Category: chickens (Page 5 of 11)

The Lord graciously granted another three chicken hatchings of 2017, the 6th, 7th and 8th!

Here’s group 6. I believe the hen hatched out 8:

In this group, there was one that had trouble with one of its legs, and would stick it out straight back — you can get a good look at it how it was in the video below. Well, in our experience, a good way to try to help with that is to put binders on its legs, where you use a thin piece of duct tape and wrap each end around each leg, which helps keep the legs together, with the idea that the good leg will help guide the bad one into what it’s supposed to do correctly (like us being yoked to Christ! Matt. 11:29 – “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.“).

At first, it was too small for the good leg to overpower the bad one, but as the good leg strengthened, I was able to attach the binder, and it did seem to help. You can see the binders on it in the video as well.

Today, she (which is what it appears it turned out to be) is still going, and able to get around fairly well, which we also show in the video.

And then, here is group 7. The mama was a hatchling from I believe a couple of years ago, and she originally hatched out 11. But…

I can’t remember exactly how this went, one day I did a count, and only saw 10, but thought perhaps I had just miscounted originally. Some time later, I walked in, and there was one dead, and only 7 alive, which means another 2 were missing. What was going on? I looked around in the summer kitchen pantry there, and sure enough, I found a snake in the corner, picked it up, and there was a chick-sized lump in its belly. Arg! And bummer. I don’t know how it got in there, as I had been purposefully keeping the main doors of the summer kitchen closed just because of this snake issue (we’ve had trouble like that before) — maybe it got in through a small hole in external OSB, but it seems it would have had to do that when it was smaller.

Anyway, after getting the snake out of there, the other 7 are still going strong!

And this is group 8. 6 or 7 hatched out, 1 or 2 died, but the other 5 are still also doing well!

And here is a video of all 3 groups:

Once again, we are very grateful to the Lord for granting these provisions, and for His mercy on the ones He allowed us to keep. They are all His chickens to do with as He pleases, and we are just thankful He has allowed us any. May they be used for His glory!

— David

The Lord recently graciously granted another two hatchings for 2017, the 4th and 5th!

This first group is a little interesting: there were a couple of mama hens sitting on eggs in the barn, and one day I walked in, and heard little chick sounds, and behind the dog kennel there were two chicks and the two mothers walking around. Oh boy…gotta round them up before William our cat sees them! So, I caught the two chicks and picked one of the moms and put them in the summer kitchen. And then if I remember correctly, I think something was wrong with that mom — she was being hurtful or something to the chicks and so I went and got the other mom and swapped them out. And things worked better with her.

Then, the first mama went back to sitting on eggs and a couple of days later, there was a chick sound under her! But, I didn’t want to set her aside with just one chick if possible, so I took this third one and put it with the first two, hoping the mama wouldn’t reject it, and she didn’t, and so here are the three she’s been taking care of:

And then, I put the other mama and the rest of the eggs she was sitting on in the barn in the mini chicken tractor, and then she hatched out two more!

And here is a video of both groups:

As always, we are very thankful to God for providing these offspring and provisions!

— David

Spring time generally means new life time, and the Lord has graciously granted our first three hatchings of chickens this year!

This is group #1, 9 hatched and 9 still going!

And this is group #2 in the mini chicken tractor, 7 hatched here and all still healthy!

And this is group #3. This was a more interesting one, in that, the first mommy sat a whole brooding cycle and nothing hatched out. And so, we put under her another dozen eggs. She made it two weeks (out of the three-week cycle), became unbroody, and chicken-scratched her eggs all over. Well, we got her out of there and put on the eggs another broody hen we had, and she’s the one that finished them out. She hatched out 4 in total, but sadly the 4th little tiny one I think got stepped on as it looked like its little belly was opened up. Even more sadly for me was when I got out to bury it, after me closing its eyes, it opened them — oh no! It was still alive, gasping ever so slightly for air. But I figured it was too far injured and gone, so I decided I should give it the coup de gras (act of grace). It’s still always difficult for me to take the life of a gift from God that we try very hard to take care of. It’s apparently part of animal husbandry though at times.

But, the other 3 are still doing well!

And here is a video of all 3 groups:

As always, we are thankful to God that He grants the chicken flock to continue in this perpetuating manner. May they be used for His glory and the benefit of His Church!

— David

The Lord graciously granted another 4 rounds of chicks to hatch out — our 6th through the 9th of this year!

This is group 6:

She actually hatched out 9. Sadly, this mommy was very over-reactive to everything, and I think she ended up stepping on several of the little ones. We lost 5 that first day, and 1 more the next, several of which had openings through the skin in their little bodies exposing their insides.

They’re so tiny…

One of the 3 left also got out one day and got its foot caught in a mouse trap! I found it running around with it attached. I was worried it might lose all use of its talon, or get gangrene, but over time, God granted it heal, and it’s running around now like nothing happened. We’re thankful!

Group 9 obviously had some interesting things with it, but as for the rest of the groups, things have gone very well, save maybe 1 or 2.

Here is group 7:

And group 8:

And group 9:

At one point, I pulled the mommies from groups 6 and 7 and put the 3 from group 6 in with group 7. A few days into it, I heard frantic cheeping from their room, and when I got back there, I discovered one of them had been basically scalped, I assume by the others. I figure it got pecked at, it caused an opening or blood to show, and then its little head became a target.

But, it’s not dead yet, and so I moved it into the empty room and have been coating its skull with Neosporin morning and evening, and we pray maybe God would grant it healing.

I’m calling it Scalpey: 🙂

Finally, here is the video of all 4 groups. Look for one mommy’s extreme closeup moment! 🙂

As always, we are grateful to the Lord for granting any chicks, and the continued provisions from Him in this way!

— David

The Lord graciously granted again two more hatchings of chicks this 2016!

I believe this is #4:

And then this would be #5:

And here is both groups’ video:

As always, we are very grateful to God for these provisions, and their continued health and safety!

— David

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