The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Bonus chicks

broody hen with newborn chicks

We've been missing a hen for weeks.

Turns out she's been on maternity leave. She found a nice spot in the barn and is now taking care of 8 new bonus chickens.

Maybe we'll make this location more chicken friendly for any future nesting.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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Easy

Cool. What an easy hatch! My grandfather kept cochins and they used to hatch little chicks all the time.

Comment by Sara — Sun May 26 23:27:12 2013
Chicks!
How wonderful!!! What variety is your rooster? They look healthy and happy. I've got a broody hen setting a little clutch (she's a banty) right now, but I don't have high hopes for a good hatch. She refuses to use the area I set up for such purposes, and I gave up and let her set in my nest box, where broken eggs often occur.
Comment by Michelle — Mon May 27 09:59:47 2013
Roosters and broody hens

Michelle --- Our rooster is either a black australorp or an australorp/marans mix. (We had both types of mother in the flock, and we didn't run a maternity test. :-) ) So these guys are either half australorp and half marans or three-quarters marans and one-quarter australorp.

We've had a terrible time getting hens to go broody on our schedule, so I know what you're going through. This is our first really successful one (except for a cochin who hatched one chick a few years ago).

Comment by anna — Mon May 27 12:54:01 2013
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