One Makes a Departure From the Backyard Farm

Chicken formerly known as Olive. 

Remember the juvenile chicken that flew over the fence a couple of weeks ago that I just named Olive, because I am excited about the possibility that it will lay olive colored eggs.  This was a very special chicken, because it was one of 4 of our first eggs every to hatched here.  

Olive a combination of these 2 eggs.

  

 Saturday when my sister Debbie arrived for our Tulsa trip, her husband Ken drove her. Their son, Ben, met them here so he could visit with everyone.  Ben and Ashley live in Fayetteville, AR and have 4 extraordinarily beautiful children.  

Big Foot

Ken and Ben also have a lot more experience with chickens than I do.  When Ben was growing up, he actually raised them and showed them at the fair.  Anyway, they took one look at Olive and said I should have named that chicken Oliver.  And I should not be anticipating eggs of any color.  I was crushed and really wanted to remain in denial. I knew that chicken was too pretty to be a hen.  Anyway, I have to stick to my guns and not keep another rooster.  My small backyard farm is only big enough for one mean rooster and if I had any sense, he should become dinner. 

So Ken put Oliver in a box and took him home with him.  I do not want any updates on what became of Oliver.  But I did say that if the chicken laid an egg to bring her back.

In Memory of Cracker

Cracker helping Little Ace hatch the eggs

Having a mini farm brings new understandings and observations, but too often sadness.   Sunday morning when I went to the chicken coops, I did not see my Sultan hen, Cracker.  I opened the nesting box to see if she was busy laying one of her small white eggs and found her in the nesting box dead.  She also had a lot of fire ants on her.  So of course my question is, "Did she die before the fire ants got on her or after?"  As always I googled to find the answer, but not really satisfied with anything I read.  Seems like most believe that the chickens will eat the ants and there were not thousands of them.  There is not a mound in their coop.  But I spent a lot of time Sunday digging out about 5 inches off the top in their run until I did not see any ants.  I did find the most ants under their water container.  In this drought the ants are looking for water.  Then I put down some organic insect killer and let all the little chicks out so they would not eat it.  After several hours I added back 2 bags of sand to the chicken run.

Cracker was such a perfect pet chicken.  She looked like a tiny white Big Bird from Sesame Street.  The boys loved carrying her around.  They even took her for rides in the wagon.

Sultans are fancy ornamental chickens and one of the more unique breeds of poultry. They originated from southeast Europe and became known in Turkey as Seral-Taook ("fowl of the sultan"). Sultans were, most likely because of their appearance, the preferred breed of Turkish rulers. Sultans were imported to England from Istanbul in 1854.


The research says they are not hardy and the heat is getting to everyone around here, so did she succumb to the 107 degree temperatures? Also, is it just a coincidence that Saturday night after all the chickens were asleep, that I moved Sunny II from the other coop into the one with Cracker and the 4 adolescent chicks.  Did Sunny II have anything to do with Cracker's demise?  I will likely never know why Cracker died.  I ordered Cracker, Little Ace and Big Foot from My Pet Chicken wesite.  I have not seen Sultan chicks for sell since then; which was well over a year. Hopefully I will be able to get another in the future.
Of all the chickens, Cracker will be missed the most. 

Chicken Review 6-26-2011

Mostly good news for the chicken

3 of the baby chicks

Cracker, the Sultan

coop.  About 2 weeks ago, I could not take the smell of the 4 little chicks in the house anymore. The crate would stink right after I cleaned it.  So I decided they would move into the coop where they were born with Little Ace, their surrogate mother and Cracker, the nanny hen.  That is what caused the bad news for this update.  Actually, chickens are not nice animals.

I've really never been partial to birds, but chickens are interesting and provide eggs, so I have pet chickens.  I put the 4 chicks in the hutch part of the coop and Little Ace and Cracker where down in the run.  I went into the house to remove the crate and when I returned the smallest chick had jumped down into the run with the grown hens.  But Little Ace did not recognize her baby chick.  In fact, she had beaten it up pretty badly.  The top and bottom parts of its beak no longer aligned and one eye was closed or gone.  I put it back up in the hutch and closed the door so they could not get down in the run with the hens and the hens could not get to them.  I really expected to find the youngest badly hurt chick dead the next morning.  But it has been 2 weeks and it is still the most energetic chick of them all.  After a couple of days of keeping the chicks and hens separated, I just moved Little Ace into the coop with the other grown chickens.  Cracker and the 4 chicks seem to get along quite well.  Three of the chicks have tripled their size.  The smallest one still has a misaligned beak and only one eye, but she is doing great.

One eye and crooked beak.

The 4 hens in the other coop definitely have their pecking order worked out.











Of course, Big Foot, the rooster is top chicken. Trinity and his family came over a couple of nights ago and we twisted off Big Foot's spurs that had turned into small knives.  It was rather interesting, but I forgot to video it.  Trinity grabbed Big Foot by his legs while he was asleep, held him upside down and simply twisted off the spurs with a pair of pliers.  The rooster was paralyzed upside down so he was no problem.

