The Nest Egg

Matthew 23:37 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Lament over Jerusalem

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

In this Scripture reading, Jesus laments over Jerusalem's wickedness.  In a beautiful picture of grace, Jesus uses a word picture of how He wishes, like a mother hen, to protect and provide for His people.  He wanted to provide comfort and warmth and security - and yet they were unwilling.

This illustration is driven home (literally) each day on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  As I gathered eggs in the barn Sunday afternoon, a broody hen sitting on her nest caught my attention.  This hen sits on her eggs and objects to our moving her out of the way to collect them.  She desires to hatch out her little chicks instead of her eggs becoming our breakfast.  She fluffs out her feathers to make herself look larger and more formidable than she actually is.  She makes mean noises to frighten us away.  If we're still undeterred by her objections, she'll peck at our hands with her beak.

There are times in which we'll relent, and allow the hens to set and hatch out her little ones.  The baby chicks soon follow behind her, learning to scratch and peck at bits of grain on the ground, imitating their momma.  They'll often stray, but the momma hen's clucking guides them to safety under her protective wings.  Sometimes one or two will dart through the fence and find themselves separated from the hen.  She dutifully scurries to their rescue, scolding them until they are back beneath her.

It is often sad to find that one day there are four baby chicks following the momma and the next day there are only three - one lost to a predator who was successful in separating them!  It reminds me of the old hymn, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," in which one of the verses says,

"Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love:
Take my heart, oh, take and seal it, With thy Spirit from above."

Aren't we often like that roaming, wandering chick who refuses protection because we are proud, headstrong, stiff-necked?  ... The verse ends, sorrowfully, with "Yet you were unwilling..."  May we be willing to fall under the protection and watchcare of our Savior.

May we be willing...

And Then There Was One

About a month ago, we introduced you to new life on the farm IN THIS POST.  Four little Barred Rock chicks hatched out and were following the momma.  She clucked and protected them.  She ruffled her feathers and scolded when animals (or people) got too close.  The momma hen was very crafty and set on the nest in secret.  She surprised us all with her little brood of four little biddies following closely after her, learning from her.

A month later, give or take a few days, and there is only one baby chick left.  There's the baby below all feathered out.

We really don't know what happened to the other three.  There are so many things that could have happened.  First, cows.  The chickens dart to and fro in between the legs of the cows.  I don't know why they do this, but they do.  Sometimes, a cow will step on a chicken and she will be lame for a week or so.  Sometimes they never recover.  One of our cows could have stepped on three of them and squished them down into the mud where we'd never find the little carcass, who knows?

Then, there could have been predators that snacked on 3 of the chicks.  We have red-tailed hawks flying around constantly that would not be shy about swooping down and getting a three piece chicken dinner to go.  We also have a number of chicken snakes on the prowl around the barn.  Mainly they eat rats and eggs, but a baby chick (or three) would have been a nice treat.  Finally, we have critters back by the woods such as possums that would enjoy a chick to eat.  I personally saw the chicks darting between the 4x4 holes in the hog wire despite the momma hens' protests. 

That would be my best guess - the chicks ventured outside of the safety provided by the momma and met a gruesome end.  Fact of the matter is, such is life.  Sometimes, animals just die.  You can try to do everything you can to protect them, but it is a cruel, hard world out there.  Best be careful and not make mistakes.  They could be very costly.  I've always heard it said that you should learn from your mistakes.  I think it is even better to learn from the mistakes of OTHERS!  Hopefully, the one chick remaining did exactly that.

2018 Meat Birds - Baby Chicks Arrive!

Two weeks ago I did an inventory on our chickens in the deep freeze and I counted 28 birds in gallon sized Ziploc bags.  I told Tricia that it was time that we go ahead and order the 2018 birds.  I looked at the pricing and delivery schedule of three competing hatcheries and finally settled on Cackle Hatchery.  Cackle Hatchery is in Lebanon, Missouri.  Cackle had the second best price, but the best delivery schedule for Jumbo Cornish Cross meat birds - not sexed.  You can order all males, but they are a little more expensive, since they grow bigger, faster.  Not sexed means you get an assortment.  Ideally, 50% will be male and 50% female.  They would hatch on 2/28 and be shipped out the same day, arriving at our house on 3/2.  You can see the pricing below.  I ordered 60 chicks priced at $2.15 per bird and there was shipping and handling of $36.20 involved.

