Fun facts about chickens

Fact #1 A hen will sometimes kick a newborn chick out of the nest if it is a different color then she is.

Fact #2 A newborn chick can fall a long ways and be ok.

Fact #3 If you pick up tough little chick, it will imprint on you and scream if you put it down...ever.

Fact #4 That cranky hen will sometimes refuse to take spoiled chick back and attack it if you try and make her.

Fact #5 Spoiled little chick chirps at such a frequency to give surrogate mom a headache...chick gets her way yet again.

So you get the drift of what my day has been like? I learned all of these facts within about an hour of finding spoiled little chick this morning. I also found out that a little dog I had been babysitting ran one of our laying hens to death last night. So I lost one and gained one this morning. Too bad the one I gained will not lay until late this fall. (If she even turns out to be a hen). I have chickens in five different places right now because no one gets long. I have my three remaining laying hens in the chicken coop. I have Twitchy and her sisters in the chick pen in the chicken coop. I have the murderous rooster in the dog run. I have the setting hen and the other 6 eggs in a dog crate in the garage. And spoiled little chick is snuggled into my sons neck and for the moment mercifully quiet.

Broody hens

I have a hen who has gone broody (for those of you unfamiliar with chickens, this means she is mean as a rattlesnake and probably more prone to bite. Actually it means she wants to be a mama but she's still mean.) and I want her to be able to hatch out babies. Because I don't have a functioning rooster at the moment, her own eggs won't do. So, I have two options. I can get some fertilized eggs and hope she stays on them long enough for them to hatch (She's already been setting for a week now) or I can buy chicks and hope she accepts them. So tomorrow I am going to go buy two chicks and put them with her. If they are still under her by the next morning, we are good to go and I will buy a few more. If she rejects them, I will raise them myself and get her some eggs. I guess I just feel bad that she has been so miserable and cranky and gets nothing for it.