A Fowl Week

My Birthday month has been splendiferous. We’ve made homemade cider for the first time, I’ve set up more bird feeder stations, and we found a “new” couch and ended up enjoying a private garage sale. This has been another awesome week. This week was very fowl.

Last Spring we bought Partridge Chantecler female chicks. We really like the breed so we were planning to get some Partridge Chantecler rooster chicks this coming Spring. I’ve looked it up and read that roosters don’t begin to mate for at least 4-5 months–some say even older than that–so we wouldn’t have fertilized eggs until next fall. Normally that would be fine, but…

We have a hen who tends to get broody in the fall. Whether it’s the same one or not, I don’t know. But this year she sat on unfertilized eggs for weeks and weeks, well past her “due date.” She was very determined and refused to give up. We don’t want this to happen next year so we’ve kind of been looking for a rooster that will be mature enough to mate with the hens in the Spring. We were actually looking on social media for a rooster last week when we found the couch.

On Tuesday we found three postings for free roosters on FB. EJ encouraged me to try to get one. The first two people had already found homes for their roosters, but the third still had them available. So we got their address, drove to their house, and chose one of their roosters. I’m not sure what breed he is–we forgot to ask–but he’s very handsome.

After we drove away with the rooster, we discussed possible names. We don’t name our hens–too many and most of them look alike–but we’ve begun giving our roosters kingly names with a number afterwards indicating how many roosters we’ve had since we first got chickens. For example, we named our last rooster Edward. He was the fifth rooster we’ve owned so he was Edward V. We had decided to name this rooster Henry when I suddenly exclaimed, “No! We can’t name him Henry.” EJ asked why not. I said because we have to reserve that name for our eighth rooster. You know, Henry the Eighth. Haha. So we named this one Richard VI.

As we drove away with Richard VI, we discussed our broody hen. Poor thing. She has persevered for weeks and weeks, sitting on her eggs with no hope of them hatching. We decided to reward her faithfulness if we could. We drove straight to our local farm store with Richard VI in a cat carrier in the back seat. Once at the farm store, I asked our favorite employee, who is very knowledgeable, if she thought a hen would adopt chicks that weren’t hers. She said absolutely, especially if the hen has been broody for a long time, which ours has been. She gave us advice on what to do to better our chances of the hen adopting a chick. Armed with this information, we went to the bins of little chicks in the back of the store. There were four different breeds there. We chose two of the littlest chicks, which were Barred Rocks. Originally, we were only getting New Hampshire and Rhode Island Red chickens, but we find ourselves expanding: Buff Orpingtons, Partridge Chanteclers, and now Barred Rocks and whatever Richard VI is.

Once home, I got Richard VI set up in the bottom of the fancy coop inside the Coop. It’s suggested that when introducing a new chicken to an old flock, to keep them separated but able to see each other for at least a week before letting them mingle. That lets them get familiar with the “stranger.” I waited about three days and then let him out. He’s doing fine. The older hens are not impressed but the young Canadians (Chanteclers) are batting their eyelashes at him. I put the little chicks in a cat carrier in the house until night.

After dark, when the chickens were asleep, EJ and I snuck out into the coop with the little chicks. Turning on the lights would have woken the chickens up but EJ had a flashlight with a red light, which he kept mostly hidden, allowing only the tiniest bit of light to show. I made my way to the broody hen’s nesting box, lifted her up, and put the chicks under her wing. She was so drowsy that she never woke up. The theory is that she’d wake in the morning and assume that her eggs had hatched during the night.

In the morning, EJ and I went out to the coop to see if the hen had adopted the chicks. If she hadn’t, she would have killed them. We were so relieved to see that the chicks were alive. Mama was happily clucking. Mission successful! Several of the nesting boxes, including the one the broody hen nested in, are cat litter boxes located on top of the old doghouse in the coop. I wanted to make sure that the chicks could access food and water, that the other chickens wouldn’t hurt them, and that they wouldn’t fall off the dog house when they got older, so I carried Mama Hen and her chicks into the doghouse and shut them inside. They will stay there until the chicks get older and are so vulnerable.

I’ve only seen a few brief glimpses of the chicks because they mostly stay under Mama’s wings where it’s nice and warm. I hope they continue to do well. I hope they are getting enough food and water. They are awfully tiny and winter is approaching. I feel like a worried mother hen.

I only had a little bit of chick feed leftover from last Spring and I forgot to get more when we were buying the new chicks. So Thursday we drove back to the farm store. While there, EJ noticed that they had apple trees were on sale for $10 each. He bought two. I told him that it’s his birthday gift. (His birthday is actually in March, but it’s cold and snowy then so I share my October month with him.) In the afternoon, he planted the trees and put fences around them to protect them from the deer until they get taller. Our little apple orchard has expanded from six trees to eight. We now regret not buying a few more trees but we were trying to get out of the store without buying more than chick feed. Oh, well. Maybe they will have a sale again next year.

Thursday I was out in the orchard putting more bird seed in the feeders when EJ, who was on the deck, made a small noise to get my attention. I looked up and four wild turkeys were running–not walking–out of the forest toward me. They started gobbling up the seed even while I was still there. In previous years, they’ve always ducked into the forest when they saw me. Apparently, word is spreading among the forest creatures that I’m no threat.

As we drove around on our errands, EJ often took roads less traveled so we were able to enjoy the autumn trees. Day by day–and even moment by moment–the trees are growing more beautiful. We are well into the color peak right now. The trees are gradually losing their leaves and I can see further into the forest.

EJ has removed the screens from the windows. I moved the patio table and chairs from the deck to the covered porch for the winter.

Here is a collage of my birthday this week: The autumn trees are from our “color tour” as we drove on errands. There’s a photo of the happy Mama hen. Sorry, her chicks are hidden under her. I tried to get a good photo of Richard VI, but that’s the best I could do. I did get a good video of him: Richard VI