Category: agrarianism (Page 11 of 19)

Apparently the memo went out as several of our hens started getting broody this 2016! Sadly, the first mama stopped after 19 days (out of 21) and nothing hatched out. But the next two hens went to completion, and God graciously granted they each hatch out a set of quite a few chicks!

Here’s group 1. Sadly, yesterday I decided best to give a coup de grâce to one little one barely alive, but all of the rest are doing well it appears!

And group 2, all present and accounted for!

Then, one evening, one hen showed up walking around the open area in front of our barn with four chicks in tow! Surprise! So, we gathered them up and put them in the mini chicken tractor:

And here’s a video of all three groups:

We are always very grateful to God for the perpetuation of the flock, and the egg and meat provisions He grants from them! Here are some from the other day ready to be made into some chicken tortilla soup:

Again, we thank the Lord!

— David

One afternoon, I was looking east out toward our chicken pen area and saw a hen with some little birds around her. My first thought was that some small wild birds were just hanging around her, but then thought, “Wait a minute….I wonder….” And sure enough, it was a mama hen with three little chicks in tow!

It always amazes me how a hen makes it out in the woods for three weeks sitting on eggs with hazardous critters running around to end up hatching some out. God knows though. 🙂

And so, we rounded them up and put them in the piano room, and they’re all three still healthy today!

Here they are:

And their video:

We are grateful to the Lord for granting this bonus hatching, His watchful eye on them the three weeks in the wild, and His continued granting of their health and safety!

— David

The Lord has continued to grant some more chick hatchings this year, our tenth and eleventh! Both have an interesting story…

For these ones, the mommy sat for two rounds (6 weeks) before some chicks hatched out. We had her in the mini-chicken tractor, but I wondered if it was maybe too hot in there during the summer, so we moved her into the summer kitchen, and thankfully (I was hoping for at least just one so she wouldn’t try to sit another round) she did hatch out some — five in total! And thankfully all five are still going today!

And here is their video:

For this eleventh group, she hatched out five in the piano room originally, but then one day there were only three left, no bodies. Hm…with this one I thought maybe there was a snake about as we’ve had problems with them in the barn this year with sitting mamas. So, I moved these ones into the mini-tractor, and when I went back into the piano room, sure enough, I found a snake in the corner. Arg.

But, God’s will was we have the three, and all three are also doing well today!

And this is their video:

As always, we are very grateful to God for His continued gracious granting of these farm and food provisions!

— David

Another hen went broody this year, and so we put her in one of the little fence pens we have in the barn stall. At one point it looked like she had fewer eggs under her than I originally thought I had put under her, and then one day, the hay on the ground around her was scattered about, and so were some eggs. We had had a couple of young chickens die in a barn stall chicken pen before, where their heads were slicked back, and figured that a snake had tried to swallow them but found them too big. Well, I figured our barn snake was the culprit here, so I moved her into the summer kitchen with her eggs, and she hatched out three!

And here they all are, a bit grown up as you can see, still doing well, with thanks to God!

And their video:

As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for granting these new provisions of chickens!

— David

God has graciously granted yet another two sets of chicks to be hatched out in the 2015!

Here is the seventh group in the mini-chicken tractor:

She hatched out five chicks, but one was something of a runt and took much more time to grow, and usually they don’t make it. You can see the little one in this video. It actually went along several weeks, seemingly getting stronger. However, one day, for some reason its little head started to twist and want to stay that way, and it just could not keep it upright anymore; and so, I made the personally tough decision to euthanize it, figuring it was now in a bad way and just wasn’t going to be able to sustain itself. 🙁

And here they are before that time. The other four are still healthy and doing well!

And this is group eight! I believe she hatched out at least eight, maybe nine, and there are seven still going strong; and thankfully they haven’t had the little sickness that has run through some of the other groups:

And here’s their video:

We are very grateful to the Lord for the continued health and safety of the hatchlings, and His continued provisions in this way!

— David