Daily Celestial Challenge, Tuesday Animal Kingdom: Our Little Supermamma
Up until Friday, I had never experienced having a chicken hatching and raising chicks, but all this changed when I finally had the space and opportunity to to put some eggs under a broody.
Buffy with the chicks she hatched
It actually started with our cross breed hen Toffee who was insistent she wanted to sit on some eggs. Her father is a Light Sussex, which is a fairly heavy duel purpose breed, and her mother is a Golden Legbar, which is a lighter laying breed. Unfortunately her mother did once hatch an egg, but didn't know what to do once it hatched, so I wasn't entirely confident that Toffee would make a good mamma.
Toffee was going to be broody no matter where I put her!
Early on, the clumsy, heavy girl broke one of the eggs getting the contents over the other eggs. I gave her the benefit of the doubt because I forgot that there was a brick under where she was determined to nest. I removed that and hoped for the best. Two weeks in my araucana bantam, Buffy, went broody, so I decided to try some new eggs under her in the broody area. Unfortunately, she didn't want to go in the nesting box any more than Toffee did and just stole Toffee's eggs whenever she's got off to eat, causing her to complain loudly. I was about to take Buffy out, when I realised Toffee had stepped on another egg and broken it, so she went back to the flock instead and Buffy took over. Toffee didn't seem too worried about her eggs once back in the flock and forgot about being broody!
Buffy taking her job very seriously
I was concerned that all the egg that had gotten on the other eggs would cause bacteria to get in and inhibit air circulation, but candling revealed that they were continuing to develop, so I couldn't bring myself to swap them out. I'm glad I didn't, because on Friday I went to check for pips there was at least one already hatched! By Saturday afternoon we had 7 little bantam chicks and just one that failed to hatch.
On Thursday I'd hatched 15 large fowl eggs for someone, but they only wanted 10. Unable to sell the last five over the weekend, I took one up to Buffy to see what she'd do. She merely looked at it, then at me, then gave it a little preen. I left it with her while I fetched the other four and it was next to Buffy when I came back; so they've all joined the family!
A mixed family; the large fowl chicks are nearly twice the size of the bantams
So now Buffy is a first time mamma to 12 chicks and if I had any more I think she'd happily take them in too!
I have some short video clips of her and the chicks on my Instagram page. It's public, so you can view them without having your own account of you wish.
The Celestial Daily Challenge by @sirknight inspired me to share this story of new life for the Tuesday animal kingdom.
Love it MSH. Always plenty happening in a chicken coup, however these pics are so cute, they might persuade Mrs Knight into allowing me one.
Though I doubt it... 😔... now look who's broody.
Good luck with motherhood Buffy - 12 chicks should be no challenge at all.
SirKnight.
😆 Are you sure you can't get Mrs Knight broody with you? 😉
Those fluffy chicks are ADORABLE!!
Fluff on legs! 😁
Great story. She's a superb mum already, especially taking on those extra chicks. I look forward to see their progress. :D
She had one standing on her back yesterday. I wish I'd had my camera with me!
beautiful chickens and babies thanks so much for sharing this brought a smile to my face :)
Thank you. 😊 Glad to share smiles!
What a great experience! I am still holding out for a broody hen to naturally tend to some of our eggs. Maybe next summer! Enjoy those new chicks!
I'm finding that not all hens go broody and of those that do, not all make good mothers! Sigh. Bantams seem to be some of the better ones.
I'm finding that out. We had a broody hen last summer. She went strong for 2 weeks or so, then she just up and left the eggs behind :( This fall we had two ducks rotating shifts on some duck eggs for about 10 days, but something got to the eggs when they were both out and about one day (they had decided to lay these egg outside of the coop, rather than in the safety of the coop). That was that! Never a dull moment homesteading!
Makes me wonder if Toffee would have made it much past two weeks anyway then! Nature is a tough task master. Hoping for a good broody for you soon. I guess this is why when people get a good mamma they keep her. I've got a broody Wyandotte at the moment and I'm feeling a bit bad that I don't have the space to give her a chance, because they're meant to be good mothers.