Category: chickens (Page 3 of 11)

The Lord has graciously granted our 4th and 5th chick hatchings of 2020! Both have some interesting stories…

This first mommy I believe was hatched last year, and when older last year was attacked by a hawk! I was able to get out there quickly to scare it off, but she was lying on the ground looking dead. When I picked her up, I realized she wasn’t, and took her into our brooder barn to a place of hopeful recovery. Well, she recovered from the initial shock, but couldn’t walk very well. But over the next few days, God granted she continue to recover, and by His graces she did fully! From all this, I called her “Hawk Girl”. 🙂

And so, when she got broody this year, I thought it’d be great if after all that, she hatched out some chicks, and again by God’s graces she did! She hatched out 6 initially, but one didn’t make it past a couple of days, but the other 5 are still going strong today! I call her “Hawk Mommy” now. 🙂

And here she is with her chicks:

Now, one day, Sue walked into our camper and down the stairs under the desk, there was a mama chicken and 2 chicks! What? And then we found the nest — up the stairs of the 5th wheel, into the bedroom, in a nook next to the bed. We think she got spooked by a cat, and that’s why she was down stairs. I still want to know how she and 2 little tiny chicks made it down the stairs! 🙂

Anyway, there were quite a few eggs left, and one was starting to hatch, so we gathered her up and the eggs and put them all in the brooder barn to see if she needed to finish. In monitoring the chick process, the one wasn’t continuing to hatch, and another was also hatching but didn’t seem to be making progress, so I decided to go ahead and help, even though apparently it’s supposed to weaken the chicks we’ve heard, but also, if you don’t get them out of the shell, they won’t make it. I got them mostly hatched, and put them back in the nest, and we waited to see what happened.

Well, those 2 ended up making it ok, and another hatched after! And so, she ended up with 5 as well! What a nice special gift from God!

And here they are:

And this is a video of each group, including when we found camper mommy initially, and a catchup addendum to them all as of today:

We are very grateful to the Lord for granting these chicks, for sparing Hawk Mommy last year, and to bring her this year to perpetuating the flock, for the special camper chicks gift, and for their continued health and safety!

— David

The Lord graciously granted our next two chick hatchings of 2020, the 2nd and 3rd so far!

This mommy was in the barn loft, and so we grabbed her and her eggs and put her in the brooder barn (formerly known as the summer kitchen), and she hatched out a bunch of them! I think only a few eggs didn’t hatch, and all her hatchlings are still there, except for one…

At night, I put lanterns with the hens and chicks to give them at least a better shot at defending against small intruders, like snakes, which we’ve had a lot of problems with, in that, they get in there and eat or try to eat the chicks. Well, one night as I went in there to set them up for the night, one of the chicks already had a small snake attached to its head, and that snake had basically just suffocated it because I don’t believe it could have swallowed the chick. So, sadly, that’s the one chick we lost of the bunch, and there’s one less snake now too 🙂 , but we are thankful for the ones God has granted to continue:

And here’s group 3 I believe. Sadly here too, the day after I took these pictures and video below, one of the chicks was very sick, and died just a few hours later. And, there’s one chick that seems to have neurological or vision problems, but is able to maintain itself, so we’ll see how that little one fares in the end, and we pray the Lord might help it, and help it to be a productive member of the flock, if He might grant:

Finally, here’s the video of the two groups:

As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for these provisions, the eggs He grants from them, and the meat as well!

— David

Just recently, Sue came briskly walking up to the house, which usually means something’s wrong on the homestead. I braced myself and went out to meet her and asked her what was wrong. But what ended up being “wrong”, or at least of some immediate attention, was that she discovered a chicken mommy in the barn loft with a whole batch of chicks with her! Near the edge of the loft too, which is probably 10 feet off the ground! Wow!

Here’s a picture of the stairs going up to the loft — she made her nest way in the back corner there by the buckets:

We went up there, and sure enough — a bunch of them! They had at least moved away from the edge, and so we grabbed mama and put her in a cage for the moment, and then gathered up her little ones into a pet carrier, and put them all into the brooder barn (formerly the summer kitchen).

And here they are now! We believe there are 15, and it appears the hen hatched out all the eggs that were under her. She must have just been dropping eggs into her nest herself, and then did the sitting. This mother is a good one too — very often broody:

And here’s their video:

We are very thankful to the Lord for this unexpected gift to start this 2020, and for the safe hatching, and that He had mama set on the nest in the barn! We pray they are used for His glory in some way, and the benefit of the homestead and others, as He wills!

— David

Catching up on the 2019 chicks the Lord has graciously granted, here are the last hatchings of this 2019 — 7th, 8th, and 9th!

Here’s group 7, 5 hatched, 5 still alive!

And group 8, 6 hatched, and all 6 doing well!

And group 9, 3 hatched and 3 still going today! This group started in one of the barn horizontal purlins, and moved her and her eggs into this room in the brooder building:

And here’s the video of all 3 groups:

As always, we are very thankful to God for granting these provisions. May we remember these are gifts from Him for our use, not ownership, and that He is always Lord over all!

— David

The Lord again graciously granted another set of chicks to be hatched out this 2019, 6th for the year — 10 from a very protective mommy hen! And all 10 are still going today.

Here are a couple of pictures:

And here’s their video, including mama attempting to send me packing after I had to collect one of her chicks from outside the cage area! 😀

As always, we thank God for these little gifts, and the continued provisions, and we pray for their continued health and safety, according to His will!

— David

The Lord graciously granted another set of chicks to be hatched out this 2019 — number 5 for the year!

This mama was hatched out herself late last year as part of a surprise set of chicks, and so was sitting what seems to be pretty early for her, but we’ll take it! 😀

She hatched out 10, and all 10 are still doing well today!

Here they are not long after entering the world:

And here’s their video:

We are always thankful to God for granting these provisions! It is our prayer that He guide us in the use of them, and in all things spiritual and temporal, for His glory and the benefit of others!

— David

The Lord graciously granted another couple of chicken hens go broody this 2019, and here are the results!

This mama hatched out 8 as our 3rd group this year, and all 8 are still going strong, thanks to God. I’m guessing all the eggs under her were hers as every chick basically looks like her…I don’t remember something like this happening for us before. 🙂

And this mama hatched out our 4th group this year, 9 this time, and all 9 are still alive and healthy too!

And here is their video:

As always, we are thankful to the Lord for His continued provisions. May we look to Him for ALL things, in every spiritual and temporal matter!

— David