Tired of hearing about MORE chicken troubles?
Me, too.
I can't get a better picture for you because:
The baby chick is gone.
I could guess several things like predators or cold. But I think her mother did her in. And perhaps the reason I can't FIND her is that her mother ate her. I hope not. But it could be true. This second chick spent it's day and half doing well, growing quickly and acting just like a baby chick should. But Lucas and I found Crystal pecking her pretty good, and it worried us. So the fact that she's now missing may mean Crystal is a one-chick Mama.
Also, another egg began to hatch, and I found it with a cute little hole pecked and the baby birds face right there... with it's face pecked, dead. Again, I suspect Crystal of doing in another baby. Lucas postulates that perhaps Crystal was "putting her out of her misery". I'm not sure what misery hatching involves, but it clearly involved misery for that baby.
Sigh. I'm not done, yet. There's more.
This morning I woke up and checked on our two Rhode Island Red babies in the house. One was stiff and dead.
I think I'm done with chicks for now. The joy is gone, the grotesque side of nature has sapped my enthusiasm. Crystal can have her one baby. The kids can have their one baby. And we've arranged for our Cannibal to head to the meat market. No, we don't want to eat her.
I think I shall turn my attention to Lucas and his birthday. It feels much cheerier to dwell on!
I love the contrast between even just the titles of your last two posts. Joy! Sorrow! Interwoven. :D I hope these last two chicks survive the mayhem. That would be nice for you.
ReplyDeleteWhat has Lucas requested for his cake/cupcakes? I'm excited to see another work of art!
That is so frustrating! One year, we had a mama attacking her chicks, too. She had a whole batch, though, so she didn't get them all before we donned Child Protective Service hats. I don't remember what happened to her, but she's definitely either gone or we've never let her set again.
ReplyDeleteWow, Kim, you have so many chicken stories! I feel bad for the Mama banty that suffocated her chicks, though. I'm sure she had no idea, and then all her babies were dead, wah! I seems to me that it takes a lot of TIME to get a flock balanced. We have to keep our flock small, I feel that 8 is probably about all our main coop will comfortably hold. So over the next few years, we'll be introducing newcomers and culling the flock of the personalities that just don't work. One interesting thing about Crystal, is that she's excellent with her one baby. Maybe since they had three days together, the new baby seemed like an impostor? If they'd hatched the same day?? Would she do better? I just don't know.
ReplyDeleteYes, joy and sorrow interwoven. I feel like I've become very hard-hearted about chicks! I was surprised to lose a chick in the house, we did fine with five last year. Maybe it was puny or something. Lucas is going to have an Arctic themed birthday with an iceberg cake. He wants animals from both poles represented. =) So we'll have penguins and polar bears together. And I think I'll make a blue sparkling punch with white ice cream floating in it. =)