I received tracking information that told me that the chicks would be delivered on Saturday, March 1.  That would be good.  I would be home and be able to set up the brooder.  That was the plan.  The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, however.  I received two calls on Friday morning from our town's Post Office alerting me that we had a package that was making noise.  I called and let Russ and Tricia know.  They went to the post office and picked up the package.  They come shipped in boxes like this:

The shipping label on the bottom right of the box tells me that this box came from MCI (Kansas City Airport) into BTR (Baton Rouge Airport) and then trucked to Jennings.  These day old chicks have a lot of mileage on them!  Tricia and Russ got the brooder all set up with wood shavings, heat lamps, feed, and water.  For safety, they put a piece of a cattle panel on top to keep the cats from feasting on the baby chicks.

They ensured that each drank water and then set them in the brooder.  Cackle Hatchery has a guarantee on the birds.  If any of them are dead when you open the box, they will give you a dead chick credit.  All you have to do is call them.  It is strictly the honor system.  All our chicks were alive.  Usually they give you a few extra in the event some of the birds are dead on arrival.  We counted 61, so they gave us one extra - a 'Baker's Dozen,' if you will.

Unfortunately, the next day there were 3 dead and then the following day, there were 5 more dead.  Today, there were no more fatalities, thank goodness.  All I can figure is that some of them were stressed during shipment and although they were okay, they eventually died a day later.  They were promptly removed from the chick brooder and composted in the garden.  RIP baby chicks.  We barely knew you.  A 13% mortality rate right off the bat is not good.  The only good thing is if your birds are going to die, now's the time to die - before you've fed them a bunch of feed!

We will keep them fed and watered and keep the bedding dry and clean.  We'll also keep the heat lamp positioned to provide them enough heat, but not too much.  Each week, we'll follow their progress and show you the rapid progression these birds take from a cute fuzzball to a monster in 8 - 9 short weeks!

New Life in the Barn

Last month we told you about a broody hen that was sitting on some eggs in the barn.  Three eggs to be exact.  We marked them with a marker and removed any other eggs from the box.  Over the last three weeks the Black Star hen dutifully sat on three brown eggs only getting up to quickly go eat some rice and drink some water and then she was back on the nest.

Broody hen on her nest

A few days ago Tricia turned to me and said, "You hear that?"  I'm kind of deaf, so I answered, "No." She could hear the chirping of a little chick.  As we approached the momma hen began clucking loudly and fluffing up her feathers.  She didn't want us anywhere near her baby chick.  You can see the little black chick snuggled up next to the mom as momma hen looks down with pride at her newborn.

Freshly hatched chick

Here is the little chick once we moved the mom away from her.  We gave her a few more days to sit on the other two eggs, but no babies ever came out.  I would assume that these eggs weren't fertilized. Even though we have a 1:10 rooster to hen ratio, sometimes this happens.  I was disappointed as I expected at least two to hatch.  The chick is black, with some slight coloration on its wings.  I would guess that this is a Black Star, just like the momma hen sitting on the nest.  A Black Star is a cross between a Rhode Island Red Rooster and a Barred Rock hen.

33.33% hatch rate

Momma hen is very protective over her little one, leading it to safety and clucking loudly.  She will lead her baby to food and water, and we have been watching with interest as she teaches the chick to eat little pieces of food and drink little bits of spilled milk from when we milk the cow.

Follow me, little one.

