Our First Hatchings

Once upon a time I had a broody hen so I stuck a few eggs under her to see what would happen. Twenty-one chicks later... Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I ended up with three broody hens and the result are these little chicks of varying ages. The last eight are in the cardboard box so they won't get trampled by the bigger chicks. Once they out-grow the box, I'm thinking I'll section a bit of the brooder off for them until they are old enough to mingle with the bigger chicks.

The practicality of chicken management hit home with this experience. Don't let hens go broody in the winter. It's too cold for the chicks to survive. Breaking a hen's broodiness is fairly easy. Stick her in a pet carrier with food and water for a day and she'll promptly forget all about her maternal yearnings in a bout of self-righteous indignation of being enclosed. I've done twice since the chicks and it works like a charm. And if I am going to brood chicks, I'll time it so all the chicks hatch at the same time and use an incubator. Because taking away dear, fragile, newly hatched baby chicks from their moms makes me feel like an axe murderer. And a baby snatcher. And a store-the-bodies-in-the-freezer-eating-liver low-life. The chicks' shrill and distressed peeping permeate the house and the hens wander around the coop clucking non-stop, desperately looking for their babies. Both the chicks and hens get over the experience in a day but I'm apologizing to them for weeks. So I figure if my chickens sit on eggs, it's only fair they raise the results of their efforts. Unless a hen goes broody when it's warm enough, I'm going to break her broodiness.

I also discovered a bit more about the secret life of chickens. I never knew that chicks peeped while still in the shell. It is a wondrous thing to hear life before life itself is born. A hen will 'talk' to the eggs once she hears the peeping. She uses a unique and special voice, low and quiet, encouraging and comforting the little chicks out of their shells. I can sit there and listen to a gentle mama hen and wonder over the how she can express such caring in one quiet note. Some things transcend species and intellect.