Tag: Broody Watch

Broody/Baby Watch – the One With the Feathered Toes 

~ debc ~ 2 Comments

This will be the last “broody watch” post, as there are no more babies to be had. Pavelle’s wee little ones were getting restless so I went and candled the remaining two eggs. You could see something watery sloshing around inside each. Rotten yolks. Yuck! Rather than risk them breaking overnight, we chucked them and moved Pavelle and the babies to their new nest on the floor. Which, happily, Pavelle accepted. Hopefully, the overnight sleep will help her to feel at home there with the little ones. It has food, water and shelter. All the things a momma and her babies need.

And now to the title of this post – the One with the Feathered Toes.

One of Pavelle’s babies had feathered feet. For those of you who do not know, my little Pavelle is a Pavlovskaya hen, or partial Pavlovskaya.

The Pavlovskaya hen is Russia’s most ancient chicken breed. Its origins are lost in the murky depths of history, but by the time Russians began to take stock of their native chicken breeds in the late 1800s Pavlovskaya hens were already virtually extinct. Many centuries ago this breed emerged in the town of Pavlovo, a small enclave of peasants and craftsmen about 200 miles east of Moscow. The town was known for a number of unique agricultural specialties including the breeding of fighting geese, canaries, and the cultivation of lemons. Some poultry historians believe that the Pavlovkskaya hens are the foundational breed that gave rise to more recently developed crested breeds like the Polish, Barthuhners, and Brabanters.

~ Greenfire Farms – Pavlovskaya

Pavlovskaya’s have feathered feet and the very originals had five toes, it is said.  Somewhere in the recent attempts to bring them back from extinction, the fifth toe has vanished from some blood lines.

Pavelle came to me as an egg from a breeder who had a pair of what she was told were Pavlovs, but she believed them to be not-quite pure because they lacked the feathered feet.  Pavelle also has no feathers on her toesies.

So you can imagine my excitement when I saw this:

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Little tufts of yellow feathers on the ankles of this wee little chick!

It means that, whatever else she is, my little Pavelle is definitely in some part Pavlovskaya, and so is this wee little babe who looks nothing like her momma in every other way.

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You can even see some feathering on her legs, too.
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Although, even close up, it looks like she’s just got wood chips stuck to her.
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I’m cute little Pavlovskaya/RiR/Comet cross, aren’t I?

Totally adorable!!! I can’t wait to see how she grows into those feathered feet!

Broody/Baby Watch – Pavelle’s Lock Down 

~ debc ~ 2 Comments

Yesterday was Day 19 for Pavelle and her sweet baby eggs and that means Lock Down.

For those of you who do not know about hatching eggs, a chicken egg takes twenty-one days to hatch. The last three days, Days 19-21, are what people who use incubators call ‘lock down days’ because under no circumstances are you supposed to open the incubator on those days, until the last chick has hatched.  This is because in those last three days, the babies do the most growing in preparation to come out of their shells.

When I let my hens sit on eggs, I make sure not to mess with them during those days, so they can do their own thing.

Yesterday, I went to check for eggs and discovered that Pavelle had a brown egg sticking out from under her.  She frequently steals other hens eggs from neighboring nests.  She had TWO brown eggs, actually… but was also missing one of her her six eggs.   I didn’t see signs of eaten shell, but one of the brown eggs I had retrieved from under her had yolk on it, so I assumed the worst.

I know what happened to it now, and I’ll get to that in a minute.  But first…

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I found this little Easter Egger chick this morning, on Day 20.  It is a bright yellow with brown/black on the top of it’s head, with puffy little EE cheeks.

I found this

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I know I am a cutie 🙂

Pavelle actually had a total of three chicks under her this morning when I left the coop – two of her Pavlov-mix babies and one Easter Egger. There are two EE remaining. Given this is Day 20, and hatch day is technically tomorrow, I won’t worry too much about the other eggs until Wednesday or Thursday.

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I set her up with some food and water, in the nest with her to discourage other hens from trying to sit with her in the nest (because that is another reason she keeps getting other hen eggs. They are trying to ‘share’ the nest with her.)

