LauralyBeautiful /when darkness comes, I'll light the night with stars

have our own chickens (read all 11 entries…)
Misunderstanding 8 months ago

Last week we ordered our chicks, and they were supposed to arrive yesterday. My parents and Tommy and I put our order in together, but unfortunately the barred rock chicks are sold out for two weeks! The catalogue said to order early to avoid being sold out – well, how much earlier were we supposed to order?! lol!

Anyway, my mom placed the order and the guy at the feedmill said that they would send the barred rock chicks in two weeks. She confirmed that there wouldn’t be two separate shipping charges, which he said no, it would only be one shipping charge. Anyway… the mix up was she understood the rest of the chicks would be in yesterday, but instead they will all be in two weeks from yesterday. So it was a wasted trip as my dad, Gabriel and I went down expecting to pick them up. Oh well. So we’ll get our ordered chicks May 5th, which is better in a way because they will all be the same age rather than weeks apart. Instead of being excited about cute downy chicks, Gabriel spent his time staring at the John Deere tricycle that was displayed prominently hanging from the ceiling. I thought we wouldn’t make it out without a tantrum, but surprisingly, no tears or screams!

Our incubator eggs have hatched. About half were duds, which is pretty surprising considering we have enough roosters, and one died, but the rest hatched, happily without a problem.

We expected them to hatch on Sunday, so Thursday morning my mom removed the “flipper” – the part of the machine that automatically rotates the eggs – so that the chicks would have time to right themselves to peck their way out, and it is a good thing she did! Surprise! One chick hatched earlier than expected that same night! The rest all hatched Saturday morning into Sunday.

Apr 22, 10:36AM PDT | 8 cheers


Comments:

Dizziwish is not an artist, but has created a masterpiece.

I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE HATCHING EGGS

My 1st teensy taste of motherhood came from this process, my mum had decided to incubate a few duck and chicken eggs from our birds. I’m sure you know, when a duck 1st hatches the 1st thing it sees it decides is mum. Sooo i had this tiny thing hatch in my hands and i sat and helped get it dried and fluffy so he wouldn’t get cold and then it was late and i was tired so i put him in his little pen, he was small enough to get through the bars, no matter what i tried he got out and ran after me, so eventually i sat with him in my hands until he slept then i put him very gently in his makshift ‘nest’ (bowl wtih a tea towel) Then i wrote my mum a note saying somthing to the effect of; now i knew how much hard work i must have been. and could she not wake me early as i was very tired. (atleast i couldn’t waddle after her when i was a baby)
The next day i made Achille (yes i named him that) a little pouch with a ribbon on it to go round my neck so he could go round the house and garden with me.
I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to watch the same thing, its just so cool.

Apr 22, 04:41PM PDT | Thread | Respond to this

LauralyBeautiful /when darkness comes, I'll light the night with stars

Oh yes!

I had a similar thing happen to my sister and I when we were young. The mother duck got off of the nest before her entire clutch had hatched, and my mom found the nest with still-hatching eggs, so she brought them into the house, warmed them up and we helped them to hatch. The third died, but the first two viewed my mom, my sister and I as their mom. Once they were about a week old and the oil had developed on their down, we took them down to the pond hoping their duck mother would take them back, but THEY wanted nothing to do with her. We tried leaving them and they’d run after us quacking in a panic.

So we kept them in an old aquarium til they grew up. Then they forgot about us. (:

Apr 23, 01:01AM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 1 cheer

Dizziwish is not an artist, but has created a masterpiece.

nature=amazing

Similarly one of mums hens stole an egg from a duck and hatched it, the poor ducky thought he was a hen and used to try and scratch at the ground like the chickens but he had the wrong feet!!! I think though he reached maturity n fancied the other ducks and got over scratching for food…

Apr 23, 01:36AM PDT | Thread | Respond to this

LauralyBeautiful /when darkness comes, I'll light the night with stars

awww

I guess a duckling with a hen is better than a chick with a duck…! LOL

Apr 23, 01:38AM PDT | Respond to this 1 cheer


LauralyBeautiful has gotten 8 cheers on this entry.

 

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