The focus was off on the camera, so I was unable to get a good shot, but here is a blurry picture of the new baby in the barn.  Mother hen didn't like it one bit that I was holding her baby and let me know it by pacing around my feet.  When I put the chick back on the ground, the hen pecked me hard on the finger.  Serves me right.

A Handful

For the first 3 or 4 days, the hen kept her baby in the barn sequestered from the other chickens and animals.  Today, the hen and her chick ventured out of the barn and walked around the perimeter.  

A field trip

Of course we won't know if this is a pullet or a cockerel for quite some time.  We like to allow a broody hen to sit on a clutch of eggs once a year and we also like to put some eggs in our incubator and hatch out some chicks.  However, this year we decided to go ahead and make an order to have some Barred Rock day old chicks mailed to us so that we can replace some of the chickens that have died over the past year.  We'll show you those birds once they come in the mail.

A Chick Check Up

How do you like this new time?  I am not fond of it.  When I get home it is dark and it is difficult to get anything done outside.  That relegates my activities to indoor projects.  Ugh...  Yesterday I went to the garage and was just "puttering around." Do you ever putter around?  It takes great skill and patience to putter around.  To the untrained eye, when you are puttering around, it looks like you are just wasting time, but  unorganized action and lack of a clear goal aside, puttering can be therapeutic and somewhat productive.  I'm an accomplished putterer and it has taken years to perfect my craft.

Yesterday afternoon I was in the garage, deeply engaged in putterishness.  The outside temperature was dropping and I wanted to make sure that our 24 Barred Rock pullet chicks would continue to be comfortable in the brooder.  The thick bed of hay and the heat lamp provides a perfect environment for little growing chicks.  I added a little more chick feed to the tray and watched them jump in the tray and instinctively scratch with their little feet at the feed.

These are perhaps the most healthy birds that we've ever received in the mail.  They have been so lively since day 1.  They seem to be eating as much as we give them and drinking plenty of water.  At this point, they haven't soiled the hay in the bottom of the brooder such that the garage stinks and that is a good thing.  I have some repair work to do on the chicken tractors in the pasture before I move them out of the garage and that will require daylight, or Saturday or Sunday, to get that done.

But before we move them outside they have to have gotten feathers.  I decided to pick up one of the little chicks and inspect her 'featherization.'  (I think I just coined a word.)  When I tried to pick one up they all scattered, frightened by me.  Finally I snatched one little girl up and held her in my hand. While she's still mostly got the fuzz or down or whatever you call it, she does have something resembling feathers growing on the tips of her wings.  Can you see them?

"A bird in the hand..."

Let's take a closer look.  There.  I stretched out her wing and a uniform row of perfectly formed wing feathers appears, letting me know that our chicks are quickly developing.  That's a good thing.  The shortened days, molting adult hens, and reduced amount of protein available on our pasture have caused the adult hens' egg production to drop to about 2 dozen a day when we were collecting about 6 dozen a day previously.  These 24 chicks will be laying eggs in about 22 weeks, if all goes according to plan, and will supplement the egg production of our existing flock.

Wing feathers coming in

The little chick was getting impatient with me holding her and I put her back with her 23 other friends so they could eat until they were full and then bask in the radiant glow of the heat lamp. Other chickens sit under a heat lamp on the stainless steel counter at Popeye's.  Not ours.  These fortunate chicks will soon be out on pasture and will live out the rest of their days on green grass, eating bugs and worms, scratching through cow patties, taking dust baths and doing other important chicken activities.

It's high time I put the chick back in the brooder.  I have more puttering around to get done.

The Momma Hen (Part Deux)

After a Black Star hen hatched out a little brood of four chicks, one of which died in a rainstorm, yet another Black Star hen got broody and was sitting on three more eggs.  Usually, we'll move them aside and pick up the eggs, but we decided to allow her to hatch out her eggs.  While the previous hen had a secret nest, this girl nested in a milk crate nesting box adjacent to the goat milking stand.  As you can see, sometimes Nellie, the goat, does her business and her 'pellets' fall in the nesting box. We try to keep fresh hay in the nesting boxes, but we haven't been able to put fresh hay with her sitting on eggs.

