Tag: Copper Black Maran chickens

Turkey Tracks: The Dog House Chickies”

Turkey Tracks:  July 25, 2012

The Dog House Chickies

As you may know from earlier posts, Americauna Wheaten hen Sally started getting broody in June–followed now by her sister Nancy.  Both are about three years old this summer.  All the hens started laying eggs under Sally–in the egg box she chose and, later, in the little doghouse–until finally I gave up and let her sit on four eggs–two blue eggs from the Wheatens and two brown ones from the Copper Black Maran hens, who are paired by a CBM rooster, Cowboy (picture below).  I marked each egg with a black cross so I could tell them from the eggs the other hens continued to lay under Sally–who sat with eyes glazed over, “in the zone,” day after day–not eating or drinking unless she did so in short bursts at night.  “Those hens want babies” was John’s comment one day when I fished 10 eggs out of the dog house before I agreed with Sally that she could have some eggs now as I would be home to oversee her care.

I allowed only 4 eggs as I wanted to see if letting a broody hen sit in the coop would actually work as the other hens and the rooster are also there with Sally at night.  Also, I have limited space, so I can’t manage a lot of new baby chicks who will grow up and need to live in the coop this winter.  Also, we cannot keep any new roosters, and half of whatever hatched will be roosters.  I’m going to have to rehome (very difficult) or kill the roosters.  Roosters fight each other fiercely, and the object of our small flock is having eggs, first and foremost.

At one point I tried to move Sally to the dog house with her eggs, but she would have none of it.  She did not recognize her own eggs; she ran around the pen screaming in outrage and panic before retreating to her egg box.  I had to move all the eggs back beneath her in the coop.

I neglected to write down the actual start date, and it has seemed like the longest 21 or so days ever.  Every day I had to go out and pick up Sally to get the fresh eggs from beneath her while leaving the marked ones–while she puffed herself up and fussed at me and while Cowboy threatened to attack me from behind.  Some days, Sally would have moved all the eggs out of the egg box to the main part of the coop.  Some days Nancy would be sitting on two of the eggs–always the brown ones though.  It was as if Sally always knew which eggs belonged to her breed.  There was so much moving around of eggs–and sometimes leaving one out overnight–that I had little hope that they would actually hatch.  I wondered when they would start stinking, and Sally would give up.

Two days ago, I lifted Sally, and beneath her was a wet clump of black feathers.  Startled, I put her right back down.

A baby chick had hatched.

I called Rose Thomas immediately–my chicken guru.  “Move her and the chick into the doghouse tonight and put the three other eggs under her.  She’ll stay there now that she has a chick,” said Rose.  I reprepped the doghouse–getting water and feed bowls ready and grinding up feed for the baby to eat when ready.

With shaking hands, I moved hen and chick–now a handful of black squirming feathers and long, long legs.  It was dark, so I couldn’t get a really good look at her (oh I hope it’s a “her”), and I didn’t want to upset them more than I had to.  She popped right in that doghouse, and the new baby popped right under her mother.

Nothing happened yesterday.  I could not see under Sally to check on the hatched chick or the eggs.  But, Sally’s eyes were bright, and she was eating again, and I thought could hear peeping.  The chick has survived the night.

This morning early, I could see another of the blue eggs was trying to hatch.  The egg was out in front of Sally, and the chick was about halfway out of the egg, with one long leg pumping the air.  I could hear what sounded like more peeping than one chick could make coming from the inside of the dog house.  Had one of the Maran eggs hatched???

Imagine my surprise when I checked on the mother and the babies in the early afternoon as Sally is very near the door, and her movements are causing the bedding to foul the water jar.  The baby chick had made no progress at all in getting free of the shell.  None!

I reached in to touch her and realized she was very dry.  The shell had stuck to her.  So, I took her in my hand and realized that she was really so stuck that she couldn’t get any leverage to get out.  Gently, again with shaking hands–she was so very, very tiny–I began to pull the shell bits from her feathers, trying to free her.

There was one place, near her bottom, where dried blood had really stuck her to the inside of the shell.  I was able to get her free without any further damage.  But, she was tired, and when I gave her drops of water, she drank thirstily.  I don’t know if I did a good thing or not…  But I could not watch her struggle so fruitlessly any longer.

I turned and realized all the hens had surrounded me and were watching, watching, and listening to the cries the tiny grey baby was uttering.  And, probably, the cries from inside the doghouse.

Here she is–she’s a silvery grey color–with  yellow legs–with bits of shell clinging to her feathers:

The camera got some good shots inside the dog house without using a flash, which I didn’t want to do.  Here’s Sally with two of her chicks hatched and the last egg, the fourth egg, hatching.  One chick is in front of the water bottle and the other is just beyond her tucked beneath Sally.   The grey chick is trying to get beneath Sally’s feathers :

Here’s another good shot of the chicks and the hatching egg:

Here’s the proud papa with, perhaps, a mother of one of the two CBM babies–chickie Annie that I raised two summers ago:

Mercy!  What an adventure!  Life happens.  It just happens.

