Operation Chicken Little

Where has the ranch lady been?

My dear, patient readers!  It's been months, I know. I am happy to be back and blogging. I almost gave this up for good, but so many of you said how much you miss following along with everything that goes on here at Crossed Sabers Ranch.  Thank you! That means so much to me! I do love sharing with you!

It's winter, so honestly not much happens on the ranch. 

Our flock of hens, Team Omelette, did get three additions. The details of Operation Chicken Little is below!

We've gotten some significant snow storms. This Bobcat has made our lives a lot easier.  Piece of cake to clear the driveway!  The enclosed cab keeps G.W. toasty warm and dry.

Winters here are long and sometimes hard.

They're also beautiful

Team Omelette is doing well. Through December and January they continued to give us between eleven and thirteen eggs every day. Over the last month, though, they've slowed considerably. Now we get between four and six eggs daily. Several of the hens have gone broody, which means they want to sit on a nest and hatch out eggs. Broody hens do not lay eggs. I've tried to gently discourage this broodiness by blocking off their access to the nest boxes at night. 

There are advantages to the broodiness.  Some broody hens will foster chicks that are not their own. One of the breeds in my flock, the Cochins, are well known for their mothering skills and most don't hesitate to quite literally take any chicks under their wings.

I'm testing this out with these three pullets we got at a local farm store. They are Buff Orpington pullets. ("Pullet" is a young female chicken).

OPERATION CHICKEN LITTLE

Under cover of darkness when all the chickens were sound asleep, I moved one of the broody Cochins from the regular nest box and put her into a small isolation pen I built inside the coop. She never noticed that she had been moved into another nest box.

Very early in the morning while it was still dark, I slipped the three babies underneath Momma.  That's the technique to use when you want a hen to foster mother chicks. The hope is that they wake up in the morning, think they have hatched out some eggs and now have babies to care for.

In this case, I have a couple of things working against me. First, I've never tried this technique with any of my hens. Second, the pullets are already almost two weeks old. At that age, they may not bond with the hen. It's better to use chicks that are only a day or two old.

If the foster program doesn't work out, I am prepared to raise the babies myself. I still have the heat lamp and such from last spring when I got Team Omelette as day old chicks.

I've checked on the new Mommy hen every  hour and so far, so good. She's all fluffed up with the three babies under her. 

If the match works out, Momma and babies will stay in their isolation pen for five to seven days, then I'll let them out to mingle with the rest of the flock.

Momma Hen will protect the babies from any aggression from the flock. And the babies will learn to forage for food by mimicking Momma. Also, the babies will grow up integrated into the pecking order.

The babies are so darned cute when they peek out from under Momma's feathers!

Momma Hen is sitting tight on those babies. I tried to reach under her to feel for them. She let out a few alarmed squawks which brought Cogburn over to see what the heck was going on. Cogburn put himself between me and Momma as if to say, "Back off, lady!"

Which reminds me, a few weeks ago, Cogburn attacked me. He was justified. I had picked up a hen to move her off a nest box. She started hollering and Cogburn came at me full throttle. Luckily, I had on a heavy coat and gloves. He did get me once on the wrist at the gap between coat and glove. Drew blood but nothing serious. That's Cogburn's job. Protect the hens.

And so I bid you all, "Good night from Crossed Sabers Ranch!" May you rest as easily as if you were tucked in with Momma!