Omelet

Omelet, a Plymouth Barred Rock, is the #1 hen.  That means she decides where she is going to scratch and peck at the dirt and no other hen had better challenge her for that spot. She is the only hen I have left from the original 4 that I got from my sister, Lenora, in March of 2009.

Little Ace

Little Ace, a Copper Maran, is hen #2 in the pecking order.  I got Little Ace with the order of chicks that included Big Foot and Cracker in June 2010.  So only Omelet can challenge her for a pecking spot.

Dottie

Dottie, a  Silver Laced Wyandotte, is third in the pecking order.  She mostly stays away from Omelet and now Little Ace.  I was surprised that Little Ace was able to be second since she had not lived with the others for so long.  But maybe they understand seniority on the property.

Sunny

 




And Sunny, the green egg laying Ameraucana, has to keep her distance from all the other hens.  When I let them out of the coop to free range, she runs in the opposite direction of the others.  Usually, she goes to the Ligustrum hedge along the back fence.






Big Foot sometimes has to step in to maintain the peace between the hens.  When I let them all out, Big Foot will do a "Broken Wing Dance" around the hen that he is particularly interested in.  It is very strange looking, but he does it every time.

Chickens may not be nice to each other, but they offer an interesting study of basic animal interactions.     

3+1 and It's All Over

It's all over in the chicken coop. 
 Little Ace sat on eggs from April 15-May 25, because I am an optimist to the ridiculous degree. It takes 21 days for an egg to hatch.  She started with 9, 2 of which another chicken pecked holes in within the first 2 days.  So since I didn't gather all the eggs and then put them all under the hen at the same time, they were mostly going to hatch on different days.  So the worst case would have been that the last chick would have hatched on May 15th.  That's 21 days and 9 more for each egg hatching 1 a day.

On Wednesday, May 25, Trinity and Bridget came down that night and we candled the last egg that Little Ace had faithfully been keeping warm.  It was egg #5, that we thought was sure to be the 1st to hatch the first time we candled the eggs.  But alas, it did not appear to have a chick in it now.  Trinity boldly gave it the sniff test and was sorry he did.  He said, "This egg is not good."  So I had him drop it over away from everything, so I could see what was inside.  Yuck--don't know why, just curious--just had to see. So today was the first day that Little Ace truly enjoyed her freedom. It seemed to have taken her all day Thursday to realize she didn't have any eggs to sit on. She doesn't give up either.  I let her out early this morning and all day she played in the unplanted vegetable garden taking dust baths. Hens love sitting in dry dirt and throwing it all over themselves.  They do it to keep insects off.

 See how much small it is and by itself.

I titled this post 3+1 because the 4 little chicks, that made it out of the eggs, and lived are grouping themselves.  The chick that hatched on day 21 and the 2 that hatched on day 23 are always huddled together.  They have also grown very quickly.  I hate to predict that they are roosters.  But that is what I am thinking.  Time will tell.

Mr. Big Foot

The baby chick, less than a week younger, is always in a far corner alone.  The others don't pick or peck on it.  It eats just fine.  But it doesn't seem to be growing as fast.  It is also not as frighten of me or doesn't make as big of a fuss as the others.  It's very strange.  When I ordered day old chicks in the mail, they have always been very friendly and easy to train to eat food out of my hand.  These are not so easy.  Another reason I think they may be roos. I just hope the baby one is a hen--surely there will be one--ONE, oh please.
Anyway, I will not be keeping any of them that turn out to be roosters.  There will only be one rooster in my chicken yard and that is Big Foot.

3 Cheeps From the Coop

Connor with chick #1

I posted on Facebook the hatching of the chick on Thursday, since Blogger was down for many hours.

1st chick, Pooh and the other 2 against the bear.

Yes, they eat on nice china.

I was right about 2 chicks hatching Friday! Another one from Omelet's egg and one from a green egg or Easter Egger. They hatched a few hours apart and were still wet and couldn't walk very well.  The one the hatched Thursday was running around, drinking water and eating.  It must take about 24 hours for a chick to get hungry and strong enough to eat.

You can really tell the 3 different ages.

3rd chick just hatched.

Tonight all three are eating, drinking, running around and cheeping.

 

I do feel a little guilty taking them from Little Ace after she has sat on the eggs for 29 days.  None of the 3 that are left have hatched today.  Surely 2 more will hatch tomorrow.  I'm thinking about leaving the ones that hatch now with Little Ace.  I just don't know if they will be okay.  I don't have room for 6 more chickens, so I could afford to experiment.
I just hate seeing dead chicks.

See the yellow fuzzy butts.

  
Grandson, Chase, has named the first chick, Pooh, because when Chase came over I had put a little Pooh Bear in the crate for it to snuggle with. Tonight, I can no longer tell the first 2 chicks apart.  They are both black with yellow on their wing tips and fuzzy yellow butts.  The other one is a little strange looking.  It appears to be all black, but there is a hint of a brown shading.  When it grows up it will likely be mostly brown.

Anyway they are safe and warm under the red heat lamp and snuggling with Pooh and each other.
Just 2 brown eggs and 1 green one left to hatch.