Turkey Tracks: Chicken Update

Turkey Tracks:  June 8, 2011

Chicken Update

The Freedom Ranger chickens are 7 weeks old now.  We’ll slaughter some of them in 3 weeks time–at 10-11 weeks.  They’re beautiful, healthy birds.  The color variations are so interesting.  I’ll have a hard time choosing one of them to keep as a layer.  We can’t tell the hens from the roosters yet, though some of the roos are starting to try to crow.

 HEre they are in the shade of their tractor.  Rose and Pete move them every day, so they always have fresh grass and a new set of bugs to catch.

Here are the batch of Copper Black Marans, Wheaten Americaunas, two Barbanters, and backyarders.   We’re starting to see which of the CBMs will be roosters as their wing feathers are turning orange.  They are loose in Rose and Pete’s yard.  Below them to the right is a planting field, and behind them are some protective shrubs.  They run from their tractor–you can see the edge propped up in the back right of the picture–to the shrub.  They’re already looking for and eating bugs from the yard.   I just happened to catch mostly marans in this picture.

Here are some of the others.  The little speckled chicks are the two Barbanters.  They are a week or so behind the marans.  Look at the topknot on the one at the right.  Probably a rooster in the making.  The Wheatens and backyarders (all from blue eggs) are about 6 weeks old now.   You can see a purebred wheaten–the blondie in the front.  And that bigger backyarder is quite striking in that s/he has coloring like an eagle–with a white head.  There are 3 of them like that.   The maran in front will be a roo–see the copper coming in on his wings?

Oh what fun we are having this spring!

Turkey Tracks: Copper Black Maran and Wheaten Americauna Chicks

Turkey Tracks:  May 24, 2011

Copper Black Marans and Wheaten Americaunas

In addition to the Freedom Ranger chicks, Rose and I had two other baby chick endeavors happening.  Because our CBMs have a white feather gene, we didn’t want to reproduce too many of them–although their egg color is a beautiful dark brown.  Also, we felt like we needed other breeding stock.  So, in order to keep the CBMs going–so we get enough for Rose to have more hens and so I could replace ageing hens whose laying has slowed down considerably (but who are as sweet as can be)–I ordered 15 CBM chicks for us from Tom Culpepper in Grantville, Georgia.  Tom’s chickens derive from a famous line–the Wade Jeane line of CBMs.   To recap, CBMs are NOT rare in Europe, but because of the fowl importation laws and avian flu, America has to get along with its own, rare CBM lines.  So, CBMs are rare in America.  Here’s Tom’s web site if you want to see some pictures:    http://www.mydarkeggs.com/home.

CBMs are spectacular.  They are both meat and laying birds, are BIG, and the rooster is gorgeous and a great protector.   The hens are docile and very social and great foragers.  The only problem with CBMs in Maine is that their generous combs can and do get frostbite, so a good owner lubes them up with vaseline a lot during the winter.

In addition to the CBMs, Rose and I wanted to get chicks from her Wheaten Americaunas.  These birds are also spectacular.  The hens are good layers of beautiful blue eggs, they’re lighter and can fly quite well, they’re funny and friendly and emotional, and are great foragers.  So, Rose isolated her Wheatens, collected eggs, borrowed my incubator, bought two more, and started incubating eggs.  She also included “backyarder” eggs, but as William was the father, they could likely be “Easter Eggers” who would lay a blue, olive, or blue-green egg.

Here are eggs starting to hatch:

Here are some newly hatched Wheatens  that are still wet and weak:

 Here’s a picture of the chicks at about 2 1/2 weeks, just after we got back from Charleston.

Now you can understand how fast the Freedom Rangers are growing!  (See below)  They’re only a little over two weeks older than these chicks.  The CBMs are the black shaggy chicks.  See their feathered feet?  They’ll lose the white fluff when they feather out.  The blond on the brick is a Wheaten Americauna.  She’s backed by a backyarder.  The light chicks in the front may be Wheatens as well.  It’s too soon to tell.  the little grey/lavender chick comes from Baby, the Blue Cochin mix (lays a blue egg) that Rose raised by hand.  Rose is keeping her!

Rose and I feel there should be more healthy baby chicks for sale locally, so that’s what Rose is trying to do.  Her backyarders are half Wheaten Americauna, so will have a good shot at laying blue range eggs.  She does have a Barbanter rooster as well, and there are two Barbanters in this batch of chicks.  They are beautiful, tall, rangy, spotted chickens who lay a white egg.  So, Rose’s egg collection is going to be so colorful!