Hopefully, at least one of the other eggs will hatch. The one is EE#2 and we all know I have been iffy about the contents of that one.

This morning when I removed the broken eggs shells from under her, I discovered the missing Pavelle-egg. It apparently tried to hatch YESTERDAY on Day 19, and died. I found it half-buried in the bedding under Pavelle and the live chicks. 😦

I’m used to having them hatch on Day 20 or 21. Day 19 might be a little too early?

I will report back tomorrow with (hopefully) the last chicks and pics of all of them.  Pavelle is a bite-y momma, so it’s hard to get pics of them right now.

 

Four Feather Babies

~ debc ~ 2 Comments

Well, Ashley pushed the last egg out of her next this morning, walked around and made an attempt to convince her babies to follow her outside.  They did not.

Assuming she was telling me that the last egg was not going to hatch, I removed it from the coop and got her and the four remaining babies some food and water.

The other egg, the one she was trying to ‘help’ the other day… also died.  I figured it would if it couldn’t get out on its own.

So Ashley has four little wee feather babies.

Here’s a video of them from yesterday.

I’ve removed them from the laying bed they were in and into the cat carrier.  It’s a little snug for a bigger hen like an Australorp, but still a safe place for the Wee Ones to be.

 

Miracle Max

~ debc ~ 1 Comment


So this feather baby is the only one who has a name right now.  

Miracle Max.  Or Maxie. If it’s a girl. 

My poor little miracle baby somehow managed to wander outside while Ashley was sitting on the last unhatched egg.  And got cold.  So cold that he/she was in deaths door when I found him this evening.  

I scooped him up and cupped him in my hands for warm, carried him inside and tucked him under Ashley.  He was breathing, but weak and chilled.  I figured that his only hope was body heat and the company of his siblings.  

I was right.  By lock up time, Max was up and around, playing with his siblings and eating chick starter.  

Truly a miracle baby.  

(Name courtesy of The Princess Bride.)  

First Look at the Babies

~ debc ~ 10 Comments

Yesterday, Ashley the Australorp became a mother.

This is the first little one I saw.  You can’t tell, but it has black spots on it’s back.
And peeking out from behind, a little yellow one with no black on it.  (Possible Buff Orp)
A 3rd with a cinnamon red color.  Possible RiR, Possible sexlink/comet.  Really could be the sexlink because the RiRs tend to be darker.  And look!  You can see the black spots on the first chick!

I wound up with a fourth chick as of last night, also yellow with black spots.  Two more eggs to account for, but today is the actual hatch date, so it could take a day or two for them to hatch.

In the meantime, here’s a video of yesterday’s four, being cute:

 

And Ashley being the cross-momma because I was messing with her babies:

I’m headed down there right now to feed and check on the current baby situation.  Here’s hoping for more chicks and momma who wants to be the momma. *crosses fingers*

Broody Watch #9 – Candling 

~ debc ~ 2 Comments

I have never candled my hens eggs before, preferring a hands-off natural approach.  I’d rather be surprised by how many come out in Day 21.  

But since we ordered and paid money for Abby’s Special Eggs, and since we’ve so much badness going on with this hatch, I broke down and bought one last week.  

Little Dude and I candled the eggs the day I bought the candler and I marked 4 eggs as ?   I couldn’t tell if any of those had something going on with them. 

Two were destroyed by Stacey in her efforts to find the perfect nest.  Their remains appeared to indicate they were not viable.   It’s better they are gone.  Better chances for the rest to be safe. 

Last night, we candled again.  I removed one of the other ?-ed eggs.  It shows no growth.  The other is a mystery.  It’s totally dark with a sliver of light at the bottom.  The sliver of light got bigger from last week to this week.  Don’t know what that means.  I left it under her, until such a time as I learn what that means.

The remaining 8 eggs all have clear signs of life, movement and growth.  I’m excited!  Little Dude and I got to see baby chicks moving around! 

Abby looking alert as she enters her last week of Broody.

Hatch Date is July 13.  🙂