Momma Hen with feathers all fluffed up

We heard some chirping and lifted her up to reveal one baby chick that had hatched out.  The other two eggs evidently weren't fertile and never hatched.  A 33.33% hatch rate - not as good as our incubator.  We have plenty of roosters, but apparently some of the hens aren't getting fertilized.

Checking on the Chick

Oh well.  After setting for a few more days, the hen figured out that it was futile and started to tend to her only child, nurturing for her, caring for her, and teaching her. I say her, because we're hoping it is a female.  We really don't need any more roosters.

School is in session

It is really remarkable to watch a momma hen and her offspring.  She makes all sorts of noises in communicating with her chick.  You can hear the different inflection in her clucks that identify when she's trying to send an alarm or a calm cluck when she's trying to teach or draw her chick near to her.

She will use her beak to point out where bits of food, seeds, or water is.  If the chick isn't paying attention (like a lot of students do from time to time), the mother hen will call urgently, "Come eat, watch me, learn..."  It is really neat the way God has wired Mothers to have the motherly instinct, to be so compassionate and caring. The Momma hen models behavior for her chick and expects her to watch and learn - just as human mothers do.

The chick is not paying attention

The chick may be doing her own thing, but the mother calls and then the chick will come running!

Here I am!

The hen is very protective over her little chick.  If I try to come between her and her baby, she'll make threatening noises, fluff her feathers and her little one will come running and get underneath her for protection.

A teachable moment

While the other hen had 3 little ones to keep together and observe, this hen only has one.  She can direct her full attention to raising and teaching one baby.  We also check on the chick daily and I noticed today that she is starting to put on her first little feathers.  Just like human babies, they grow up too fast and leave the nest!

The Hen in the Loft

At work on Thursday, I got a call from Benjamin, which is odd because we normally talk after I'm off. He was all excited.  He told me that he and Russ had gone out to the barn to feed and heard a chirping noise coming from up in the loft.  When he climbed up the ladder, he spotted an Aracauna hen sitting on a nest of eggs. We had not found this hiding place.  He gently poked her with a stick and a little chick popped out from beneath her.

Sally the Aracauna in her hiding spot

In all of our years of having chickens, we've never had a broody hen sit on eggs and hatch them.  Now we've collected some from their nests and incubated them in our incubator, but the hens have never hatched them - until now.  It is a pretty exciting time for us.  Sally is very protective of her chick.  You can see her scurrying away with her yellowish chick following closely behind her.

Sally and her baby

When she got up I snapped a photo of her nest.  She has 5 remaining eggs on her nest, but something is not smelling good up there.  We shall wait a few days and see what happens.  They are all her eggs as they are blue eggs.  Aracaunas lay blue and green colored eggs.

The remaining eggs on the nest

Our plan is to wait until Saturday morning and move the hen, her chick, and her nest of unhatched eggs to a small chicken coop where she'll be out of danger.  There are rats in the barn and they will kill baby chicks. Also the loft is a long way up in the air, which translates to a long fall.  The hen can fly, but if the chick fell, it could get hurt.  

Momma and baby chick

I hate to report that the picture above that was taken Friday afternoon late was the last that we've seen of the chick.  When Benjamin and I went out this morning to move Momma and baby bird and her remaining eggs to the coop, Sally was sitting on her nest.  I picked her up to hand her to Benjamin and there was no baby chick under her!  I looked around but could not find the chick.

Benjamin is pretty disappointed.  I explained that things like this happen and we move forward - learning a lesson, perhaps, that next time we move them as soon as we see baby chicks.  Sometimes farm life is cruel, teaching you lessons about life AND death.  This afternoon Sally was sitting on her remaining eggs and we'll check again in the morning.  We also set 3 more rat traps to catch those predators. Makes me sad now that I killed the rat snake the other day.  Oh well.  Sally will get over the loss of her chick and so will we.