What's Happening With the Hens and Eggs

Well Little Ace has been sitting on eggs now for 25 days.  Since she can not count, she will sit there until the last one hatches or I give up and throw it away.  She started on April 15 with 9 eggs.  Someone pecked holes in 2 of them.  One chick hatched on day 21 as it should, but the little chick got out of the coop and into the run and died.  I have checked in the coop for peeping chicks at least 3 times a day.  Today, just before dark I checked on them and found that Cracker and Little Ace are both sitting on the eggs.  I bet this is very rare.  Brooding hens are very protective and usually won't let any one-human or fowl near her nest.  But Cracker has been sitting on the eggs when Little Ace goes for a little walk.  I had to run and get my camera when I saw Cracker in the nest with Little Ace.  Surely tomorrow we will have a couple of chicks.

Is There an Egg Stuck up her **@?

Little Ace sitting in a nesting box.

In the late afternoon of April 15th, I noticed that Little Ace had not laid an egg, but had been sitting in the nesting box all day.  She didn't come out to eat or drink.  I told Don there might be a problem with her.  The next day she did the same thing.  I read on the internet that sometimes an egg will get stuck in a hen and, of course, if it doesn't come out, she will die. I read that one could try and soak the hen in warm water, put mineral oil up inside of her, and stick your fingers inside her to try to remove the egg. I didn't sleep at all that night worrying about that sweet little hen.

Connor with young Little Ace

Omelet

Big Foot the Copper Maran

Remember Little Ace is Andrew Connor Edward's little chicken and he is still waiting for it to turn into a rooster, like Chase's chick did.  When we are talking about Little Ace, we say he instead of she.  Little Ace is lucky to be alive.  Omelet, the nasty Plymouth Barred Rock, tried to kill her when I moved the 3 new chicks to the chicken coop.  I went out to check on how they were getting along and found the back of Little Ace's neck was almost pecked in two.  Don told me that surely that chicken was going to die.  I put all 3 of the new chicks, they were about 8 weeks old, back into the dog crate that they had been in since they were one day old. I put an antibacterial ointment on Little Ace's wound. Well, obviously, Little Ace lived.  She is the nicest, friendliest little chicken.  She is a Copper Maran, like the rooster.

During my sleepless night, I read on the internet about hens brooding.  They stop laying eggs and sit on any eggs in the nesting box trying to hatch them. So the next morning, when Little Ace was still alive and not looking sick at all, but still sitting in the nesting box, I decided she was brooding. I moved all the other chickens into the old chicken coop and just left Little Ace and Cracker in the new coop, because some chicken (Omelet?) pecked holes in 2 eggs that Little Ace was sitting on.  Cracker is a nice chicken and grew up with Little Ace, so they are buds.

3 nights ago I read about how to hatch chicks with a brooding hen.  Of course I am starting 12 days into a 21 day process, so very little has been done right.  But the real question is, who knows how to hatch chicks best--a hen or a person?  We will see, because Little Ace is way ahead of me on this.

I read that about 15 days into the process, that I need to candle the eggs to be sure if the embryo is developing.  If it isn't, the egg will rot, then explode the rotten egg all over the other eggs, and smother the other embryos. Good grief.  Trinity said that he remembered in Charlotte's Web that the rat found a rotten egg and kept it.  It did eventually explode on him.  Bridget and I don't remember that part. I think that's a guy thing--exploding eggs :(  So tonight when Little Ace was asleep, all of us went out with bright flash lights and looked inside the eggs one by one.

I reached under the sleeping hen and removed each egg.  Trinity shined the light through each one to see if there was an embryo.  I then numbered them and put them back under Little Ace.  Right at the end, when I picked her up to see if I had missed any eggs, she gave me a gentle little peck.  Just a reminder that she was in charge of them.

The step that I did not know about until 3 days ago, was that I should have collected all the eggs and then put the eggs that I wanted to hatch under the brooding hen.  By doing that, they would all start developing at the same time and hatch in 21 days.  But I didn't know what was going on.  Remember I had been afraid that there was an egg stuck in her.  The blog I read said that it will be disastrous if they all progress several days apart.  So we are happily rolling along into a disaster.  What do hens do that don't have humans to collect the eggs so they can start at the same time?  Hopefully, all will end well and we will find out that animals can somehow survive and multiply without us.

None of them are my eggs?

 Anyway, Little Ace is sitting on 7 eggs. Five light brown ones that belong to nasty Omelet and 2 green ones that are New Sunny's, the Easter Chicken.  The original Sunny Side Up chicken died a few months ago. So all 7 eggs are half Copper Maran, because that's what the rooster is and half Barred Rock or Easter Chicken. None of them were laid by Little Ace, but she will be their mother.
Oops. We might not should say Mother. That means GIRL.

The dark brown eggs are Little Ace's.

 

After candling each egg, it appears that brown egg #5 will be the first to hatch. We could see a well defined chick embryo in it. It is very difficult to see through the shell of the green eggs, so we are not sure of anything with them yet. 

But something will happen in about 6 days; we are just not sure what.  I will keep you posted.