Peeps are Hatching at Lost Creek
ByFun Photo Friday
The image itself isn’t terribly exciting but having peeps hatch at home is! Usually I get my chicks in the mail as day old peeps. Lately though I noticed one red hen has been sitting on the nest a lot. So I wondered what would happen if I let her have a pile of eggs. The farm life is new to me so it is just like being a kid learning all of this farm animal behavior stuff, and I just love it. I got a big kick out of watching the red hen pull an egg I set in her box underneath her. I couldn’t believe it. I left her that day with about twelve eggs.
I only saw the red hen off the nest of eggs one time in the three week incubation time. There got to be more than the twelve eggs in there too. I guess she let some of her girlfriends deposit some more. After about two weeks a black hen joined her in the nest. They stayed in their 10×10 inch box together, I thought that was strange until I saw the number of eggs in there! They needed two chickens to keep them all covered.
Okay, so day 21 comes and I find a dead chick on the floor of the coop. I was concerned about how to keep the rest of chicks from falling from the nest after they were hatched. So I attempted to relocate mamma red hen to her own pen with a nest on the floor and tried bringing her eggs with her. She threw a huge fit. Three other ladies joined her in her chicken cussing at me for about 20 minutes after I gave up and let her go back to her original digs.
That evening, my husband peeked under the red hen’s wing and there was the cutest little peep, peeking out. All this time, the black mamma hen is tucked in the backside of the nesting box by the way. We moved the peep to it’s own pen to keep it safe from falling and from the other not so maternal hens and rooster. After about five peeps were in the pen over a course of a couple days, we found the black mama hen on the floor by the peeps wanting to get in with them. Peeps really do not need their moms if they have a heat lamp to keep warm (about 90 degrees), but I felt so sorry for the fretting almost frantic black hen. We put her in the pen with the babies and they were all content. All the little peeps got under her wings and I can’t even see them.
This is the Dad.
As of today we are up to six multicolored, mixed breed chicks. We have one Ameraucana Rooster and four varieties of hens so it will be fun to see the results. I can’t wait to check on them every morning and night to see if there are new ones.
What I wonder now is, how long will momma red hen stay on eggs and let others lay them for her to sit on. Unless I pull the eggs out, we could be overrun! It is a fun adventure. In a couple days I will let momma black hen take her family outside since she is pretty protective. I don’t even like changing the water fountain because she gives me the evil eye and attitude.
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