Pepper & Friend
Poor little Pepper hatched out alone because of an incubator malfunction that killed the other eggs in her brood. For a while, she was kept company by an ailing, older chick that was struggling to thrive, but eventually it too passed away.
There was only one thing to do. I went to the local farm supply store and got Pepper a friend--a silver laced wyandotte pullet, a week or two older than she is. They met yesterday and have been BFF's ever since.
Release the Quacken!
Unlike the chickens, the ducks love the snow. They got quite a treat this morning!
View of the Grow Out pen
Camera feed from the broody grow-out pen
Angel has brought the chicks outside, and she has adopted one extra. A silkie mix chick that hatched alone and didn't have a broody hen to raise it has joined Angel's brood. So far they have taken to each other very well. The silkie mix seems to like having others its own age around, and Angel is used to adopting babies that aren't hers, so it works out well.
A couple of years ago, Angel went broody in the winter, and a brutal cold snap claimed all but one of her eggs. The chick that hatched did not survive for long, and Angel--desperate to be a mother--actually stole a chick from another broody hen. Unfortunately, she was able to steal this chick in the first place because it wasn't thriving either, and when it passed away as well, Angel just sat in depressed silence, staring at the other broodies with their chicks.
As luck would have it, I was hatching chicks of my own in my incubator, and I decided to see if Angel would take an interest in them. At the time, I lived about half a mile from the property where my flock was at, so I gathered Angel up, carried her in my lap while we drove to my house, then set her in the brooder with the chicks that had just hatched. She took to them immediately, and as more chicks hatched, I was able to just add them to her growing brood. When it was all said and done, she was raising 24 adopted babies, one of which grew up into my rooster Marco Pollo, who is a permanent fixture in the flock.
She has been broody a few times since, but this is her first time raising her own offspring.
Theodore Roostervelt is one of my sweetest roosters, but he is unfortunately blind in one eye, and this prevents him from being able to live with the rest of the flock. The other roosters are simply too mean to him, so while they stay in the coop and run, Teddy has free run of the yard.
Sometimes I try to give Teddy treats, but he is so determined to find a hen to share them with that he won't eat them himself. I had to go to the coop and "borrow" a white cochin hen for him to flirt with, and you can see just how diligent he is about making sure she gets the treats.
Photographing a Duckling
A new arrival to our flock: this little duckling is a cayuga mix. My husband likes to photograph the new babies when they've just hatched, because they're less likely to poop on his backdrops, but that still doesn't mean they're going to be cooperative!
Treat Time in the Main Coop
Since there isn't anything new to report on as far as Geisha is concerned, I thought we'd take a trip to the main flock and join them for treat time!
