Happy Harvest Blog
Vector & Little Mama
Vector and Little Mama made it all the way out to the house! I was surprised to see them out the front window, toodling around together.
Another Silkie Chick
We’re getting a rash of only, early chicks. Here we have an unexpected Silkie chick. As much as they are the most vulnerable chicks and have a lowered chance of survival, they do surprisingly well with the roulette wheel of reaching hatching at all. I don’t “help” my Silkie hens keep eggs, ie., I don’t isolate them with a set of eggs and food unless I mean for them …
An Only chick
Only one baby hatched:( I think it's just too early for chicks; too tough for them to survive and egg cooling happens too rapidly this early in the spring. I thought only chicks were super sad, growing up alone, but they do get intense one-on-one attention. Little Mama gave the other eggs a couple of days, then strutted out all Alright kiddo, time to learn to scratch! I moved her abandoned eggs down the line, to the six Silkies currently broody in the Silkie coop.
The loaners
Two hens are on loan to another family who needs some chicks. They are sitting on eggs and will return when their chicks are grown enough to not need their moms like Cream Puff did last year (with a boyfriend in tow). Broody hen rental service. The hens, one Silkie, and one standard got boxed and transported at night, installed in their brooding accommodations, and after a day to adjust, they have settled in extremely well. I visited.
Ursa's chicks
Ursa and her four fluffballs are out in the world, bouncing around. Now she’s out of the bath and willing to be a tea cozy again. It seems like a moderate challenge to find their way under her.
Itty bitty feather slippers
The little Silkie chicks are ridiculously cute. There's five of them; these two and Daisy has three, including the late silver arrival (who's doing very well). It's nice to have Silkie chicks under Silkie moms; I got used to seeing them with the fast-growing, out-sized "regular" babies. The moms are so doting, and fierce! The five are all still tiny fuzzballs, even ten days old, and you can see their feathered feet. I can already tell that this little brown one comes from the "extravagantly feathered feet" stock.
Cuteness is a full time job around here.
The rooster is making himself comfortable in the food tray. I’m just gonna lay down right here. The three pine trees I pruned up are seeing the use I imagined. Ursa and her chicks are under this one, and the teens have decamped from Pine Tree One (leaving that one to the grownups) to their own clubhouse tree, where they are cuddling (too much!). All the trees now have established dust baths, too. There’s a new addition! One teeny tiny little silver chick.
Perchick has quit
She's done being a mother. It was very abrupt. She's over here, the chicks are over there...well they're just all over, now. Often in this pine tree. They are scattered, seemingly not too attached to being with each other, either, let alone Mom. It makes them really hard to count, now, to check on them, now they are roaming solo. They're so confident! So small still, but they think they're big chickens. Even in the coop at night, they're all scattered around, with their own little spot claimed.
Release day for Perchick etc
Slow-release...First I propped up the side of the chickery with a rock; the chicks started leaking out immediately. They could also get out over the top. There she goes - Perchick over the top. But wait -a holdout. Chickens as they were meant to be. Oh, here comes another hen, investigating. They figured out what food pans are for. And met the guinea. This one's very independent, often apart. Probably a rooster. Chick heaven.
Cream Puff the Fierce and the free chicks
Cream Puff was a misnomer. Well, the Puff part was accurate, she spends most of her time puffed up in a rage these days, with her tail flared out. But the cream is all gone. She used to be jumpy, anxious, shy, the first to run shrieking out of the coop when you lift the lid. Now, she moves like a tank, grumbling. Ok, I'll move, but I think you should move first. She was the one initially completely freaked out by her own broodiness. Now there are two parties that get admission to the greenhouse in the evening:
Freebirds
The crippled chick is doing very well. She's using her foot but not bearing weight on it, and it very active, but still rests a lot. Very active. I don't know how she got out, but I think she went over the top. Apples feel like perching today. Cream Puff released herself today. A little early, but the chicks are managing just fine. I don't even know how she got out; there was a chicken wire lid on her, but all of a sudden, she was prowling around in her turkey pose, outside the chickery.
Drama in the high winds and an injury
HW brought in a chick in the morning with a lower-body injury. It didn't have the use of its left leg, although I couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong. I wrapped it up while HW held it (a little chicken cast), and then it stretched out and fell asleep. Even with its head hanging off. Later on, discolouration and swelling let me know it was a broken foot/ankle, and I put a proper splint on it. Hopefully, in a tiny soft boned chick, it will fully heal, even if I don't have it lined up exactly right.
Dispatches from Silkieland
It's a bit like 101 Dalmatians around here now. Chicks everywhere. In the greenhouse, in the chickeries - I've lost track of how many sets there were this summer. Some hens went broody twice. There are a lot of chicks scampering around.
Chickery II
Well, the chickery is definitely occupied, by the mom of seven, but the chicks of the mom-of-three are coming up, and they must go outside.I thought Well, I have this big box, I can turn the flaps out and set it on the grass...
Chick Days
Another chick! A little spotted one, with markings on its back like a spider! Yesterday’s chick is white, now that it’s dried out and fluffy. They are so, unbelievably cute, and tiny! One little chick is weightless in my hand.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
