Category: chickens (Page 7 of 11)

God has continued to grant us chicken hatchings, this time they are the fifth and sixth groups!

This mommy Sue found broody up in a goat shed, and so we brought her into the summer kitchen, put some eggs under her, and she hatched out 10 I believe! I believe one ended up not making it, and we also had the same sickness problem run through several of them like with the fourth group, but we kept giving them Angstrom ionic silver, and by God’s graces all nine are still going today!

Here is their video:

This next batch was a surprise group — one day, the mommy just showed up in the middle of the barn with some chicks in tow! Wow, thankfully a cat or otherwise didn’t get them! So, we hustled them into the summer kitchen as well, and here they are, all five still alive!

And here is their video too:

As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for granting these provisions of the new chicks, and for the continued health and safety of those to which He sovereignly chooses to grant those!

— David

The Lord has graciously kept a-coming the little chicks to be hatched out! In this post, I’m including both groups 3 and 4.

Here is group 3, in the barn stall. I don’t remember well, but I think she hatched out six, and they’re all still going today!

And here’s their video:

Group 4 ended up, and still is, quite interesting. We had this mama in our summer kitchen pantry, with 12 eggs under her, and I think for the first time, we got 100% hatched out! Neat! Thanks to God!

One day though a few weeks into it, I noticed some of the chicks started getting that sick chicken look, where their head starts to rest back on their neck, and they start standing around not doing “chicken things,” and with their wings partially pointed down. With that, we usually start an ionic 600 ppm silver regimen of about 1/4 CC 3-4 times a day; and if they’re not eating, I mix in 1 1/4 CC egg yoke and 1 1/2 CC goat milk. Well, before I could really get things going, two died within a day, and probably half or more of the ones left were showing signs of sickness. Uh oh. We’ve never had a disease sweep through a hatching of chicks before like this, that I can recall.

I figured something in their environment was causing the issue, so we moved group 2 out of the barn into our pen area with group 1 that we had already moved, and moved this group 4 into the barn, and started the silver (and yoke/milk regimen where needed) on all of the sickies, plus silver even for the healthy ones morning and night.

Thankfully, by God’s graces, after over a week now, it appears the “bleeding” has stopped. We’ve lost no more, and most appear to have turned the corner. The “worst” chicken baton has been passed around a few times to different chicks, and there is one holding it now, but thankfully it’s only one, and Lord willing, this one will pull out of it too. As of today, I’m trying to back off the regimen to giving silver for all of them in the evening, and morning and afternoon for only the sick looking ones. Thankfully too, the mommy chicken doesn’t seem to be affected with sickness.

I plan to clean out the pantry of the summer kitchen really well and probably spray down the concrete with white vinegar or something before putting any more chickens in their for brooding.

Never a dull moment around here! But the Lord was merciful in allowing us to keep the ten currently alive! And here they are about a month ago when all were still going:

And their video too:

As always, we are grateful to God for His continued provisions, and Him granting the healing He has on most of the ailing chicks!

— David

Here come the second batch of chicks! Again, God graciously granted another set to hatch! This mama we set up in our first barn stall. At this point, I’m not sure how many she hatched out. In the video I say maybe ten, but I sort of remember only eight when I finally started counting, but now she’s down to six. I know I found two out one time and put them back, and I know I found one that had died in the cage area, but I’m not sure what happened to others if there were any. If so, I’m thinking maybe they got out and then maybe something got to them.

But, we are thankful for these six, and here they are:

And their video:

Again, we are grateful to the Lord for granting this next batch of chicks!

— David

Apparently, God’s Spring-season “Broody Time!” memo went out, because He has begun to graciously grant the chicks to start a hatching!

This is round number one, which we usually start in the mini-chicken tractor. It’s an Australorp mama that hatched out six chicks, all of which are still going strong!

Here they are at just a few days old! It’s amazing to me how they can be all squashed up in a little egg like that, and peck their way out — more of God’s miracle ways!

Here’s a video of them:

We are always very grateful to the Lord for Him perpetuating His animal provisions!

— David

At this point, this is our final hatching of the year — the eighth the Lord has graciously granted!

Here’s the mommy with her chicks! I believe it was four hatched out, and four still going strong, thanks to God! In the second picture, you can see a couple of them at the bottom eating an egg the mama had laid but they crushed as they were trying to get away from me when I was taking these pictures: 🙂

Weird story: one day I walked in to check on them, and one chick seemed sort of stuck to the cage fencing. As I examined closer, indeed it was — a strand of chicken wire had double-pierced through its little chest and was holding it fast! Wow! So, I pulled the wire through, sprayed with hydrogen peroxide, and prayed for the best. And the Lord granted it recover fine, thankfully. Still, that was a new one for animal experiences! 🙂

Here’s a video of them, including after moving all of the rest of the chicks out into the pen area this past Saturday night after dark. The fifth hatching had been there with their mama for some time, but I pulled that hen, and moved all of the rest of the chicks, including this eighth hatching, from the summer kitchen to join them, putting all of the mommies back into the main chicken tractor.

We are once again very grateful to the Lord for all of the chicken provisions He has graciously granted this year! May He glorify Himself in these processes and granting of these provisions!

— David

Once again, we had a hen go broody; and so we put her in the piano room with her eggs, and voila, by God’s mercies, she hatched out 8 more chicks! And here they are with their mama:

I took that picture and made the video below just last Thursday, and very sadly on Friday morning, I found one of the chicks had died. It’s always hard to know what happened when you just find them laying there — we did have some pretty boisterous storms come through Thursday night with some very loud thunder claps, and so maybe there was some panic in the cage area; or perhaps the chick was just ill; or maybe it got bit by something. But, the Lord is the owner of the chickens, so He can certainly do what He wills with them, although we always ask for help to take care of the gifts and provisions He graciously and mercifully grants.

Surprise!

One night, I heard some odd thumping going on outside. I tracked down the sound, and it was coming from under our 3-point shredder implement! Huh?

Here’s a picture of the shredder:

Well, I looked under, and there was a hen walking around with eggs all over the place. And then…..I saw a young skunk too! I was able to grab the hen, and eventually shoo out the skunk, ready to shoot it, but it got away. We pulled out all of the eggs from under the shredder, not sure exactly what to do, although I believe we were just going to put the hen in a cage area in the summer kitchen with her eggs. And then I noticed….one was hatching as I held it! Oh wow….ok, so we took it and all of the eggs, and indeed put the hen and the eggs in the summer kitchen.

And, well, that little chick made it! And here it is with it’s mommy:

Some days later, another chick started hatching too, although it was taking a long time; and so, I helped it a little, and it did finish hatching out, but never really could stand up to walk at all (it was able to stay upright unlike Tiny from the third hatching, but just not stand). We tried keeping it alive with goat milk, hoping it would get stronger, but sadly, it died a couple of days later.

But, even this single chick that made it was a nice surprise, especially given the circumstance of its incubation and what was happening while it was beginning to hatch!

Here’s the video of the sixth hatching, with all eight chicks at the time, and the seventh hatching:

We are very grateful to God again for granting these new chicks, and the general continued health and safety He has granted!

— David