Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Baby chicks for us :-D

Well, I don't have a picture of them yet but I now have

TWO broody hens!!

Go cuckoo marans!

I had noticed a few days ago that they where grumpily ensconced in a nest box one morning and still there in the evening when I went back. I say grumpy since they make all those grumpy growling sounds when you come around too close. I told all the family members to leave them alone so they could finish their job so we could have babies in about 21 ish days. That puts us at about....the beginning of January I believe. Kind of cold---but their moms should be able to keep them warm.
I have been wondering what ours will look like since we have such an array of birds here---but any that will be hens will be good additions to the flock and very welcome. Remember that I lost quite a few birds early in the season when they were smaller. Probably about.....15 hens I think. Plus a number of roosters which aren't nearly as big a deal as the hens. So more egg layers will be fine with me.

Since these two hens are so late in going broody (odd I thought for the time of year) if our little chicks make it they will be ready to lay eggs right in spring time. How fortunate AND I don't even have to have them in the house this year! Another yeah!


Here's a good link on using broody hens instead of incubators and another about broody hens and their care with slightly different information.

1 comment:

Robbyn said...

Wow, how neat your marans will be having chicks!!! HOORAY! I just love those really dark eggs, and we'll be watching to see how the setting goes and how many chicks emerge :) We were talking about chickens just yesterday and our hopes that once we have a starter flock that a few of the hens will go broody and take care of the replenishing business, though we might have to still buy some more chicks now and then. Congrats!!!