Roxie gets a little curiousThese are from the first round of fertile chicken eggs I got from the friend that has Dazzler, the rooster we had to rehome. We had 6 eggs, one broke, one was clear (infertile) and she got the other four to hatch. Today was only day 20 and these chicks were already nice and fluffy early this morning, so I think they hatched late on day 19. They're really chubby, I think because of the extra humidity that ducks provide. I have read several things about not letting the muscovies brood the baby chicks, one reason being that they sometimes step on and crush the chicks that aren't prepared for giant heavy duck feet, and also because ducks try to introduce their babies to water, which for a chicken chick, doesn't work out so well. So it made me a little sad, and Delilah very angry, but I put the chicks in a brooder.
She still seems to be sitting on the nest, she had a few chicken eggs that are a week old under her (I had no room in the incubator), so she may be trying to hatch those out. I also grabbed a few of the duck eggs from the incubator and gave those to her as well, partly as an I'm-sorry-for-stealing-your-chicks gift. I'll keep a close eye on her and hopefully she'll hatch out a second round that are due in a little less than three weeks (all of the remaining chicken and duck eggs are scheduled to hatch at the same time). If she manages to sit for that whole time it would be a total of just over 6 weeks. That seems like a really long time, but since Muscovy eggs take about 5-5.5 weeks to hatch, it's certainly possible she'll do it.
I counted this morning and I think we have 45 birds here at the tiny farm. Wow.
Four Easter Egger chicks warm in the brooder
3 comments:
Oh what a good broody duck! She's a hatching machine over there!
I sure hope those duck ones hatch for her so she can have some babies of her own to love on.
Hey Rachel, Its Casey..remember me..We bought our chicks together last september. 45 birds! oh my gosh..how are you doing it?? I can't imagine. They sure are cute! My birds relocated and have been wintering in florida! ; ) seriously, my husband moved in january, we drove the birds and boat out in december, and my son and I will be there next month. I miss them! From what I hear, they are very spoiled as they have been at my mother in laws. All hens, and laying nicely. Take care!
Y'know, growing up in south florida, we used to have wild muscovies in our neighborhood. they were HUGE but very friendly.
Has Delilah hatched out any ducklings yet? Hope so. They are so cute.
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