, this setting hen hatched out 10 more chicks taking care of them faithfully and courageously.  She is a fury that I don't want to cross.

Our egg production was down during the very hot spells, 100+ temperature.  Some of the hens went broody meaning they wanted to set the nests and not lay eggs; some I suspected had been laying in out of the way places.  One of those hot days, I was walking to the barn and saw a hen sitting on the concrete, and thought, "Your laying one of my eggs out here on the concrete; why don't you lay in the nests."  Then she got up and eight chicks ran out from under her.  "Well, there are my eggs walking,"  I said to myself.

Sadly though we realized that she had disappeared when we noticed one of her chicks running around frantically, chirping, saying, "Where is my mommy?  Where is my mommy?"  He would chase after the hens that looked like his mommy, and they would take a look and run, saying, "Go a way."  I believe that  chirping chick ran the equivalent of several treks from the Atlantic to the Pacific and north to south each day, back and forth, back and forth, chirp, chirp, chirp, never stopping.  We assumed a fox got the hen and the chicks followed her.

A few days later, I noticed that my setting hen had a very small chick with her; I counted and now she had 11 chicks.  One of the missing hen's chicks had just snuck in with this setting hen and acted like he belonged there, and the hen had accepted him.  More often than not, a hen will not allow a strange chick in with her chicks, so we counted this a miracle.  We caught the chipring chick and put it with the 11 chicks, and the setting hen didn't object; the chick did.  It stood tall, looked around and started running and chirping, "I don't like this mommy.  Where is my mommy?"  This chirping and running went on for several days.  My son's dog must have gotten tired of the chirping because she had caught the chick and was carrying it away when we stopped her.  The chick was a little shaken, but OK.

When I was shutting the chickens up that night, I heard the chick chirping in the hoop house.  It was dark so I thought it had found its way to the hoop house while chasing one of the hens.  But when I shined my light on the chirping, there the chick was cuddled up under my oldest hen.  She was on the ground;  to be safe at night, chickens roost up as high as they can get.  This was a real sacrifice for this old hen.  Our little chick had found a mommy.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

The summer heat is hard on the chickens, but dust bathing and shade in the woods is refreshing for them.  I do wish I could let them go to the creek, but too many predators right now.  There are five hens right now that want to nest which means they don't lay eggs, just sit them to hatch chicks.  

My one hen that I mentioned earlier in my blogs is sitting again.  I did find one egg near her broken open and eaten.  Not sure what would have gotten the egg from her and left her alive and undamaged.  Previously she had hatched two chicks, but one has not survived.  Again, not sure what killed that little chick.

Our new flock of  Black Australorps are getting larger and their combs are getting red which means there hormones are working well and we should have eggs soon.  We are in the process of training them to the hoop house and laying in the hoop house; this process involves access to the chicken house they are in now as well as the hoop house.  Once we move them from the chicken house to the hoop house, we will have to help them learn how to forage.  All of this training can take a toll on egg production because the hens tend to stop laying when their world changes.  Hopefully we will learn how to do this one day without that toll.

How faithful God is.  I was not able to get my garden going--tomatoes, squash, etc. and was more than a little sad about missing the vegetables this summer, but it turns out I don't have time to harvest and in this extreme heat, I would have been out there trying to not waste anything; probably wearing myself out.  So I am thankful for His wisdom which sees beyond what we see.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Well, 21 days came and went and the hen left the nest, so I removed them.  She returned and laid two more eggs and then abandoned the nest and the eggs disappeared.

My original mother with the two chicks abandoned them and went back to roosting with the flock.  Her chicks chirp around the chicken house, so I keep feed tossed out and water.  They seem to be doing fine.

My dog killed a chicken so he has to find a new home.  Buddy is a beautiful black lab mix with white nose and chest and four white feet; a nice, loving young dog, just likes chickens too much..

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

As of today our hen is still setting the nest.  Twenty one days is fast approaching with no sign of hatching.

This week I have had very few eggs, only a dozen a day now--not sure why--snake? hens becoming broody and laying in the woods? or mad at me for selling a few hens to a neighbor?  I will wait; God says that "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and in Earth, in the seas and all the deep places"  Psalm 135:6

I will wait on him until he reveals why or hens start producing more again.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

...I was glad that I delayed doing anything with those eggs; the next day a white hen was setting the nest and my original setter was off in the pen teaching her two chicks how to hunt for bugs.  I thought it odd, but interesting.  But it got even more odd; that evening the original setter, now new mama, returned to the nest and ran off the white hen who protested loudly all the way to the hoop house.  Even odder is that the next day the white hen was back on the nest and the original setter was again in the pen teaching her chicks to hunt bugs.  Once again as evening approached, the white hen was sent off to the hoop house.  This continued for several days.  Then when I began to accept this behavior as "normal" for my farm, I saw on the evening of the second day the two hens sharing the nest.

Since my farm is not normal, the sharing only lasted till the morning.  The original setter, now new mama, was gone and so were her chicks.  I didn't know where she was or even if she and the chicks were OK.  Thankfully, two days later she showed up with her chicks, hunting for bugs around the chicken house and pen, but she has not entered the pen where the white hen is still setting.  I am not sure if the eggs will hatch with all this "normal" behavior going on.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Nothing is normal on my farm.  I am not normal.  Some weeks ago one of my hens that lays olive colored eggs began setting a nest.  I was disappointed for her because earlier that week, I had seen some eggs under those steps and didn't want stray eggs around, so took them and disposed of them not knowing how long they had been there.  Now she is sitting maybe on two or three eggs, couldn't be many I thought.  As the 21 days approached for hatching, I saw a broken egg and a quick glimpse of a little chick.  The hen still sat on her eggs and tucked the little one under her.  A few days later she is off the nest with two chicks--one grey, one black.

Since she was off the nest, I had a chance to take a look--there were 10 eggs in the nest!!  None of them olive colored;  all were brown eggs.  The nest is under steps in an enclosed pen.  A hen has to fly over the six-foot fence to get in.  Looks like other hens flew over and just offered to lay eggs in that nest for her.  Now she is off the nest and I am not sure what I should do with them, but I didn't have time to deal with it.  Several days later......

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

                                          2011 Table at the Jasper Market--my prettiest one ever.
                                          Early Girl tomatoes, Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, Cherokee
                                         Purple tomatoes, and yellow, small spaghetti squash.
                               

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

April is here and our hens and eggs are doing great.  We are teaching a set of starter hens (that we raised)  how to roost in the hoop houses and also to lay their eggs in the layer-hoop house.  We also have 35 Astrolop chicks, purchased from Murray McMurry, that we are growing out and anticipate that they will start to lay in June.

I have some very loyal customers/friends and am very grateful for their encouragement and support.  For anyone interested, I sell my eggs at the Jasper Farmer's Market in North Georgia every Saturday 8 a.m. until noon.

This is a picture of my two-year-old granddaughter who just loves the new chicks.  She squealed as much as they chirped.


As well as they hens and eggs are doing, I am way behind on my gardening and have just seeded my tomatoes.